MÁSTER UNIVERSITARIO EN PROFESORADO

ESCUELA INTERNACIONAL DE POSGRADO

APRENDIZAJE Y ENSEÑANZA DEL INGLÉS

CASE STUDY

Especialidad: Inglés
Alumno: Alberto Pineda Montoro
DNI:74537672P
Curso académico: 23/24
TABLE OF CONTENTS

1. INTRODUCTION.
2. CONTEXT AND SETTING.
3. OBJECTIVES.
4. THEORY
5. PRACTICE.
5.1. TASK DESCRIPTION
5.2. 1st SESSION
5.3. 2nd SESSION
5.4. 3rd SESSION
5.5. 4th SESSION
6. EVALUATION.
6.1. TEACHER’S EVALUATION
6.2. STUDENTS’ EVALUATION
7. CONCLUSIONS AND ANALYSIS.
8. REFERENCES.
9. APPENDIXES.
1. INTRODUCTION.

During the first two weeks of observation as a practicum student, I observed a great
difference in the English level between the students in the same group. It is evident that
learners with a higher level and more confidence in using the second language are more
willing to participate and collaborate in class. But this happens with a deficient percentage of
students per class, barely three or four per group. The other large part, and the majority, of the
class is reluctant to take an active role or participate during lessons. This is often due to
language difficulties or insecurity in using the foreign language even if they have a good
level of proficiency due to embarrassment and fear of making mistakes, among others.
Therefore, it is a nightmare for most students to face an oral production exercise in front of
all their peers. Many students take a position of disinterest and disengagement and
demonstrate null and void effort in trying to do well.

2. CONTEXT AND SETTING.

This action plan will focus on the students of the 2ndESO B group of IES Federico García
Lorca in Churriana de la Vega. The students in this group consider that they have not done
enough oral expression and production tasks during this course, in fact, from my point of
view, most of them have a low level of oral production and several difficulties when it comes
to expressing themselves in the foreign language. This group has been following the activities
proposed by the textbook, where there is a great predominance of grammar and reading
exercises, leaving aside the activities focused on oral and written expression and production.
In addition, this group does not use English as a means of communication during the subject
sessions.

This group is fairly large, made up of 30 students, although not all of them attend classes
daily. We can usually find around 27-28 students in this group. The teacher normally uses this
for revision activities that integrate in some way the gamification methodology and are better
implemented with students working in groups.

3. OBJECTIVES.

As my action and intervention in class are somehow limited, I am constrained to stick to the
development of the contents of the textbook, but always supporting it with additional
resources and materials that I consider relevant to foster the development of the student’s
foreign language learning. As mentioned in the previous section, my main aim is that students
are confronted with an oral presentation in which they have to use the foreign language in a
natural way, in order to develop their speaking skills. However, students will also be working
on reading, speaking and writing skills through the various activities proposed.

Also, as I mentioned in the previous section, I would like to encourage and implement group
dynamics, so that students become more familiar with and closer to this kind of
methodologies that require individual involvement and effort for the common good and for
the success of the working group, making students aware of the importance of workload
sharing. However, during the development of the sessions, I would also like to use individual
work dynamics in order to observe the effort and capacity of each of the students.

As mentioned by Hedge (n.d.) the best strategy to integrate in class so as to allow students
their abilities and capacities to express themselves is to implement a communicative approach
(p. 266) Therefore, I consider that frequent practice of speaking skills is needed to enhance
the proficiency level of students in the foreign language. My main aim is to familiarise
students with these kinds of speaking activities so that they would show a better attitude with
more interest and motivation while doing these kinds of activities. In addition, it is important
to familiarise students with this kind of practice as it is essential for students' linguistic
competence and for them to be able to establish effective communication in the foreign
language.

4. THEORY

Nowadays, following the current educational regulations in Spain, we can observe a strong
focus on innovative methodologies and pedagogical strategies where the linguistic
competence of students is promoted. Gustiani (2012) defines CLT as ‘an approach of
teaching a second or a foreign language that focuses on learners’ interaction whether as the
means or the ultimate goal of learning a target language’ (p.17). During the different sessions
I have tried to integrate a communicative teaching methodology, proposing to the student
small activities involving interaction in using the L2 and a final task of oral production.

However, it is impossible to limit the learning period by applying a single pedagogical

strategy. Moreover, we always have to keep in mind that just because something is innovative
does not mean that it is better than something traditional. That is why, due to the needs and
difficulties of the students with the language, it was necessary to propose a traditional class
where the teacher is the main element of the class imparting the grammatical aspects essential
for the elaboration of the final task. During the first two sessions we tried to apply some of
the features of task-based learning, such as the introductory warm-up exercises and the post
task phase with a focus on form suggested by Rod Ellis (2003) in his framework to
implement TBL in classrooms.

Finally, to end this section I would like to mention the strategy of collaborative writing with
which the students were not familiar, which we will apply for the elaboration of the final task.
And for this, we will use a group dynamic, in which the students will have to work together
to achieve the best possible result after the last session. These two strategies increase the
motivation and willingness of the students to take an active and participatory role.
5. PRACTICE

5.1. TASK DESCRIPTION.

The task I have proposed to the students in the second year of secondary education is aimed
at developing their speaking and writing skills. However, they will also be practising their
reading and listening skills through other resources and materials. Initially, the task was
structured to be carried out in three sessions, although my practicum tutor suggested that I let
them have a whole session so that they could work on the postcard

In this unit, the students are studying vocabulary on the topic of holidays and free time, and it
also introduces them for the first time to the verb form of the Present Perfect tense. As I
would like to relate the contents of the book somehow to the proposed task, I have decided
that as a final task, students should form groups of four and write to their teacher, in this case
to me, a postcard from a tourist destination. In this way, the students should use the
vocabulary of the unit to talk about the experiences they have already had during the trip, and
those they have yet to experience. In addition, the description of the activities they have done
will allow them to include the Present Perfect tense, a compulsory aspect of this task.

Moreover, when the students have to make the oral presentation of their postcard, they will be
asked to prepare it in the form of a dialogue. For this purpose one of the members of each
group will take the role of an interviewer during the presentation, generating questions for the
other members of the group to answer following the contents of their postcard. In addition,
the student who plays the role of interviewer will have to open and close the dialogue
between his or her group members.

5.2. 1st SESSION

In this first preparatory session for the final project which the students will have to do in
groups, we will focus on giving the students an explanation of the Present Perfect. For the
vast majority of students, this is the first time they have studied this verb form. To start the
session by warming up and introducing the students to the use of this verb tense, I asked them
what they had done the previous weekend. All the students jumped to answer the question in
Spanish, so I had to insist several times that they use English. Here there was not so much
interest or willingness to participate, but still most of the students intervened. Thus, I was
able to observe how most of them were using this verb tense incorrectly, even confusing it
with the simple past. In this way, I made the students pay attention to the verb form of the
sentences they were producing and provided them with key clues so that they themselves
could deduce the use and form of the Present Perfect Simple.

Next, we used the digital whiteboard to project a presentation on the theory of this verb tense
accompanied by examples to encourage and facilitate the students' understanding. During this
explanation, numerous doubts arose regarding the temporal reference of this tense, although
after observing and analysing numerous examples with the whole class, it seemed that the
vast majority of students understood the explanation of the Present Perfect. This explanation
took longer than expected. The power point presentation used during this session can be seen
in appendix A.

During the last minutes of the session, students were practising the use of the Present Perfect
through a game in which each of them had to write three sentences about themselves, two
true and one false, in the past perfect tense. Then, in pairs, the students had to work out
yes/no questions to deduce which was the false statement of each partner. Finally, to end this
session, we briefly informed the students about the instructions of the project to be carried out
and proceeded to the formation of the working groups. And as homework, to review the use
of the present perfect tense, we uploaded to ‘Classroom’ application the exercise sheet that
you can see in appendix B for the students to practise and work on at home.

5.3. 2nd SESSION

In this session we started with a warm-up exercise to review the Present Perfect. For this
introductory activity we asked the following question ‘Have you ever travelled abroad?,
What anecdotes have you experienced there?’ and what places would you like to visit?
Through these questions, students were reviewing the use and form of the Present Perfect. In
pairs they discussed their answers and then we asked some of the students about their
classmates' experiences. In addition, the last question was used to make a series of countries,
cities and other places on the board which the students will later use for the choice of places
that each group of students can use to write the postcard.

We then give the students a card with an example postcard with some gaps to be filled in
later. First of all, we will project on the whiteboard the same postcard example we have given
to the students but with annotations on the instructions the students should follow to make the
postcard and to present it (see Appendix C). Then, we asked the students, in pairs, to
comment on the most relevant aspects of the structure and content presented in the text.
Afterwards, we explained to the students the basic structure and contents to be included in
their postcards. Next, we asked the students to fill in the blanks of the sample postcard and
some of the students read out some of the answers they had written. In this way we were able
to refocus on the use of the present perfect tense so that the students could apply it in their
postcard writing. The last few minutes of this session were used to assign each working group
with different places from the list we had made at the beginning of the session.

5.4. 3rd SESSION

This session was entirely dedicated to the development and preparation of the group
postcards. The students of this class were going through a week of continuous assessment
tests and other extracurricular activities that limited their time to work on the postcard. For
this reason we decided to spend this session for each group to work on the elaboration of their
postcards, and to solve any doubts about the elaboration of the task and the presentation. In
addition, during this session we provided the students with some explanations about details
they had to include in the postcard, such as name, recipient and address, and we offered each
group white A4 size cardboards and sheets of paper to decorate and structure their postcard.

During this session, the teacher's role was to monitor each group, clarifying any doubts the
students might have, offering support to those with more difficulties and ensuring a good
classroom climate in which all students were working. In appendix D, we can see some of the
postcards designed by each of the working groups.

5.5. 4th SESSION

In this section, each group of students had to present the postcard they had written about the
trip they had taken to the rest of their classmates. During the presentations, the rest of the
students and the teacher had the opportunity to see the postcard made by the group that was
presenting it. In addition, they should be attentive to each of these presentations so that a vote
could be conducted later. In this vote, the students should write on a piece of paper:

- The number of the group that has made the best performance.
- The number of the group with the best plans
- The number of the group whose postcard is the most attractive.

We then reveal the winning team in each of the above sections. We also used the last minutes
of this session to discuss whether the students liked this task and some of them wrote some
opinions which we can see in appendix E.

The teacher's role throughout this session will be to evaluate the performance of each of the
students during the oral production exercise. The teacher will use an assessment sheet which
can be found in appendix F.

6. EVALUATION

In this section we will comment on the most relevant aspects that we have observed during
the evaluation process of the activities carried out in class. This process is crucial both for the
professional work of the teacher and for the academic development of the students.

6.1 TEACHER’S EVALUATION

The evaluation of most of the working groups has been quite positive. All five groups handed
in their work and made their respective presentations in the form of a dialogue between the
group members. All groups respected the structure and the main contents to be added. As far
as grammatical aspects are concerned, we can see how they make several mistakes when
using the Present Perfect, sometimes forgetting to use the auxiliary verb have and sometimes
they make mistakes with the conjugation of the past participle of the main verbs. We can also
observe how students make spelling mistakes when writing specific words and also, on many
occasions, they frequently fail to use certain grammatical elements such as prepositions and
adverbs (for, in, to, any...). For the evaluation of the written production of this task I will use
a rubric which can be found in Appendix G.

However, it is worth mentioning that during the third session my role in class was to monitor
and offer support to each of the groups during the process of producing the postcards. This
allowed the students to receive some formative feedback on their writing before the
presentation in order to achieve a better result.

Most of the students were quite insecure and nervous in front of the whole class, which made
it difficult for them to express themselves in the foreign language. However, a large number
of these students were able to handle it successfully. It should be noted that most of the
mistakes made orally were due to pronunciation issues. They also employed the present
perfect simple wrongly more frequently than in written productions. They also misused other
verb forms and made grammatical mistakes in the placement of certain prepositions, direct
and indirect objects, and so on. Also, we can observe the same problem in all students, when
they try to formulate a question, they apply the structure in an incorrect way.

As for the group work, we can say that it has been received by all the students with great
enthusiasm. During the course they have worked in groups several times, they were
somewhat used to it and this had a positive influence on the development of the practicum.
These students knew how to distribute the tasks in such a way that everybody contributed in
the same way to the elaboration of the postcard.

6.2 STUDENTS’ EVALUATION

At the end of this assignment, I wanted to know what they thought about the work of their
peers. Therefore, I decided to ask the students, after observing the presentations of all the
groups, to decide which presentation and postcard corresponds to the aspects set out in
section 5.5 of this work. In addition, I also wanted to know what the students think about the
activity that has been carried out during these four sessions, so I asked them to write about
what they liked the most, what they did not like and about something they have learned
(Appendix E).

7. CONCLUSIONS AND ANALYSIS.

I consider that the implementation of this task in the second year of secondary education has
fulfilled my expectations and objectives. From the very first moment the students were very
interested in making the postcard, for them it is something different from what they are used
to. In fact, during the third session I could observe how all the students were totally involved
in the elaboration of it. In each of the groups all the members followed the same dynamic,
first they all focused on writing the contents of the postcard, then they divided the tasks for
the elaboration of the postcard regarding decorating it and rewriting what was agreed by all
the members, and finally they all got on with it. However, it is true that I could observe that
some students were not involved or showed a lower level of motivation than their classmates.
However, with a few reminders regarding the development of the work, these students
showed a greater predisposition and initiative to collaborate with their classmates.

As for the writing of the postcards, the students were able to use the Internet to look for
information about the tourist destination that their group had chosen, as well as images to
inspire them to illustrate the postcards. As far as the structure is concerned, most of them
followed the instructions given, although many forgot to place the sender of the postcard
properly. All the groups followed the suggested contents, some with more depth and detail
than others.

During the oral presentation of the first groups, we had to intervene and ask them to start
again several times as these groups were committing some mistakes that could not be
tolerated. A bad attitude or position during the presentation, a low tone of voice of the first
members or some mistakes such as the absence of the introductory presentation by the
interviewer of each group were some of the reasons why the students were required to restart
the oral presentation. In fact, the elaboration and presentation of one of the groups was
notable for the lack of work, involvement and motivation of each of the group members,
whose members did not correspond to those we indicated above who were less involved in
the elaboration of the postcard.

In addition, I would like to mention that I consider the outcome of this activity to be quite
positive. The topic of travel and leisure time is a topic of great interest for the students. So we
can say that the students in this group have shown a very high level of motivation and
performance during the elaboration and preparation of this task. Moreover, during the oral
presentation, the vast majority of the students showed a good attitude and posture, making
good use of their tone of voice and gestures to attract the attention of their classmates.
Although, it is true that some students with difficulties or simply with no interest in the
language did their best for a good result, although not in all cases it was positive.

Finally, I would like to mention that with regard to other small oral production and expression
activities carried out in class, I have been able to observe that most of the students have
shown an improvement in the way they express themselves in front of the rest of their
classmates. It is also worth mentioning the originality and creativity that each group has
shown in the elaboration of the postcards.
8. REFERENCES

A. Burlington Books. (s.f.). Present Perfect Simple 1. Recuperado el 24 de mayo de

2024, de https://www.burlingtonbooks.com/spain/Page.aspx?PageID=409

B. Ellis, R. (2003). Task-based language learning and teaching. Oxford: Oxford

University Press.

C. Gustiani, S. (2012). The communicative language teaching: Review on own

experience in ELT at English department, Sriwijaya State Polytechnic, Palembang.
Epigram, 9(1), 16-22.

D. Hedge, T. (n.d.). Speaking. Retrieved from

https://swad.ugr.es/swad/tmp/Mu/Qbr2lPmwEN7zsWlv3DX0ht_32jDB-wGvydaSLqi
cI/Speaking%201%20Hedge.pdf
9. APPENDIXES.

A. PRESENT PERFECT
B. HOMEWORK: PRESENT PERFECT
C. SESSION 2: INSTRUCTIONS. WRITING A POSTCARD

WRITING: A POSTCARD
En vuestra próxima prueba de expresión escrita tendréis que mandar una postal a vuestro
profesor desde algún lugar donde estáis viajando, contando cómo lo estáis pasando, las
actividades que habéis y no hecho ya, lo que habéis visitado y lo que os queda por visitar,
contar alguna anécdota graciosa, algún percance que hayáis tenido, contar que haréis
próximamente, etc. Para ello usaréis la siguiente estructura. Además, tendréis que usar el
vocabulario de la unidad 6 relacionado con los viajes y el presente perfecto.

Dear_____,

Greetings from ______. I´m in ______. This is this most wonderful city I have ever visited
and I´m having the best time of my life here!!

So far, __________________ (decir todas los lugares que has visitado hasta el momento y
las actividades que has hecho usando el presente perfecto, usa el vocabulario de la unidad
6). It’s marvellous! I have tried a lot of local dishes. They are delicious! My favourite is
_______.(comida que más te haya gustado). I haven’t visited…. yet. (decir lo que no has
visitado aún) because… (dar una razón de por qué no se ha visitado eso todavía). In addition,
(contad alguna anécdota graciosa y algún percance que hayas tenido).

Tomorrow I´m going to…. (decir algún sitio donde vais mañana). I´m so excited that I can’t
sleep and I´m writing this postcard to you now.

See you next week

Your name
D. STUDENTS’ POSTCARDS

1. TOKYO

2. BERLIN
3. SEVILLA
E. STUDENTS’ VALORATIONS

F. SHEET FOR THE EVALUATION OF STUDENTS’ PRESENTATIONS

USO DEL CONTENIDO Y USO DEL TONO DE VOZ NOTA

ALUMNOS INGLÉS ORGANIZACIÓN TIEMPO FINAL
1.

2.

3.

4.

5.
6.

G. RUBRIC FOR THE EVALUATION OF STUDENTS WRITING

PRODUCTIONS.

Criteria 4 3 2 1

Coherence and The postcard The postcard is The postcard The postcard
structure has a clear and well structured, has a basic lacks a clear
coherent although there structure but and coherent
structure. could be some there may be structure. No
Paragraphs are errors in some gaps in paragraphs, a
separated. coherence. coherence. bit messy.
Some Paragraph
paragraphs can separation was
be observed. intended but not
successfully
achieved.

Vocabulary and A wide and Adequate Basic and Vocabulary is

expressions varied vocabulary is limited very limited and
vocabulary is used, although vocabulary is many words are
used. Idiomatic there may be used. There repeated. No
expressions and some repetition. may be use of idiomatic
vocabulary Attempts are unnecessary expressions or
related to the made to use repetition and vocabulary
subject of the some idiomatic lack of variety. related to the
postcard are expressions and subject of the
used. vocabulary postcard.
related to the
subject of the
postcard.

Grammar and The Grammar Grammatical Use of grammar

Use of English grammatical required for the structures is limited or
structures present perfect required for the incorrect.
required for the is used present perfect Spelling has
present perfect appropriately, are used in a many errors
are used although there basic way, but which make
correctly. may be some with some comprehension
Spelling is minor errors. errors. Spelling difficult. Use of
excellent, with Spelling is has frequent the present
very few errors. good, with errors. Use of perfect is
The present some minor the present limited or
perfect is used errors. Use of perfect is basic incorrect.
correctly to the present and without
express past perfect is much variety.
actions with adequate.
relevance to the
present.

Creativity and The postcard is The postcard The postcard The postcard
originality original and shows some has little lacks originality
shows great originality and originality and and creativity.
creativity in the creativity in the creativity in the Ideas are copied
choice of ideas choice of ideas choice of ideas or poorly
and their and their and their developed.
expression. expression. expression.
Personalised Some Lack of
and unique personalised personalised
details are details are details.
included. included.