Speaking tasks in the Primary English Classroom

• Autor(a) principal: Dias, Maria Leonor Vieira Fernandes
• Data de Publicação: 2020
• Tipo de documento: Dissertação
• Idioma: eng
• Título da fonte: Repositório Científico de Acesso Aberto de Portugal (Repositórios Cientìficos)
• Texto Completo: http://hdl.handle.net/10362/111551
• topic: Ensino de Inglês; Ensino Primário; Oral interaction; Pair work; Participation; Speaking tasks; Student-centred; Interação oral; Trabalho de pares; Participação; Atividades de interação oral; Centrado no aluno; Domínio/Área Científica::Humanidades::Línguas e Literaturas

This report describes the action research project I engaged in as part of my practicum as a trainee teacher during my master’s degree in teaching English in primary education. My objective was to gain understanding of the benefits of speaking tasks in the learning process and find out in what ways oral pair work fosters children’s participation in the classroom. This study also served to show how teachers can plan activities in order to promote oral interaction in a student-centred approach. The research took place in a state primary school belonging to a school cluster near Cascais, Portugal. The class referred to in my study was a year 4 class composed of 27 students who had English for the first time in their year 3. There were 10 girls and 17 boys with ages between 9 and 10. This class had English twice a week in the afternoon and the lessons had the length of one hour. My research was implemented from late-September to mid-December. The research tools used for data collection were questionnaires, recordings, and journal entries. Classroom strategies and two speaking tasks in pairs were implemented in order to develop speaking skills. Data collected from recordings showed that over time, more students were able to use English to communicate in the classroom. Moreover, the study demonstrated that the teacher’s role is fundamental in creating student-centred environments. Results of this research may encourage English teachers to plan their lessons focusing on their students’ needs and process of communication in the real world.