Regresar

Use of Self-Assessment Facilitated by Mobile Devices to Improve Speaking in a High School Program for Adults

Abstract:

Though this action research took place during the pandemic in 2020-2021, speaking has rarely been taught formally and students have been expected to acquire spoken English through communicative activities in class. It is even more difficult to grade spoken English during class time because of the amount of time it takes to individually assess students or because we have no record of speaking to reflect on afterwards when grading. Because of this, students do not like to speak English in class. Even worse, when the students are adults. This action research took place over six weeks in an adult program in a public technical school. The Ecuadorian program wants students to learn English and become more autonomous and this is important during pandemic classes so, teachers feel the necessity to implement successful activities to achieve these goals. The main purpose of this action research is to improve speaking by guiding learners towards autonomy by using self-assessment with an easy-to-understand rubric, and increase their confidence in assessing their own work to improve their speaking ability while having fun learning English. Adult learners, as Malcom Knowles stated in his studies, do not learn the same way children do as they bring life experience and a positive attitude to learning. They are respectful and dynamic as they are ready to face changes due to their maturity. (Knowles, 1950). Also, motivation is an important factor that help learners do improvements in any area they develop. There are some models of motivation instructors can use as a tool to engage their students in their classes (Yarborough & Fedesco, 2020).