1 PROVIDING CONFIDENCE TO INTROVERT STUDENTS IN FOREIGN LANGUAGES MAJOR

Providing Confidence to Introvert Students in Foreign Languages Major

Dilson E. Sarmiento

University of Cartagena
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INTRODUCTION

When people learn new languages it is important to use them on a daily basis.

Michaela Salmon and Nuala Trace (2015) who are leaders in project called “Talk

English”, carried out in UK, mention that something that can hinder the progress of

many (language) learners is a lack of opportunity, or even reluctance, to speak English

in real-life situations. Actually, many English teachers will agree that the progress of

some of their learners is slower because they rarely speak English outside the classroom.

And this is what we find in our foreign language program, the students almost never

speak the languages they learn outdoors. So, the purpose of this research is to identify

the causes of this situation to provide specific and practical solutions.

RESEARCH PROBLEM

This foreign Language Program is in an accurate and great context. It is based at

the University of Cartagena, a public institution that is located in the most touristic city

of Colombia. It means that in this city flows a big amount of foreigners every year. So

the need for foreign language learning is huge and this program offers the solution for it.

However, within the this language learning program the apparent lack of confidence

when it comes to using foreign languages threaten the performance of new professionals

both in the educational and touristic field which are very important for the demands of

this city full of foreigner visitors. In the educational field, there is a huge need for

language teachers and even this program has suffered from this fact.

In the facilities of a language instruction major, we are supposed to see students

speaking the languages they are learning. But once you step in the principal corridor of

the Foreign Languages major at UDC, we see students speaking their native languages.

Therefore, students are missing a big opportunity to gain confidence and fluency. Being

exposed to the target language outside the classroom is considered among the most

important qualities of an effective language learner because they create a language

learning situation and learn to communicate with the target language group incidentally

(Coşkun, 2016).
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RESEARCH QUESTION

How to encourage the students from the foreign languages major at UDC for the

use of the foreign languages in outdoor spaces?

GENERAL OBJECTIVE

 Create an environment in which students can get comfortable and confident to use

the languages they are learning.

SPEDIFIC OBJECTIVES

 Identify the reasons of the lack of confidents on behalf of the Foreign Languages

major students at UDC.

 Diagnose the needs, interest and motivations in their language learning process.

 Create a conversational club about English and French literature in the language

teaching major.
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LITERATURE REVIEW

The literature review on which this research relies covered three main points:

Promoting speaking confidence, extracurricular activities for the exposure to both

reading and speaking in real world situations and literature as a potent resource for

speaking confidence (Boonkit, 2010; Coşkun, 2016; Salma, 2007).

Promoting speaking Confidence

Speaking is one of the four principal skills that integrate an effective

communication, but it cannot be possible if there is not confidence. A language learner

who does not have confidence always fears of making mistakes which results in

retraction when it comes to speak. Most of the time this lack of confidence is due to the

lack of competences for using the language; it could be a lack of good pronunciation,

vocabulary or even collocations (Boonkit, 2010). Therefore, all of this means that if

students are competent enough to speak in English, they will have the confidence to do

it.

Consequently, the aim of this study is to develop or promote learners speaking

confidence through the reinforcement of their language competences and literature is a

magnificent tool to do so. Literature helps students to get quality models of language to

develop language skills. Ainy Salma (2007) claims that “conventionally, much language

teaching is usually devoted to the language used in the process of reporting which is the

act of narrating events, describing people and situations”( p. 29).

However, we have to put our feet down, when most of the students hear the word

literature, they think of the word boredom and this can obstacle the process of promoting
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speaking confidence. Nevertheless, Marut Hişmanoğlu (2005), professor of school of

foreign languages in Turkey, states that literature has many attractive qualities;

“universality, non-triviality, personal relevance, variety, interest, economy, suggestive

power and ambiguity” (p. 54). So, the tricky part is when it comes to approach literature

to students, it is important to make it appealing and important for them.

Extracurricular activities for the exposure to both reading and speaking in

real world situations

We cannot deny that extracurricular activities free us from a great deal of

pressure we face in the classroom and we can sum up all that pressure in a word: grades.

Grades can make us deviate our learning process and turn it into constant suffering and

desperation to get a “price”. Besides, this suffering and desperation is the source for the

fear of making mistakes in the classroom and even outdoors. Sundqvist (2009) coined

the term Extramural English to refer to “… linguistic activities in English that learners

do or are involved in outside the classroom in their spare time” (as cited in Coşkun,

2016, p. 1449). So, extracurricular activities as conversional clubs are consider

Extramural Activities. However, in the past, not all the students had access to this kind

of activities as music, TV and literature. Nowadays, with technology advancement, there

are still much more access to as many activities as students want and in anytime.

Conversational clubs are spaces where students talk, give opinions and even

make presentations about an aspect they have chosen beforehand. What’s more,

conversational clubs are pressure free spaces where students can feel comfortable and

thus express themselves. However, this club has to be fueled by something that students

are interested about and that is when literature will take place. When students are
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immersed in a story, language is seen as a natural process through which they can

identify the functions of words in the sentences. Then, they start to use it confidently

(Arias Rodríguez, 2017).

Literature as a potent resource for speaking confidence

People identity and way of being rely on their culture and literature is a common

aspect in all cultures, so we can say that literature shape people performance in all aspect

in the real world. In this case, literature, as a tool in English as a foreign language

teaching, can make students’ speaking abilities progress. Students can be in contact with

real language which is meaningful for them in terms of knowledge, culture, and

language acquisition (Arias Rodríguez, 2017).

However, it is important to choose the appropriate literature to do so. Arias

Rodriguez (2017) gives us some suggestions; when choosing short stories it is important

to take into account: needs, motivation, interests, cultural background and language level

of students (p. 107). Otherwise, it will not work.

CONTEXT

The context is the Foreign Languages Major at the University of Cartagena. This

institution is a public one which means that it is sponsored by the Colombian

government. In this university we find students with many different backgrounds, not

only local, but also from other cities and regions. Nowadays, the Foreign Language

Major has more than 240 students. However, this major has just 6 years since it started

in 2014.
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PARTICIPANTS

The participants in this study are young ones who are close to the researcher,

aged from 18 to 29 years old and study in different semesters in the foreign languages

major at the University of Cartagena. It is vital to utter that these students come from

different backgrounds, but there is something common among them and it’s that they

manifest shyness and the introversion. On the other hand, they will be between 8 to 10

students because shy people fear to talk when there are big amounts of people and it is

easier that they get acquainted between them.

SIMPLING METHOD

It is important to have a clear landscape of the whole population to which the

study will be applied. But, having to investigate every individual could be an exhausting

task. However, sampling is a great method because it allows us to infer information

about a population based on results from a subset of the population. Besides, it is

essential to mention that it reduces the workload without losing the effectiveness of the

work.

In this project, we will use convenience sampling which is a specific type of

non-probability method that relies on data collection from population members who are

conveniently available to parcipate in the study (Saunders, M., Lewis, P. & Thornhill,

A., 2012). In this case, we will find the population among friends who lack of

confidence when speaking the foreign languages.

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RESEARCH METHOD

This study relies on the action research method whose process is cyclical.

However it also can be a helix process which it also call “Look, Act, Think” model

(Figure 1).

Figure 1. Action Research Helix (Adapted from Hine, 2013)

In the “Look” stage, information is gathered by careful observation through

looking, listening, and recording. This process will take place during the conversation

clubs to identify students’ needs, weaknesses, motivations and interests. Then, the

“Think” stage, it is time to analyze all the data collected to draw conclusions about the

items mentioned before. Finally, the “Act” stage there are new strategies to tackle the

weaknesses, needs and on the other hand, take into account students’ interests and

motivations to continue fueling the conversion clubs.

DATA COLLECTION

This study uses a qualitative reasoning approach in order to obtain the data.

Qualitative research is concerned with the systematic collection, ordering, description

and interpretation of textual data generated from talk, observation or documentation.

More specifically, qualitative research methods consist of the techniques of

interviewing, observation, and document analysis. Its goal is to explore the behaviour,

processes of interaction, and the meanings, values and experiences of purposefully

sampled individuals and groups in their “natural” context (Kitto S. C. et al, 2008).

This study seeks to tackle students’ needs and weaknesses in order to be

confident when talking in a foreign language. However, to recognize them it is important

the observation of students’ behavior and speaking performances throughout the

conversation club spaces.

INTRUMENTATION SAMPLES

In order to gather the data, it is important to have an effective instrument which

does not allow losing track of it. Since data collection will be through qualitative

research, a great instrument is the journals. Journals offer thorough descriptions and

interpretations of a specific event. This tool was will be used to take note of important

aspects in the development of the sessions.

RESEARCH LENGTH

This research could take from 5 to 10 sessions. In 1st session, the idea is that

students get to be acquainted with each other, establish the objectives of this project and

then start to talk about literature and how it can help them to become competent and

confident when speaking. The 2nd session, the literary material will be already provided

and the idea is to pose questions that encourage discussion. In this step, the researcher

will be already taking notes about relevant events that show students’ interests, needs,

weaknesses and motivations. In the 3rd, according to the needs and weaknesses, the

literature will be provided for students to improve their communicative skills. In the 4th

session, the students will be evaluated through debates and presentations to see how

literature has made improved their speaking skills. Finally, in the 5th session, students

and the researcher will give feedback about the study and encourage students to continue

using Extramural English to work on the four micro skills for effective communication;

listening, reading, writing and last but not least, speaking.

REFERENCES

Salmon, M., & Trace, N. (2015) “How Much Do Your Learners Use English Outside the

Classroom?” Retrieved from https://www.teachingenglish.org.uk/article/how-

much-do-your-learners-use-english-outside-classroom

Saunders, M., Lewis, P. & Thornhill, A. (2012) “Research Methods for Business

Students” 6th edition, Pearson Education Limited. Retrieved from

https://research-methodology.net/sampling-in-primary-data-collection/convenience-

sampling/

Salma, A. (2007) “Use of literature in developing learner’s skills in Bangladeshi EFL

context”. Retrieved from http://eprints.nottingham.ac.uk/14033/1/446394.pdf

Hişmanoğlu, M. (2005) “Teaching English through Literature” Journal of Language and

Linguistic Studies Vol 1, No. 1, April 2005. Retrieved from

https://www.researchgate.net/publication/281379160_Teaching_English_through_lite

rature

Coşkun, A. (2016) “Benefits of Out-of-Class Speaking Activities for EFL Students”

Retrieved from http://www.tekedergisi.com/Makaleler/1190300911 _23co

%C5%9Fkun.pdf

Sundqvist, P. (2009) “Extramural English Matters” Retrieved from

https://www.researchgate.net/publication/265911510_Extramural_English_Matters_O

ut-of

School_English_and_Its_Impact_on_Swedish_Ninth_Gradersapos_Oral_Proficiency_an

d_Vocabulary
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Arias Rodríguez, G. L. (2017). “Students’ language skills development through short stories”.

Íkala, Revista de Lenguaje y Cultura, 22(1), 103-118. DOI:

10.17533/udea.ikala.v22n01a07. Retreived from

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1HvKSxc43KXhAHr_zrIw-KxH3rU5fgXqS/view

Hine, G. (2013) “The Importance of Action Research in Teacher Education Programs” Retrieved

from http://www.iier.org.au/iier23/hine.html

Kitto S. C. et al. (2008) “Quality in qualitative research” Retrieved from

https://www.mja.com.au/system/files/issues/188_04_180208/kit10137_fm.pdf