RESEARCH PROPOSALTHESISENGLISH LANGUAGE PROGRAMME  Researcher’s name: Sergio Humberto Rejón Xinastle Working Title: Students’ development in the comprehensive skills at English VII in the English Language major at Uqroo and some students’ assumptions of them. Nature of Research: Descriptive Research   Date: November 12th, 2013

In this research I will look for the rate of students’ failure at the English VII level of the English language Major. I will set the percentage of the failures and will have a over look of the factors that may affect the well development of the students at this level, these will be; the test used to grade the level (CAE), students’ overconfidence, beliefs and investment toward the subject and the language itself. I will apply my instruments in the English VII group in the morning 8th semester 2014, and with the coordination of the teacher in charge of the group to have access to tests and grades.

The last couple of years, the Certificate in Advance English (CAE) has beenplaying an important role in the English Language Teaching Major in the Universityof Quintana Roo because it is a pre-requisite for students to take the test in orderto get their degree in this major. For this reason, students are prepared to take theexam in the last English levels. so, when teachers evaluate the skills, it is necessary that students pass at least fourskills, this applies in the English subjects of the English Language Teaching major;however, in the CAE it is necessary that the total of the grades of each skill can bemore than 70%. There would be a great number of students who fail their comprehensive skills in thelast levels which are: Reading, language in use and listening. Therefore, I decided to see if it is true that students tend to decrease their grades inthe last levels of their English subjects and sometimes they even fail the subject.º

During the last few years in the English language major at the University of Quintana Roo in which I have been a student, I have noticed and experienced that in the seventh semester of the major there is a decrease on the performance of students toward the comprehensive skill (the ones that required to mull over which are; listening, reading and use of English) in comparison with their previous English levels of the major. This means that there is an increased number of students who are about to flunk which make them lose a year of their major.

The objective of this thesis is to prove if students at the seventh level of the English as a second language major fail in the English language skills, which are mentioned above. Also this thesis will show the different contrasts among each skill and compare them in order to see clearer the academic progress of the students of English VII.

RQ 1.-What percent of students in the English VII level in the English language major at Uqroo tend to fail the English language skills such as reading, listening and use of Language?

RQ 2.-Does the CAE format affect the students performance in the different skills mentioned?

RQ 3.-Do students feel overconfident in their performances in the language skills and this causes them not to improve the language?

RQ 4.-Do students believe that what is taught in their English classrooms is enough and they do not study by themselves to improve their English level?

RQ 5.-Does students’ investment affect in their performance in the English field?

RQ 6.- do the different factors influence in students’ second language learning process, which are age, attitude, motivation, personality, cognitive style and beliefs?

This work attempts to improve the performance of students of English language major. This can be done by answering the research questions and letting to other researchers interested in finding possible problems and solutions of why students have a low performance in English VII and with this teachers and students would be able to focus on the problems and solutions to avoid this situation. Also it can be demonstrated some assumptions that students might have through this experience and explain them for further research and help researchers convey what they can discover. My intention is to show what is noticed at first hand by then have evidence that may be taken by others researchers or even I may continue on this research work.

In order to do this paper research, I would like to point out some information related to my topic and I have to say that it was quite difficult to find research papers that fit exactly in my topic; however, I could find some of them that in somehow it had to do with my topic in certain point. My findings are related in the English as a second language, why students decided to enroll in an English course, problems with students of ESL, student’s desertion and some data about the skills involved in the research.

English as a foreign language: "Standards, Codification and Sociolinguistic Realism: The English Language in the Outer Circle" (Braj Kachru 1985). It is the outer-circle that we as a non-English speaker expands and the more expanded it is, the more knowledge of English we have. But if we put the finger on that circle, we can notice that also it can close it instead of expand it and here it is where students are facing problems to keep on learning.

Different factors influence in students’ second language learning process, some of them are age, attitude, motivation, personality, cognitive style and beliefs that can predict the success or failure students will have in their language learning. (Ellis, 1985). In this research I consider these factors as one of the possible problems for ESL students supporting my hypothesis that indeed students tend to fail the comprehensive skills in English VII level.

  The main goal of English as a second language is to be enough competent to

communicate and interact in the target language. Like in others teaching fields, students just focus on the grade rather than the real acquisition of knowledge and a good proficiency. But focusing on the English language teaching and moreover English as a second language teaching in the English Language major it is noticed that students face problems when trying to learn English.

An English course is designed for English language learning, focusing on reading, writing, speaking, and listening skills, meanwhile in the English language major at the University of Quintana Roo is expected to increase knowledge of English class by class, semester by semester with the same line of any other English course but the main goal is to design and proofread lesson plan as well as the materials and supportive ways appropriate to the objectives and needs of a particular course, do educational, methodological and linguistic research in order to improve the teaching, Plan de Estudios de la Licenciatura Lengua Inglesa at the UQROO1995. But sometimes we see that what is expected is not really what we have at the end of the course or even during the major.

I have to say that the Plan de Estudios de la Linceciatura Lengua Inglesa de la Universidad de Quintana Roo 1995 that is available on the University of Quintana Roo official web page lacks in current data and therefore an updated on it is required. In the section Asignturas de Concentración Profecional the last two English levels of the major do not mention that in those levels the goal is to prepare students for the Cambridge test CAE and not what it is mentioned in those levels.

ACPLE-112 Idioma inglés VI Créditos: 12 Desarrollo de las habilidades de comprensión auditiva,

expresión oral, comprensión de lectura y expresión escrita a un nivel avanzado enfocado al examen Cambridge First Certificate.

Requisito: ACPLE-111 ACPLE-113 Idioma inglés VII Créditos: 6 Aplicación de lo aprendido en los semestres anteriores

en el desarrollo de las cuatro habilidades para alcanzar fluidez y precisión.

Requisito: ACPLE-112 ACPLE-114 Idioma inglés VIII Créditos: 6 Continuación y ampliación de la asignatura Idioma

Inglés VII. Requisito: ACPLE-113 Section taken from Plan de Estudios de la Licenciatura

Lengua Inglesa en la UQROO Asignaturas de Concentración Profecional pag. 24

In this research I am going to base my results instruments which are surveys, open interviews. I will have to have access of the grades of the students during the semester, and at the end I will analyze them in a table to measure and compare them and verify if they fail or not in the skills I considered for this research.

For the participants I do not have exactly the number nor any specific of them because the ones who are going to take English VII are currently in the English VI. They are 20 students so tentatively around 20 are going to join to English VII. In English language major as in other majors there are subjects which are serial, this means that if you fail one of those subjects you will not be able to take the next, you will be able to take it only if you past the previous one. English subject VII is very important for students since in this subject they start preparing for the CAE format and also help them to know what they are going to teach and improve their skills and knowledge of English. This subject does not teach anything related to the teaching area.

The participants of my research will be the students who enroll in the English VII.

The data of this research will be collected through surveys and open interviews that will be answered by the students and the teacher of the English VII subject. It should be noted however that the open interviews are going to be only for ten students, these interviews will be randomly. In these ones students will have to talk about their feelings about the subject, if they feel if having the format CAE for grading the subject is good or not. Say what skills have been the most difficult and why, also if they feel that the subject helps in their motivation as future English teachers. For the teacher she/he will have to say if he/she prepares specific material for the class, if he/she focuses on a certain book, if he/she focuses as equal in all the skills and what does he/she feel of having the format CAE for grading the subject is ok.

The surveys I want to apply will ask for information related to how has been their performance only in the English subject during the whole major until English VII, will ask for stating the grades they have had in reading, listening and use of language, also will ask for specific things such as gender, age and if they took or take private English classes and in which level of English they consider themselves to be in. Generally speaking, these are the main aspect I want to take into account in the survey.

Finally, in this research, when I say that I will have access to the grades of the students I mean that I will tell the teacher in charge of the subject what I am doing on my thesis and that I will need the grades of the tests she/he will do to copy and analyze them. This will be the key of my research.

My research will be based on the students enrol in the English VII subject of the major and see if they have a low performance in the abilities mentioned above. The teacher in charge of the subject will be the one who help me to give the grades they will be having during the semester until the end. Also the open interviews will be used for better explanation and feeling about the subject and moreover about the format CAE that is used to grade the subject.

The open interviews will be only for ten students enrol in the English VII and they will be selected randomly. And the surveys will be used for better view of the student’s thoughts and feeling about the subject and the major in some aspects.

The open interviews and surveys will be apply at the beginning of the course and I will be working with the information from those instruments and having updated information with the tests during the semester.

In an attempt to answer the research questions I will make use of surveys, open interviews and the access to the tests and grades of the students. Also with the help of my supervisor I will have access to their previous English courses and their grades. All the information will be analyze by then put it in a graph for better comprehension. Besides this I will use descriptive statics such as frequencies, central tendencies and variabilities.

Hubpages (2013), teaching ESL: ten common problems in the classroom. http://hubpages.com/hub/Teaching-ESL-10-Common-Classroom-Problems-and-Solutions

Velasquez Jose Manuel, University de Santiago de Compostela.

http://cvc.cervantes.es/literatura/cauce/pdf/cauce25/cauce25_02.pdf Cambridge University Press (2013), Objective Tests.

http://www.cambridge.org/gb/elt/catalogue/subject/project/custom/item3829641/Connect-Objective-Tests/?site_locale=en_GB&currentSubjectID=382416

  Dan Russell, The American Psychological Associationn, inc. (1962) the casual dimension scale: a measure of how

individuals perceive causes. http://www.epl.illinois.edu/files/images/measures/CDSII_article.pdf   Pei-hsuan Hsieh, (2004). How college students explain their grades in a foreign language course: the interrelationship

of attributions, self efficacy, language learning beliefs and achievement. http://repositories.lib.utexas.edu/bitstream/handle/2152/1332/hsiehp28671.pdf

  Hashemi Reza Mohammad, Academic publisher (2006-2012), learners “attributional beliefs in success or failure and

their http://ojs.academypublisher.com/index.php/tpls/article/view/0108954960   Bratt Christina, Newton Mary, Bruder, Paulston. Teaching English as a second language: techniques and procedures. Ed.gov.http://eric.ed.gov/?id=ED153499   Universidad de Quintana Roo División de Ciencias Políticas y Humanidades. Licenciatura en lengua

inglesa,modificaciones al plan de estudios 1995. http://www.uqroo.mx/carreras/pdf/planestudios_LI_19952.pdf   Anderson Richard and the Commission of Reading, reading Definition (2002)

http://lrs.ed.uiuc.edu/students/jblanton/read/readingdef.htm   Nordquist Richard, listening, Sheila Steinberg, An Introduction to Communication Studies. Juta and Company Ltd.,

(2007). http://grammar.about.com/od/il/g/listeningterm.htm   Steinberg Sheila (2007) an introduction to communication studies. http://books.google.com.mx/books?

id=g8GRgXYeo_kC&printsec=frontcover&hl=es&source=gbs_ge_summary_r&cad=0#v=onepage&q&f=false

Activities January February March April May June July August September

Literature Review X X

Theoretical framework X X

Instruments designs X X

Data collection X X

Data procession X X

Data analysis X X X

Discussion X

Conclusions X

First draft X

Corrections X

Final work X