Javier Ávalos Varela teaches English to students aged between 16 and 60 in a municipal

school in Santiago. For various reasons these learners had been unable to complete their
mainstream education when they were younger, but they are now looking to improve their
skills. In one particular class of seven students, the language level of the learners was very
low, and many of them had never attended English classes before. Not surprisingly, they
lacked confidence, were unusually quiet and afraid to either speak or write. They appeared
to be completely daunted by the language.

Javier sat down and talked with his students. He asked them how they felt about learning
English and noted their replies. Some appeared motivated and believed it would be useful
for them – they also thought that it wouldn’t be too difficult and that sometimes it’s just a
matter of being lazy. But others saw little point in learning and believed English was a very
hard language to learn.

After this initial informal enquiry, Javier decided to create a questionnaire to dig deeper. He
suspected that there were a lot of negative attitudes or feelings toward learning English, but
he wanted to be sure and collect some evidence before deciding what to do next.

The first questionnaire

The results confirmed Javier’s suspicions and initial impressions. The responses gaining
more than 50% agreement are highlighted in bold in the table below.Almost all of the
students felt nervous, frustrated and embarrassed, and they were clearly concerned about
their pronunciation.

Action

Javier realised that he could not approach this class of learners in the same way he did with
other classes. He knew that building their confidence and creating a warm and positive
classroom atmosphere was crucial and a first priority. Unless they could relax and enjoy the
lessons, they would not be able to learn English.He made a point of starting the lessons with
an ice-breaker or telling a joke, or chatting and laughing about funny things that had
happened at their places of work or home,
etc. Then, when they felt more comfortable and relaxed he would give a simple overview of
what they were going to do that day. He used very basic examples to explain concepts and
related content to their lives to make it meaningful. If they worked on exercises, he would
move around the room and give individual attention. During feedback, he would give lots of
praise and encouragement and tell the students to make corrections themselves. They
started to smile and little by little their confidence grew.

But even though they were becoming more motivated and confident, they were easily tired
as the lessons were in the evening at the end of a busy day’s work. Javier realised he
needed to take that into account. In fact, he realised that he needed to pay attention all the
time to how they were feeling, how they reacted and how they behaved. He started to
observe more carefully and think about what he could do in response.

Making signs

One activity which was particularly successful was ‘making signs’. Javier knew that his
students would be familiar with lots of different signs as they all used public transport and
went shopping and there were lots of signs in all these places in both Spanish and English.
He knew that even if they didn’t understand all the words, they would recognise the icons or
symbols and get the gist. So he gathered
cardboard, markers, glue, etc. and got his learners to create signs that they could find in
supermarkets, shopping centres, and on the metro, etc. This activity also helped his students
to understand how context can support meaning and that English can be
relevant to their daily lives.

Some improvement

As time went on, more students joined the class, participation increased and the students’
marks improved too.

The second questionnaire

Javier decided to administer the questionnaire again.

The results were encouraging. Although there was still more to do, a greater proportion of
students seemed to choose positive responses (again, the responses gaining more than
50 per cent agreement are highlighted in the table below).

No. Guiding questions Description

1. What is the topic of this The topic of the project could be "Improving
project? English Language Learning for Adult Students
with Low Confidence."

2. Why do you want to study this The motivation to study this issue arises from the
issue? initial challenges faced by adult learners with low
confidence in learning English, as well as the
 successful strategies employed by Javier to
address these challenges.

3. List a few readings/sources Some relevant sources for this topic might include
relevant to your topic that you research on adult language learning, strategies
have identified so far. for improving confidence in language learners,
and teaching methods for diverse student groups.

4. What is/are your research How do low-confidence adult learners perceive

What strategies can be effective in boosting the

What impact does a positive classroom

5. What will the general context The general context for the research is a
for the research be (e.g. the municipal school in Santiago, focusing on one
school, one or more classes)? specific class of adult students.

6. Who will the participants in the The participants in the research will be adult
research be, e.g. students - students aged between 16 and 60 who are
how many, which level? enrolled in the specific English class described in
the text. The text does not specify the exact
number of participants.

7. Describe in general terms the The research could go through stages such as:
stages the research will go
through. 1. Initial student interviews and surveys to assess
their attitudes and confidence levels.
2. Implementation of teaching strategies similar to
those used by Javier.
3. Periodic assessments of student confidence
and performance.
4. Administering a second set of interviews and
surveys to evaluate any changes.

8. How will you collect and Data could be collected through interviews,
analyse data? surveys/questionnaires, classroom observations,
and student performance assessments. Data
analysis would involve qualitative analysis of
interview responses and survey results, as well
as quantitative analysis of performance data.

9. What ethical issues does your Ethical issues may include obtaining informed
 research raise and how will you consent from participants, ensuring the privacy of
deal with them? their responses, and maintaining the
confidentiality of student information. Ethical
considerations should be addressed by obtaining
appropriate permissions and using pseudonyms
for participants.

10. What challenges do you Challenges may include resistance from some
anticipate in doing this project? students to participate in interviews or surveys,
the need for continuous adaptation of teaching
methods, and the potential for bias in data
collection and analysis.

11. Overall, who and how will The project aims to benefit adult language
benefit from your project? learners by improving their confidence and
language skills, potentially leading to better
employment opportunities and personal growth.
Educators and researchers interested in effective
teaching methods for diverse student groups can
also benefit from the findings.

12. Any other comments you want Additional comments may include the need for
to make about the project? ongoing reflection and adaptation in teaching
strategies based on the research findings and the
importance of disseminating the results to a wider
educational community.