Last Term Implementation

These are the two final topics to be developed along the last term in the writing workshops:

Date	Activity	Purpose
October 21st	9. Learning guide: My cooking book part 1	Sts will get training in the use of quantifiers, countable nouns and uncountable nouns in the kitchen context, as to be able to describe the process of preparation of their favourite recipes.
November 4th	10. Famous food around the world	Sts will use their previous knowledge and skilfulness to develop by themselves the last task, which consists of describing their favourite recipe and writing to Jenny the whole process of preparation.

October 22nd.

Today Sts developed the last learning guide of the course, and they are expected to create the last product with no guidance, as a final outcome covering all the topics seen along the semester. They seem to be confident to do the task, and in this session they were applying the strategy to create shopping lists and identifying the ingredients for their favourite recipes. It was a long list requiring too much grammar that included, of course vocabulary regarding countable and unocuntable nouns, quantifiers, recipients and many food items. Some of the Sts brought good vocabulary aides, and others asked for more resources to practice. I gave them a vocabulary supplement and some of them are observing the food items presented them, to identify the ingredients of the plates suggested on it. They are not having trouble identifying the differences between countables and not countables, which they were working along the week, and now are interested in identifying more specific expressions to indicate portions, tastes, cooking verbs and indications of time and temperature.

For practicing the vocabulary we created an imaginary kitchen in the classroom and they are moving around identifying the items they need for their recipers and writing them in their lists. I hope they really do not have difficulty identifying the items and recipients as they have a lot of vocabulary to learn.

October 29th

Most Sts have not practiced the topic out apart from the last face to face session. However, they have ben practicing the vocabulary through different activities in the classroom such as imaginary kitchen and imaginary cooking. For the second they are telling the other their recipe and their peer has to write the process described. Now, I am giving them feedback of their first recipe, their favourite one, and up to this stage their drafts are samples of shopping lists and enumerations of kitchenwear and stages in a preparation. They are demanding to be shown sequencing linkers to connect the ideas. Meanwhile I am going around the class I listen things like these

A: 'yo no creo que hay coladores de café como los de aquí'.

B: y es que tú crees que en otras partes no cuelan el café?

A: No, porque ya viene procesado. Quizás sólo en polvo.

B: Y entonces la greca para qué la usan?

C: dónde?

L asks me about 'molinillo, teacher, how do you say molinillo'?

November 3rd.

In today's session Sts were expected to use sequence linkers appropriately besides manipulating some, any, little, few and countable and not countable nouns. For this purpose they were describing the national or international recipe they chose as the final product. Now they were much more concerned since they know that the only purpose is not simply describing a recipe but all the cultural context around it. Most students chose something local, but, for instance, S selected a pasta and he handed in a little consultation about some traditions of Italians around pasta. He almost completed a very good basic draft about the pasta and it was as good as the recipe. L wants to talk about Cali and Villavicencio at the same time. She needs to take a decision, but she points to a cultural fact that attracts her. 'Why do people prepare the recipe? She wonders' She also mentions that she is planning to be pregnant soon, and that 'hablando de comida me pone con agrieras, Miss.' L. wants to develop a whole compendium of the historical and cultural value of the 'ajiaco santafereño' and I tell her that she does not need to mention too many ideas. But I can foresee that, as usual, she will try to do a very complete task, not a summary.

Second Term Final Exams

October 12th.

Today St are doing their second term final writing exam, and it seems that the topic was much more complicated than expected, since for this task they were not prepared. While some students were to describe their classmates or their best friend, others had to compare transport and tourism in two different cities.

L was very worried because she could not attend sessions over a whole week as whe had been very sick. She tells me she is not prepared for writing. Something similar occurred to DS who arrived late and asked e to change her exam sheet for 'an easier one'. Unfortunately she was the latest to arrive and this is the only remaining paper.

I see that for some Sts the time is almost over but have not completed the extension required. The strategy may be useful, but with not practice it is not.

October 16th

I am checking Sts' writing exams that were graded by my colleague, and to my surprise, again results were good in general terms, though not as much as in the previous term. Even though many Sts did not complete the whole description with all the criteria required in terms of extension, most of them wrote a coherent text and followed the appropriate layout. i will have to check carefully the rubrics and contrast them with the final exams.

Some particular improvements

October 7th

I am implementing PN today, for reinforcing activity among students. They are doing peer feedback and some very clear differences are evident among some ts. For example, W has shown a fast growth in his writing, as well as L, and CM. On the contrary, L, who tended to be very punctual with her tasks has had some drawbacks in both grammar and vocabulary, so she is not being as precise with her words and easily caught grammar. Maybe she is distracted or has too much stuff to solve these days.

Second Term Implementation

September 12th

I have indicated my colleagues the topics we are going to be developing along these three following sessions before second term exams. I have shown them the general contents and the drafts of the learning guides, so, through Virtual Sabana in the forum they are going to tell me how the consider they should be used and how to improve them.

Date	Activity	Purpose
September 12th	6. Two Cities	Students are going to be able to write a descriptive paragraph in which they compare and contrast two cities, by using linking words such as and, but, both and neither.
September 17th	7. Learning guide No. 3: My best friend	Guide Sts on how to elaborate a descriptive paragraph to introduce their best friend.
September 24th	8. My classmates	Students are going to use PN to write a descriptive text about their peers in the English class. They must properly use the simple present tense, likes and dislikes and frequency adverbs and time expressions.
October 1st	9. Tourism & Transport	By writing descriptive paragraphs, Sts will use PN to elaborate a brochure inviting people to know their cities. They will talk about tourism and transport in their city.

September 16th

Today L, W, C R, L G, and even S and JF arrived to class with much of the learning guide solved by themselves. They brought some ideas regarding their towns and the trasport and tourism. They are starting to use the connecting words by themselkves, though this time they do not seem to find the connection between the present simple and describing transport and tourism.

On the contrary, A, Ca C, La and even CM have been absent from classes and their improvements have not been enough. They are not using the strategy and they dedicate no time to practice by themselves. Most Sts were working on their compositions. Most students have already learnt the rhetorical structure and use paragraphs adequately, introducing and concluding the elements that they are going to describe. Grammar continues presenting difficulty but there is much more fluency in the Sts' written discourse.

Some students find it difficult to throw a single idea to be the main of their text, since they think there are several elements to talk about. I tell them they have to consider one main element to develop, JF says 'como un título profe'. And W says, 'like I am selling the product. yes because it is tourism'.

September 20th

I applied the second survey in class last friday Sept 17th. Not all Sts were in class but this time Sts did not ask for translation to respond it. Most of them arrived to class and got it quickly and it just took 15 minutes to complete to all (only 14 Sts were in class). I found some contradictions in their replies, since though most Sts considered PN implementation a very valuable tool to enhnace their writing, some sts pointed that it was very hard and demanding, and that they could do easier with a simpler strategy. Other aspect was that most admitted that to improve many more efforts had to be done by them but did not necessarily found the relationship between their improvements and the strategy. For Isa, for instance, solving most of her tasks has been a very hard exercise since she counts on very short time to practice, but she told me that she felt releived that she did not have to do additional tasks but the final products were simply the learning guide formats.

Most sts find not valuable now to upload their final products into Virtual Sabana, because they feel that they are already communicating clearly through their single mails and postcards, so they find not useful the web.2.0 tools any longer, but, on the contrary, very time consuming for their purposes of writing.

I also found that Andres, who characterized for having the highest proficiency level when we started the course, and who is not very attentive, tends to make many more mistakes in his tasks. He is usually distracted on the web while his peers are solving their writings and he tends to asks for clarifications of topics previously mentioned and even developed.

On the contrary, S, who is very timid has been very concerned about his writing skill, and has been solving most tasks more efficiently. On the other hand, JF, who is the only true beginner in the course since he had studied French and not English at school, has made important improvements along the course but has never been seriously involved with the PN strategy. He just wants to solve the task but is not aware of the communicative purpose behind it. In general, his compositions are very basic in content and grammar rhough he makes efforts to use it appropriately. Believe it or not, his handwriting is an obstacle for me and his peers to understand what he writes.

Second Term Implementation

September 12th

I have indicated my colleagues the topics we are going to be developing along these three folwoing sessions before second term exams. I have shown them the general contents and the drafts of the learning guides, so, through Virtual Sabana in the forum they are fgoing to tell me how the consider they should be used and how to improve them.

Date	Activity	Purpose
September 12th	6. Two Cities	Students are going to be able to write a descriptive paragraph in which they compare and contrast two cities, by using linking words such as and, but, both and neither.
September 17th	7. Learning guide No. 3: My best friend	Guide Sts on how to elaborate a descriptive paragraph to introduce their best friend.
September 24th	8. My classmates	Students are going to use PN to write a descriptive text about their peers in the English class. They must properly use the simple present tense, likes and dislikes and frequency adverbs and time expressions.
October 1st	9. Tourism & Transport	By writing descriptive paragraphs, Sts will use PN to elaborate a brochure inviting people to know their cities. They will talk about tourism and transport in their city.

September 16th

Today L, W, CR, LG, and even S and JF arrived to class with much of the learning guide solved by themselves. They brought some ideas regarding their towns and the trasport and tourism. They are starting to use the connecting words by themselkves, though this time they do not seem to find the connection between the present simple and describing transport and tourism.

On the contrarty, A, C C, L and even CM have been absent from many classes and their improvements have not been enough. They are not using the strategy and they dedicate no time to practice by themselves. While most Sts were working on their compositions. Most students have already learnt the rhetorical structure and use paragraphs adequately, introducing and concluding the elements that they are going to describe. Grammar continues presenting difficulty but there is much more fluency in the Sts' written discourse.

After First Term Exams

Sept 12th.

After the first term is over, I have collected the copies of Sts' results in their writing exams. We are using part of this session for the feedback of their writings. Their progress is very evident and most Sts could easily solve the task at the moment of the exam. The easiest part was being aware of the rhetorical structure though not all Sts have been paying attention to is. It was easy to see that some students who had practiced the PN strategy could solve the task more easily than those who did not attend the session and did not practice it, because they did not feel secure about what to say. Results in the writing exams overtook the other skills to a long extent. Do I stick a copy of the gades here? No, I have it ready in my files. I need to use it as it registers the score in the rubrics as the evaluator graded them.

During the writing exams week, I have found out there is not a necessary connection between the knowledge about gramar and the students awareness of their wrting ability. Most students seem to forget vocabulary and even grammar in an isolated way. I know I do not have to use grammar exams to analyse the writing compositions of my pupils. However, it is something that calls my attention the fact that many students tend to forget grammar and obtain bad results in the grammar and vocabulary quizzes and tests, but they seem quite able to use them more positively when composing a meaningful text requiring those grammar concepts and the requested vocabulary.

September 2nd.

Along the first term I have seen how my students feel naturally concerned about the writing process as much as they feel concerned about their speaking. The risk taker styles tend to be more curious about their concerns but paradoxically others who may appear like shy tend to be more reflective about the use they give to any new word or expression, and are keen on taking quick notes not to forget these ideas. This second type of students, as far as I can see, tend to remember much more each idea previuosly asked as they tend to be aware of using them in every new composition. they are recycling when writing new compostions.

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BASIC DATA ON ACTION RESEARCH PROPOSAL

Brief Statement of the Problem

When asked to write a text, my false beginner students at university have difficulty in writing descriptive compositions. This happens because they do not have enough knowledge about how to create a descriptive paragraph­, and they do not have the appropriate strategies and tools to generate a well structured text.

Research Questions

Main Question:

To what extent does the implementation of practicing naturalistically strategy help improve students’ ability to write descriptive paragraphs?

Sub Questions:

1. How do my students use the practicing naturalistically strategy when taking part in the writing process of descriptive paragraphs?

2. Does the use of the practicing naturally cognitive strategy help improve the quality of descriptive paragraph writing in my false beginners?

Research Objectives

General objective

To analyze the relationship between the practicing naturalistically cognitive strategy and my students’ ability to write descriptive paragraphs.

Specific objectives

1. To observe and analyze how my false beginners use practicing naturalistically cognitive strategy in the classroom context during the writing learning process.

2. To evaluate to what extent the practicing naturalistically learning strategy becomes a valuable tool for my students to improve their writing ability when composing descriptive paragraphs.

Constructs

1. Practicing naturalistically cognitive learning strategy.
2. Writing process of descriptive paragraphs.

Data Collection Tools by Stages

Pre stage:

• Diagnose compositions at the beginning of the research process.
• Introductory Questionnaire about student's feelings regarding their writing proficiency.

While stage:

• Artifacts about practicing naturalistically cognitive learning strategy with face to face sessions and use-training.
• Learning guides about the use of the practicing naturalistically learning strategy.
• Students' writing products.
• List of conventions for writing.
• Rubrics and checklists.
• First and middle term writing final evaluations.
• Portfolio to register and gather students’ products.
• Teacher's fieldnotes.

The use of these tools has been organized with the following purposes:

1. Provide students the resources to acquire knowledge regarding grammar, vocabulary and writing abilities.

• Learning guides about the use of the practicing naturalistically learning strategy.

2. Provide Students with the assessment tools for them to understand the feedback process and follow the mechanics of writing.

• List of conventions for writing.
• Rubrics and checklists.

3. Register all observation process carried out along the implementation.

• Teacher's fieldnotes.

4. Gather all the Students artifacts or final products derived from their writing work.

• Students' writing products.
• First and middle term writing final evaluations.

Post stage:

• Students' writing products gathered into a Writing Portfolio.
• End of term writing exams.
• Final Questionaire regarding the Students' feelings about their writing process along the implementation.

References:

• Burns, A (2010) Collaborative Action Research for Language Teachers. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
• Cohen, D., Manion, L., Morrison, K. (2005). Research Methods in Education. Taylor & Francis e-Library (5th ed). (pp. 287-288).
• Hopkins, D. (2008). A Teachers' Guide to Classroom Research. Open University Press. (pp. 75-128)
• O'Malley, M., Valdez, Lorraine. (1996). Authentic Assessment for English Language Learners. Longman.