WEEK 1: PROBLEM DESCRIPTION AND NEEDS ANALYSIS

Teacher (T) Students (Ss)

PROBLEM DESCRIPTION

First of all, it is important to mention the population which is composed by 20 students, elementary or beginner level, and ages from 14 to 18 years old. It is a two-hour class per week and at the end of the second semester 2011, Ss should have 3 writing grades, and 4 oral grades.

In each one of those grades which are given along the semester. Ss should receive feedback explaining what they strengths and weaknesses are. For sure, 2 hours, it is a limited time to follow appropriately Ss’ process. So the idea is to use tools for two reasons, on one hand, it is to strength the way T follows Ss’ process whereas providing individual feedback and on the other hand it is to help Ss improve their language abilities by using internet tools.

NEEDS ANALYSIS

According to Graves[1], needs analysis is usually applied to make decisions about the topics to be taught, select the procedure and how it will be evaluated. That is to decide the type of syllabus to be applied even though; there are some cases that in-practice teachers cannot make changes in the syllabus. Needs analysis allow teachers to gather information that would be significant in learning process due to Ss express their expectations and preferences. This is also called needs assessment and in the following chart it is explained its cycle, also taken from Graves chapter.

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[1] Graves, Kathleen. Designing Language Courses: A Guide for teachers. Chapter 6: Assessing Needs.

To bear in mind:

• Think about why would be considered necessary to do some action-research in your class.
• Define the topic and the problem you want to work on.
  

Introduction

The aim of this Action-Research is to describe the stages followed on ICTs implementation, in an EFL class. Some of the steps will be guided and contrast with outstanding readings in order to come up with some interesting conclusions from which teachers can benefit from. Feel free to suggest ideas, complement stages and enrich this blog with your comments. I’d really appreciate them.

The objective of using this trending topic (new information and communication technology ICTs in education) is to provide teachers with more specific guides, clear objectives and outcomes, so that they can develop their own online teaching and learning tool in order to complement their practice and enhance Ss learning.

The population is composed by 20 students, elementary-beginner level, and ages from 14 to 18 years old. They assist to class once per week, only two hours which means that sometimes there is not enough time to provide individual and formative feedback. At the end of the second semester, 2011, Ss should have 3 writing grades, and 4 oral grades. It can be concluded that the online tool/resource applied is going to be an extension of the class, to help them to improve their English language skills, and let them monitor their own process while receiving a formative feedback.