|
|
The use of drama as a means of increasing students' engagement in speaking activities
Šmídová, Kristýna ; Müller Dočkalová, Barbora (advisor) ; Uličná, Klára (referee)
This thesis deals with the use of drama techniques in order to improve students' speaking skills. The purpose of the study is to determine whether the use of fictional situations and characters can provide students with the incentive and motivation to speak and help them with their willingness to communicate. The main indicator for this will be the extent to which the students who otherwise rarely volunteer to engage in oral communicative activities speak during a lesson. The thesis is divided into two parts. The theoretical part first provides a brief introduction to teaching speaking, an overview of reasons why some students might be more reluctant to speak than others, and a summary of recommendations of various authors on the topic of teaching speaking skills and how to increase student talking time. It then further looks into the findings from existing research on communication breakdowns and the use of drama as a motivation for students to speak. The practical part describes an action research project conducted by the author with seventh-grade pupils of a private primary school, where she teaches. The research was motivated by difficulties the author was facing when teaching speaking, when several students in the class were being shy or were repetitively refusing to participate in speaking...
|
|
|
Speaking as a critical issue in teaching of English in the lower secondary school curriculum
SCHŮTOVÁ, Eva
This diploma thesis examines speaking skills, which have been identified as a critical issue in teaching English in the lower secondary school curriculum by teachers within the faculty project IPUP KA7 - The Innovation of teacher training. The key activity of the project was action research, which forms the basis of this thesis. The research focused on finding reasons why speaking skills represent a critical issue in the curriculum. At the same time, the aim is to offer possible solutions which can be applied by teachers through teaching techniques to help pupils develop speaking skills in English lessons. The thesis comprises of a theoretical and a practical part. The theoretical part identifies the critical issues, examines the topic of speaking skills in great detail and describes which speaking skills should be mastered by pupils at the lower secondary school. The empirical part describes the methodology of the research and examines the data from the action research as well as theoretical assumptions from studies pertaining to this field of study. The thesis presents recommendations for teaching speaking skills that can be implemented in the classroom.
|
|
|
Formative Assessment of EFL students' Speaking Skills in an upper-secondary vocational classroom
Mužíková, Jana ; Starý, Karel (advisor) ; Laufková, Veronika (referee) ; Urbánek, Petr (referee)
The thesis Formative Assessment of EFL students' Speaking Skills in an upper-secondary vocational classroom describes attitudes to assessment of three English language teachers at a Czech business academy from the perspective of formative assessment just before the outbreak of Covid-19 pandemic. The case study aims to show what happens behind the classroom door by providing a deep insight into the assessment practices of EFL learning at a Czech secondary vocational school. The theoretical part defines formative assessment as feedback which brings the learner valuable information concerning the knowledge and skills in the process of learning when it is still possible to work on improving the output; it explores different formative strategies in the context of communicative approach to EFL learning, namely Speaking Skills development. The empirical part builds on the qualitative data collection which consisted of several phases and methods: firstly, school documents were analysed to understand the assessment processes in general, followed by the semi-structured individual interviews with a headmistress and three EFL teachers. Student focus groups and three individual interviews with students were carried out to clarify students' approach to their assessment. Most importantly, classroom practices of...
|
guest ::
