INTERNSHIP AT PUBLIC INSTITUTION MARCELIANO POLO

INTERNSHIP FINAL REPORT

ANDREA CAROLINA BARCENAS MERCADO

UNIVERSIDAD DE CÓRDOBA

FACULTAD DE EDUCACIÓN Y CIENCIAS HUMANAS

LICENCIATURA EN HUMANIDADES: INGLÉS

MONTERÍA-CÓRDOBA

2020

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INDEX

Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5

Chapter I: Pedagogies . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8

Chapter II: Methodology . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 15

Chapter III: Teaching experience . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 18

Chapter IV: Conclusions and recommendations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 25

Chapter V: Limitations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 27

References . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 30

Appendices . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 32

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ABSTRACT

This report details an internship executed at public institution Marceliano Polo in Cereté-

Córdoba. In this report I share how was my personal experience as a novice teacher and the things I

had to deal with during all this process, I also mentioned my experience with the implementation of

virtual classes, The current situation led us to take different measures to carry out our work as

teachers. In addition, this internship aimed to implement lessons that focus on CLT to improve

students’ oral skills. CLT lessons have proved to be an effective alternative to develop more dynamic

and fluent lessons. This approach has been used for the development of communicative skills. Hence,

the purpose of this internship was to identify the possible improvements in students’ oral skills after

the implementation of CLT lessons.

Key words: CLT, Oral Skills, CLT lessons, virtual classes.

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ACKNOWLEDGEMENT

First, I want to thank God for allowing me to come this far and give me the blessing of having

unique beings around me, as this would not have been possible without their help either.

Thanks to all those people who were with me supporting me throughout this process.

thanks to the directors of the school where I was allowed to do my internship, infinite

thanks to my tutors and teachers who were there supporting me, guiding me, and giving me

their best advice throughout this time, as these are things that I will always keep with me.

With all my love I want to thank my mom and my sister, they have been a key part in all this; I

want to thank my partner for giving me encouragement when I need it most. Finally, I want to

thank my friends, who have made this whole adventure more enjoyable.

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INTRODUCTION

An internship is an opportunity for a novice teacher to demonstrate what she/he has

learned during his career, it is the possibility to experience first-hand what will be his

profession for the rest of his life, the chance to discover his vocation, and learn to love

teaching. Hence, this report describes the process of my professional internship, as the option

to complete all the requirements to finish my career. I chose to do this to put into practice

everything I had learned throughout my studies, furthermore to gain more experience in the

educational field. In this report, I expose the objectives, methods, goals, and difficulties I

faced during the development of this internship. Additionally, I present how the school

handled the virtualization and my experience with the implementation of virtual classes.

This apprenticeship was conducted at the Institution MARCELIANO POLO is an

academic educational institution that operates in the municipality of Cereté (Córdoba). It

offers education organized by cycles, including grades, from pre-school to eleventh grade.

With a population of 4789 pupils who are in socioeconomic strata between 3-1. It also has a

staff of 182 teachers, 6 coordinators and more than 35 classrooms. It also offers adult

education in the evening. The institution has five branches: Caracas, Corinto, El Edén, Prado

and the main branch (where my work was carried out). In addition, is one of the ancient

institutions in the municipality of Cereté with 55 years of service to the population of Cereté.

I started my training period in the third week of February, in the public institution

MARCELIANO POLO located in Cereté-Córdoba. I chose it because I was familiarize with

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the context, as I had done my teaching practice there. I felt the need to work further in this

institution. Additionally, I was committed to supporting the institution with the knowledge I

had acquired during my learning process, with the intention of being an expert in the field.

Having had the opportunity to work there before, allowed me to identify some of the

limitations that learners presented in terms of the English subject. The limited knowledge of

vocabulary, lack of interest, the focus on grammar "language rules" and the lack of oral

production, were some of the disabilities that became evident in this school. Consequently,

taking into account the evidence, I decided to emphasize my internship on the improvement

of oral production in the English classes, and alternately with this I would work on enriching

students' vocabulary, and motivation.

Therefore, I selected the communicative language teaching (CLT) approach to lead

the design of my lessons. For this reason, my general purpose was to integrate the use of

CLT lessons in an EFL classroom to improve the oral participation of tenth-graders of this

public institution, since it was some of the most notorious weaknesses. Despite that, students

were able to manage the grammar rules; their performance confirm the lack of management

they had when using those grammar structures into oral practice.

At the beginning of my internship I had to work with four classrooms, each one with

40 students, when this current situation regarding the pandemic began, I was in charge of

only two groups of 40 pupils who had to start their learning process at home. In the other

hand, since it is a public institution where a large percentage of the students do not have the

necessary resources to access a computer, tablet, or other electronic device or even access to

the internet, starting this process was significantly difficult. The institution decided to the

use printed guides.

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For that reason, as an intern, I had to develop and collaborate, with the help and

guidance of my tutors, the creation of some guides to support teachers of English area in the

process of virtualization and distance learning in the tenth grades. In addition to the guides,

I made activities to accompany the pupils during this process; also, I designed some material

for future use as provisions to the teachers in the implementation of virtual and distance

learning lessons. After surveying students, the analysis results showed that a great amount

of them had access to at least one cell phone at home; consequently, it was adopted the use

of Whatsapp groups to create more significant contact. Mainly, to provide learners with the

accompaniment they need in these circumstances and all necessary information to carry on

the activities.

In this report I will also mention, the strategies I used. My teaching methodology,

how I tried to integrate CLT approach to the lessons, which tools I used to carry out the

activities in a virtual way, how I prepared myself to face this classes (virtual ones), the

difficulties, and challenges I had to go through to finish my internship and the learning this

adventure gave me.

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1. PEDAGOGIES

This chapter shows the pedagogical support that was required to conduct the

development of the internship once the conditions and previous observations were carried

out. In the next section, the following concepts and related literature that were took into

account as basis of the practice of a training period process: CLT, Oral production, lessons

for oral production, Vocabulary learning, and distance education and virtuality.

2.1 Communicative learning teaching

According to Jack Richard, (2006) “Communicative language teaching can be

understood as a set of principles about the goals of language teaching, how learners learn a

language, the kinds of classroom activities that best facilitate learning, and the roles of

teachers and learners in the classroom”. In this sense, CLT can be seen as a mix of concepts,

strategies, basics, and ideas that focuses on finding the strategies that best ensures students’

learning. Now, it is necessary to mention that CLT goals are to teach communicative

competence, although it should be clarified that it does not necessarily focus on teaching

only speaking; but rather seek to enhance communication skills.

Furthermore, one more time, J. Richard (2006) claims that

“While grammatical competence is an important dimension of language learning, it

is not all that is involved in learning a language since one can master the rules of sentence

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formation in a language and still not be very successful at being able to use the language for

meaningful communication. It is the latter capacity which is understood by the term

communicative competence”

Many studies have been carried out where the importance of the use of the target

language (TL) in a communicative way has been mentioned, as one of the skills that are

required for a more significant appropriation of the English language.

Another text mentioned Wei (2011) that “Given the gap between the theories of

communicative competence and the task confronting EFL teaching and learning, most of the

previous research studies maintained that EFL countries should carefully study their English

teaching situations and decide how CLT can best serve their needs and interests." In others

words, the writer said that many researches suggests that before implementing the CLT

approach, it is necessary to analyze the context in which it is planned to be carried out, to

identify which strategies best fit the needs of the context. With this in mind, during this

internship the intention was to create lessons that would serve as the basis for future

implementation of CLT in this public institution.

2.2 Oral Production

Oral production is the ability to express ideas, share experiences, and participate

in conversations, presentations, among others. In addition, Hymes (1972) defines Oral

production as “the capacity to communicate effectively within a particular speech

community that wants to accomplish its purposes.” (p. 60). Similarly, Chastain (1998) also

defines Oral production as “…a productive skill and it involves many components. Speaking

is more than making the right sounds, choosing the right words or getting the constructions

grammatically correct.” (pp. 330). Consequently, oral production is more than correctly

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linking grammar patterns; it is a proficient skill involving many factors to be effective. For

instance, it involves making decision about what to say and how to say it. It involves body

language, stress and intonations depending on the message the speaker is trying to get across,

as Harmer (2007) explained “When speaking, we construct words and phrases with

individual sounds, and we also use pitch change, intonation, and stress to convey different

meanings” (p. 29).

Oral production is the skill that is affected the most in terms of classroom anxiety.

Feelings such as, nervousness, hesitation, increased heart rate and sweating influence

directly the learners’ productivity during activities. Horwitz, Horwitz, & Cope (1986) stated

that “principally, counselors find that anxiety centers on the two basic task requirements of

foreign language learning: listening and speaking. Difficulty speaking in class is probably

the most frequently cited concern of the anxious foreign language student” (p. 126).

Similarly, Daly (1991) found that in some learners “fear of giving a speech in public

exceeded such phobias as fear of snakes, elevators, and heights” (p. 3). Anxiety during oral

activities has influenced negatively learners’ performance. Phillips (1992) found that

students who experienced anxiety spoke less, produced short communication units, and used

fewer structures and clause of the target language. Students who experience anxiety are

afraid of making mistakes, since mistakes are not seen as learning opportunities but as a

failure, that leads them to become silent, in other words, students refuse to participate in oral

production activities.

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2.3 Lessons for oral production

Speaking is one of the skills in which students are most at fault, due to the few

opportunities they have to use the language in the classroom and outside of it. In the EFL

classrooms, it is notorious the few opportunities students have to improve their

communicative competence in this kind of context, as very few lessons are focused on

improving this ability, as a result of this, students present some difficulty in speaking.

As “the role communication is usually given in classrooms, that of displaying

previously taught language items poses limitations on the value it might have for developing

EFL proficiency” (Herazo, Jerez, & Lorduy, 2009). For this reason, the modern teaching of

languages decided to take action on the matter, since students of the EFL classroom must

develop their communicative skills, using English in this case. Therefore, there is a need to

create lessons that will help students enhance their communicative competences and give

them more opportunities to have meaningful use of English in the classroom.

Some authors mentioned some factors or characteristics that are common for

successful speaking activities (Ur, 1996, Phipps, 1999, Lightbown, 2003) that are:

● The use of pair-work or small group works to avoid pupils’ anxiety, as much

research had shown that students feel more anxiety when they have to talk in front of a big

number of classmates. This strategy creates interaction opportunities for learners; it is a

convenient form to have students work, breaks the ice and builds confidence.

● There must be a purpose for all the activities included in the lesson, by this, we

mean that teachers need to set an end goal, to give students reasons to complete the task and

give students a significant use of the language during the activities.

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● Gives pupils clear instructions and appropriate levels of difficulty, one of the

reasons because students present difficulties when doing a task or activity is that they may

not understand the instructions or maybe the teacher was not clear enough of what they want

the pupils to do. Therefore, teachers need to have it clear when giving instructions, think

clearly of what they are going to say, engage students, modelling the instruction and always

check understanding. In addition, the teacher needs to encourage students to go further by

giving them enough difficulty to motivate them.

● Gives students opportunities to develop ownership of language, as we

mentioned before, teachers need to encourage pupils to go beyond and take the ownership

of their learning process, developing this can be challenging, but give students a sense of

personal growing, make them learn actively, promote in students the desire to improve and

get involve in their learning.

● Gives pupils Feedback, many researchers talk about the importance of feedback

in the teaching and learning process; its importance lies in the fact that students need

guidance throughout the learning process, they need to learn from their mistakes properly

and this is where the feedback they receive from their teachers takes on significance.

Moreover, teachers must be careful when giving feedback; they have to use the appropriate

ways to correct pupils’ mistakes since a good or bad feedback can make a significant

difference in students learning.

2.4 Vocabulary learning

“It has been suggested that teaching vocabulary should not only consist of teaching

specific words but also aim at equipping learners with strategies necessary to expand their

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vocabulary knowledge” (Hulstjin, 1993, cited in Morin & Goebel, 2001). This means that

vocabulary learning is not only about memorizing new words, it is necessary to know their

meaning, to contextualize them; also to help the student to create his/her concepts; to enable

them to appropriate the new vocabulary. Another author said that “it is considered that

effective communication relies more upon possession of an adequate and appropriate

vocabulary than on the mastery of grammatical rules” (Vermeer, 1992). In other words,

managing grammatical structures does not necessarily mean mastering the language; also, it

is necessary to acquire enough vocabulary to be able to achieve general management of

communication skills. Therefore, Vocabulary-learning should include strategies for using as

well as for knowing a word (P. Yongqi Gu, 2003). It is necessary to mention that, during this

internship the intention was to enrich the students' vocabulary with the desire to nourish

students' previous knowledge with the new vocabulary. This vocabulary was focused on the

context to make it as real as possible. As the author mentioned later in the paper, “Skill-

oriented strategies involve the use of words in meaningful contexts and aim to develop

automaticity in retrieving and producing those words (e.g., reading extensively and

deliberately using a newly learned word in one's writing)” (p. 75)

“Language learning strategies encourage greater overall self-direction for learners.

Self-directed learners are independent learners who are capable of assuming responsibility

for their learning and gradually gaining confidence, involvement, and proficiency” (Oxford,

1990). With that in mind, this internship used as one of the strategies of the planning lessons

the use of reading comprehension, not only to work on vocabulary but also to address it with

the CLT approach.

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2.5 Distance education and virtuality

The Covid-19 pandemic has altered the daily lives of students around the world: more

than 1.5 billion students have had to interrupt their classes as a measure to stop the spread of

the coronavirus. Almost 90% of the world's students had been affected. LAVANGUARDIA

(2020). Consequently, it was needed to use distance learning as a strategy to continue the

teaching process outside the classroom.

Garcia (1987). Defines distance education as “an educational process and system in

which all or a significant proportion of the teaching is carried out by someone or something

removed in space and time from the learner.” Therefore, as its name implies, distance

education involves a significant distance in space and time between teachers and students;

this contrast requires the use of tools that allow interaction and exchange of information

between students and teachers, such as printed and electronic material. Thinking about the

characteristics, Distance education is also a wide-ranging approach characterized by a high

degree of variation. Such variation includes the types of media or technology used (print,

radio, computer); the nature of the learning (workshop, seminar, degree program, a

supplement to the traditional classroom, levels of support); institutional settings; topics

addressed; and levels of interactivity support (face-to-face, online, blended, none) (Fillip,

2001). To develop this modality of distance learning it is necessary to take into account the

mentioned characteristics since its implementation requires structured planning, well-

designed courses, special didactic techniques, communication channels through electronic

resources and other technologies. Apart from that, after having studied and analyzed the

elements necessary to implement the distance learning classes, the next aspect that must be

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taken into account is the context in which this method is intended to be put into practice, to

know how to adapt it to the needs and limitations of this particular population.

Bearing in mind the current situation and the context in which the internship was

developed. Mobile technologies were chosen as the channel to be used to monitor the

teaching process in the virtuality. Pasnik said that “mobile technologies have many

advantages; they are ubiquitous, portable, and easy to use and can deliver audio, video,

multimedia, and text and the abundance of educational applications developed for these

platforms makes them a highly promising model of teacher professional development”

(2007: 8). For example, the facilities generated by the use of mobile technologies have

allowed direct contact with students despite the circumstances.

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2. METHODOLOGY

The methodology consists of the principles, procedures, assessment, and methods used by

the teachers to achieve the learning desired by the students. Hence, this section describes the

methodologies carried out during this internship, the participants, and the context where this

internship took place. Also, mentioned the importance of these in the personal growth process of a

pre-service teacher.

As a pre-service teacher, we know that not all students learn in the same way, just as

teachers do not have a single way of teaching since there is no "magic formula" for becoming an

excellent teacher. Stern declared that “several developments indicate a shift in language pedagogy

away from the single method concept as the main approach to language teaching” (1983, p. 477).

Bearing in mind this, I do not feel bound to a single method, on the contrary, I identify with several

methods, and I even prefer to work with a mixture of these. For instance, the first thing I do is

analyze the context and the population I am working with, before choosing a method.

Kumaravadivelu (1994) defines this kind of strategy as “the 'post method condition', a result of 'the

widespread dissatisfaction with the conventional concept of the method” (p. 43).

Since I started this process, I have always believed in the importance of analyzing and

taking into account students’ needs, and in this sense, the student-center approach allows me to

have the necessary communication and interaction with students to know their needs, expectations,

and interests. As it is, point out by Jacobs and Farrell (2003) “Focusing greater attention on the role

of learners rather than the external stimuli learners are receiving from their environment. Thus, the

center of attention shifts from the teacher to the student. This shift is generally known as the move

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from teacher-centered instruction to learner-centered instruction” In this sense, it was important to

identify students’ views of English classes and their relevance to everyday life. in order of this, the

first thing I did was to have a conversation with the students, where I introduced myself and told

them my purpose and the reason why I was there, then I asked them about their perception of the

English class. The intention was to generate a relaxed atmosphere apart from the academic, I tried

to make the students feel confident to talk and express their thoughts I attempted to make it as

natural as possible because I did not want to get defensive with them and create some kind of

barrier between us.

The first week was a diagnostic, I intended to know how much domain of English the

students had, so I started with simple activities such as personal presentation, including, topics like,

greetings and farewells, likes and dislikes, and interests. I chose to work with cooperative rather

than individual activities, such as short conversations and readings. That is one of the

characteristics of CLT, as Richard mentioned (2006) that “The type of classroom activities

proposed in CLT also implied new roles in the classroom for teachers and learners. Learners now

had to participate in classroom activities that were based on a cooperative rather than individualistic

approach to learning”. During these activities tried to be a guide, a facilitator, and a motivator. This

internship helped me to discover that I like to create a very dynamic atmosphere in a class by the

use of colorful material and the use of games.

In addition, I prefer to interact as much as possible with the students and for this reason

during this internship I was always open to negotiate with my students, I intended to generate

confidence and motivate them to try new things. On the other hand, because of the suspension of

the face-to-face classes, there was no opportunity to carry out many things that had been planned.

Since this, with Whatsapp groups, I have been in contact with the two groups I was assigned.

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Therefore, I became a facilitator, giving them my support and commitment. Hence, the WhatsApp

group was used as the medium for direct interaction between the students and the teacher, all

relevant information as well as the guides were sent to the students through this medium. Apart

from that, this medium served to give moral support to the pupils during the rest of the internship.

UNIT 1

Greetings and

farewells

Personal

information.

After making that little

introduction, the teacher will

introduce the vocabulary by

placing the words "greetings" and

“farewells" on the board. then

will pass to several students

sheets of paper with the words

related to the topic, then the

students will have to pronounce,

try to figure out what it means,

and place the words where they

correspond if they belong to

"greetings" or "farewells.

March

02/2020

-Sheet of paper

-Board

-Mechanical practice

( See appendix 1)

UNIT 2

Teen’ sports

hobbies and

interests

(review of

previous class)

2.The teacher is going to play

the game Hangman so as to

review of previous class

vocabulary

March

/9/2020

-Game “Hangman”

-Board

-Spelling activity

-Task-completion activity

(See appendix 2)

My favorite song

activity

In this activity, students will

choose a song of their choice,

using the whatsapp group

students will have to send two

audios.

May

14/2020

Strategy to promote oral

production

(See appendix 3)

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3. TEACHING EXPERIENCE

In this section, I describe my experience during this internship. Here I mention the

findings, results and evidence collected during the whole process; also, I explain how I deal

with the experiences I had to go through and all the circumstances I lived for the first time,

as a pre-service teacher.

At first sight, this internship was the perfect opportunity to learn many things, since

this whole process required the handling of certain knowledge and skills, which were

gradually developed as the process advanced. As a pre-service teacher I had to prepare

myself even more, I had to read, I had to research and acquire new skills, especially in the

field of virtuality. In order to acquire that knowledge I took virtual courses. That helped me

to develop my role as a teacher in a classroom, but also this course prepared me to continue

with the teaching process in the virtuality. (See appendix 4, 5, 6, 7, 8)

Even though, it was difficult, I took these situations as learning experiences that will

train me for future ones, as we never stop learning. That is why I saw this opportunity, as

something very enriching for me as a teacher. Thus, this helped me to be even more

responsible, to discover abilities and virtues I did not know about myself. On the other hand,

this experience led me to increase my security and to have more confidence in my skills.

During this internship, I worked with two groups of tenth graders, each with 40

students. Between the ages of 13 – 15. At the beginning of my internship, I ran into a group

of youths who did not feel very confident about using English, because it was not required

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for them to do it and there was a lack of work on this skill. Consequently, during the two

weeks that I could work with pupils inside the classroom, I needed to take this time to get to

know them; moreover, I try to build enough confidence with learners.

Therefore, during those two weeks, I focused on analyzing the type of learners I had

in the classroom, their likes, their interests, intending to change their perception of me. In

this institution, it is very common to have interns from different universities, so the tenth-

grade students already had the chance to deal with "interns", because of this the scholars

received me with a predisposition, in this sense, my presence did not generate enough

authority for them to see me as a possible tutor. To solve this, the tutor I was assigned at the

school played a very important role; together with my tutor, we had a conversation with the

students, making things clear from the beginning. He made it clear to the learners that I was

there as their teacher in charge and not as an intern who would follow his orders.

After this, I felt much safer, any insecurities I may have on my first day disappeared,

and I began to take the reins of my training, projecting even more security in front of the

class, which worked very well in the following days. As a result, the students gradually

changed their perception of me, they were much more open to participation and I came to

perceive a more collaborative environment.

This internship provided me with some strategies concerning classroom

management; which is very convenient when managing large classrooms. Additionally, this

experience helped me to discover my vocation as a teacher. It also guided me to understand

the kind of teacher I desire to be; although this will not be a simple task, I have all the

intention to follow this journey of teaching.

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Because of the pandemic and the government's determination to order a general

quarantine and the cessation of face-to-face activities, which took us all by surprise, this

caused the suspension of the internships until a decision was taken on the matter. After all

the shock and uncertainty, it was determined that the internship process will continue through

virtuality. With the continuation of the process came an even more demanding new situation.

Hence, the new challenge was to go into virtuality, something that completely changes the

context of my work.

As a result, At the institution, it was determined that a series of printed guides would

be used to keep going with the process, among other support resources (school page,

WhatsApp groups, mail) to have coverage of the entire student community. (See appendix

9, 10, 11, 12)

On the other hand, concerning the creation of the lessons, as I mentioned before the

purpose of this internship was to integrated CLT lessons to improve students’

communicative skills. To start the creation of my lessons, the first thing I did was to analyze

the context, to identify what resources I had at hand and which ones I did not have since it

would not have been a very good idea to start designing without taking into account the

population I was going to work with.

Therefore, I knew beforehand that I did not have access to audio-visual elements

(video beam, TV, computers, etc.) or that it would be difficult to access them. Therefore, I

chose to create my material to combine it with the resources I had available (laptop, speaker,

book, and board).

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Lesson design

In this part, I explain one of the lessons design, where I describe the activities that

appear in the lesson, and mention the strategies and pedagogies I used as a guide to design

the lesson. This lesson was design following the principles and strategies of CLT Approach.

In this lesson, (warm up) the first thing I did was a kind of reflection of the beginning of the

year, where I comment on the behavior that we must manage inside and outside the

classroom. Among the things that I mention it spoke of the courtesy and manners; next, I

give examples of courtesy like “to give the good morning every morning” or “say hello

when you arrive somewhere” This with the intention of introducing the subject in a way that

would be linked to their daily life. This kind of warm-up is used to activate the student's

previous knowledge, with the purpose of linking the previous knowledge with the new ones.

(See appendix 13)

The next step (Core activities) I used cardboard, which I cut into sections where I

printed vocabulary about "greetings" and “farewells" (I made this before the class). The aim

of this was that each student would take one of these papers containing a word referring to

the vocabulary, and then one by one they would read aloud the content of each paper. Then

the pupil would have to translate the word into Spanish; in case he or she knew the meaning.

If the student did not know the meaning, another student would have the opportunity to

respond. In CLT Approach this kind of activities are known as “Mechanical practice refers

to a controlled practice activity which students can successfully carry out without necessarily

understanding the language they are using. Examples of this kind of activity would be

repetition drills and substitution drills designed to practice use of particular grammatical or

other items” (J. Richard, 2003). (See appendix 13)

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After this, I place two posters on the board with the words "greetings" and

"farewells" where the students should place the words they picked, identifying first which

side they belonged. Through the activity, when it was each student's turn, I illustrated the

use of the word by using examples. After everyone had placed the word in its proper place,

several students volunteered went in front of it and using the words on the board created

sample sentences. In addition, pupils were asked to take notes in their notebook, as they

would use the vocabulary in the following activity. This part of the activity is known as,

“Meaningful practice that refers to an activity where language control is still provided but

where students are required to make meaningful choices when carrying out practice.” (J.

Richard, 2003). This means that, in those kind of activities, the student requires a bit more

analysis to find the answer.

For the next activity, I started by giving examples of real conversations that can take place

in the context we were in, For this, with my tutor’s help, we made a demonstration of an

everyday conversation between two people.

As we can observe in the following transcript:

Teacher: Good morning Andrea, how is your day?

P. teacher: Good morning teacher Santos, I’m great! And you?

Teacher: I’m fine, thanks, well I have to go, see you later Andrea

P. teacher: ahhh ok teacher, have a nice day!

Teacher: have a nice day too.

P. teacher: bye

In addition, using a speaker I put some audios of conversations between different

people, in different contexts as examples. After listening to the different examples, I asked

the students to pair up to work, as they would have to make a small conversation like the

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examples used in class, using the vocabulary learned to practice. After they were in pairs, I

explained the activity again and gave them 15 minutes to prepare the short conversation.

Moreover, during the course of the 15 minutes, I went through all the couples to monitor the

activity and resolve any doubt that the learners might have. Finally, student should go to the

front of the class and make the conversation.

In this case the activity used was based on, “Communicative practice that refers to

activities where practice in using language within a real communicative context is the focus,

where real information is exchanged, and where the language used is not totally

predictable”(J. Richard, 2003). For this reason, in this activity although it is necessary to use

the vocabulary learned, it is also important to use real information to create a more authentic

context inside the classroom. (See appendix 14)

As a result, during this lesson it could be observed that students enjoy dynamic

activities where they are allowed to interact with each other and with the teacher. On the

other hand, when it was time for the role-play, pupils were not very sure about participating;

there was a lot of insecurity when they had to come in front of the classroom, thus I took the

role of motivator, encouraging the kids to try. However, they did not feel confident when

speaking in English, as they feel ashamed of making mistakes in front of their peers. As

consequence, this kind of concern makes students reluctant to speak out.

Because of the pandemic, I did not have time to work enough with the students in

order to bring a change in their attitude regarding oral production. However, even in the

distance I found a way to motivate them to use English. Because of that, after having to

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appeal to distance learning I created this activity with the intention of motivating my students

to use English in a more dynamic and entertaining way.

This activity was a strategy to motivate oral participation in tenth grade students by

using the whatsapp group. For this activity, learners had to choose a song in English, the one

they like the most, after choosing the song they had to think about the reasons why they liked

this song, after this, they had to send two audios to the whatsapp group. In one of the audios,

they would mention the name of the song, why they chose it, and describe how this song

made them feel (using the suggested vocabulary). On the other hand, in the second audio the

students would have to sing a part of the song they chose to share with their classmates. This

activity was focused on Fluency, which is developed by creating classroom activities in

which students must negotiate meaning, use communication strategies, correct

misunderstandings, and work to avoid communication breakdowns. (J. Richard, 2003). (See

appendix 3)

As a result, for this activity returned that feeling of shame to make mistakes in front of

colleagues. However, this time, through the chat of the whatsapp group I gave them a talk,

in which I motivated them to try, not to let the shame of making a mistake stop them and

that even I as a teacher was willing to participate in the activity to support them. After this

talk I decided to do the activity and sent my two audios to the group, this with the intention

of motivating them and serve as an example. To my surprise after this, the students started

to participate, which excited me, since they listened to me and followed my advice.

Moreover, this kind of moment in particular is what motivates me to keep working and

become the best teacher I can be.

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4. CONCLUSIONS AND RECOMMENDATIONS.

As teachers, we face many struggles in teaching English as a foreign language, such

as dealing with a context where education has many deficiencies and a government that does

not provide the necessary resources for quality education. The Colombian education urgently

needs more investment by the state, because we must guarantee our children and young people

a high-quality education.

Furthermore, this internship allowed me to know first-hand the real context of

Colombian education, which showed me the real conditions in which a Colombian teacher

works. This made me understand that being a teacher is not a simple task and how demanding

it can be.

According to my experience, I conclude: First, the importance of knowing the context

in which we will be working, in this case allowed us to know the needs, interests and

expectations of our students, since this plays an important role when designing our classes;

which must be oriented to our students’ needs to generate an inclusive work environment.

Second, our students do not need someone to make things easy for them; they need

someone who is there to motivate them, to guide them, to understand them and not to judge

them. By this I mean that as teachers we should not put a barrier between the students and us,

they do not need an enemy; they need an example to follow. On the other hand, at a time as the

current situation caused by a pandemic or for possible futures situations, as teachers we must

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be there to accompany and support our students. Because this is when a student requires the

most support.

Third, Because of the current situation, we realized that schools and teachers were poorly

prepared to face the virtuality of classes; the lack of resources presented by many of the

institutions in our country was even more notorious. In spite of this situation, as teachers, we

started to prepare ourselves to face any situation that might arise, with the firm conviction of

continuing our teaching work even at a distance.

Fourth, lack of resources or the lack of knowledge should not be an excuse for not doing

your job, limitations are only in our heads and we must not let the problems to become a barrier

that prevents us from doing our best. This internship pushed me to use my creativity to try to

make my classes as varied as possible, to find new ways to motivate them, even in the distance.

On the other hand, I recommend future pre-service teacher to take the time to get to

know their students, also to take into account students’ needs when designing their lessons,

seeks to create an inclusive environment where everyone feels as comfortable as possible.

Apart from that, give your best in everything you do, show your students that you

really care about them and their needs, those are things that, they as scholars appreciate very

much. Also avoid creating fear in your students, you do not need a dominant attitude to gain

their respect, they do not need an enemy, they need guide.

Finally, this internship allowed me to realize, that in this work you must always be

prepared for the unexpected to happen and become a counselor, guide, motivator, etc. but the

most important thing is, to always be there for our students giving our best, even if we are not

having a good day.

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5. LIMITATIONS

During the internship, there were certain circumstances that came to hinder the pre-

service teacher process, preventing the intern from carrying out her teaching work.

As an English teacher in an EFL class, we have to face many challenges inside the

classroom; one of the most difficult things is to motivate students to use English orally inside

and outside of the classroom. This is something we constantly deal with; therefore, it is

necessary to find out strategies to guide students to use the language of study.

First, students’ attitude can be a determining factor when carrying out a class,

depending on their attitude, the class can be carried out in a satisfactory or on the contrary,

it can be a complete disaster. Therefore, the lack of communication between teacher and

pupils can make the situation worse.

Another limitation to consider is the lack of resources, as it complicates the teaching

process. For example, the lack of a video beam complicates the use of presentations, videos

and graphics. Therefore, the teacher has to employ another kind of strategy to teach the class.

Classrooms with a large number of students, can become a limitation, as it is difficult

for a teacher or in this case an intern, to guide many students at a time and makes it even

more difficult to control the class. On the other hand, sometimes the teacher avoids certain

activities, as this would complicate the control of the class.

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In addition, the lack of experience can work against you because you do not know

how to deal with certain situations that can occur within a classroom and this can cause

wasted time, distractions and disruptive behavior

The suspension of face-to-face classes, for reasons of the pandemic and consequently

the cessation of the internship, made it impossible to carry it out satisfactorily.

Finally. After starting this process again, it was necessary to move from teaching to

just designing guides, which drastically limited the planning of the lessons and the whole

process.

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APPENDICES

(Appendix 1)

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(Appendix 2)

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WhatsApp Audio 2020-05-13 at 1.08.54 PM (1).ogg

WhatsApp Audio 2020-05-13 at 1.08.54 PM (2).ogg

(Appendix 3)

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(Appendix 4)

(Appendix 5)

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(Appendix 6

Appendix 7)

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(Appendix 8)

(A ppendix 9 and 10)

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( Appendix 11 and 12)

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(Appendix 13)

(A ppendix 14)

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43

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