Abstract
In this paper, I share how a teaching project, Tinga Talks – Conversation Club, successfully improved the oral skills of the English language learners in the Brazilian EFL context. The project aimed at enhancing the participants’ oral production by providing an informal learning environment for those interested in practicing conversational skills in English, regardless of their English language proficiency level. The objectives of this project differed from a regular conventional course in terms of formality and greater flexibility regarding the coverage of topics based on the interests of the participants. Developed from the IFRS Teaching Scholarships program, the project was led by an executive team comprising two teachers and two high school scholarship-holding students. The group met weekly to plan sessions based on themes that emerged from nine participants’ interests, discussed different approaches to the practice of speaking, and created posts related to English on the project’s Instagram profile. The sessions held every two weeks via Google Meet, with conversation topics chosen by the participants, have revealed that the students tremendously improved their oral English language skills. Based on the success of this project, we propose that Tinga Talks can be complementary to the regular English language teaching activities, particularly for improving speaking skills.
Keywords: teaching project, Tinga Talks – Conversation Club, English language, speaking skills
Introduction
From a linguistic point of view, oral skills are different from written skills in all languages used worldwide because oral skills have their features. Fulcher (2003) argues that, unlike other skills, speaking consists of verbal skills. Both written and spoken skills are considered productive skills; however, the linguistic characteristics observed in speech differ from writing. According to Bygate (2009), speech encompasses three main linguistic features: phonological, lexical-grammatical, and discourse patterns, the last of which involves socio-pragmatic characteristics inherent to the interaction. To enhance students’ oral skills, the teachers should provide them with ample opportunities to interact in the classroom. In keeping these ideas in mind, thematic direction and mediation are required to enable the students to cooperate and share information, experiences, points of view, and knowledge. Several strategies can be deployed for developing oral skills. For example, guided speaking practice with teachers, conversation with peers, and speaking club. In this paper, I discuss the English language conversation club as a teaching project that envisions students’ performance as subjects of action through developing skills and competencies. Mainly, I discuss oral skills enhanced by attending a conversation club in the EFL teaching and learning context.
This paper is the outcome of the Tinga Talks project, a conversation club at the Restinga Campus of the Federal Institute of Education, Science, and Technology from the Rio Grande do Sul (IFRS), south of Brazil. The English language courses of the university focus on reading strategies and conversational genres to improve the reading and speaking skills of the students. Although some pedagogical approaches aim to develop listening and speaking skills, the allocated time and the structure of classrooms restrict them from practicing oral skills. The teaching project Tinga Talks – Conversation Club complimented the regular English language teaching activities developed in the curriculum of the IFRS Campus Restinga courses (IFRS, 2021). The conversation club provided a space for high school students of different levels of linguistic proficiency to practice their oral skills integrated with technical courses, using English as a medium of instruction, thus complementing the regular activities carried out on campus.
The Tinga Talks Conversation Club Project
I submitted a teaching project, Tinga Talks – Conversation Club, to the 2021 IFRS Teaching Scholarship Program to provide the students with regular opportunities to practice speaking skills. The project started in July 2021. The project was led by a team that consisted of two language teachers, including the author of this paper, and two students from the 1st year of Secondary Education integrated with nine students taking technical courses. Altogether, nine students participated in the project. We conducted four meetings online via Google Meet, and participants were offered the strategies and materials to enhance oral English language skills.
For this project, the teachers met fortnightly to prepare for the project. Four meetings took place via Google Meet, focusing on the topics previously chosen by the audience. In the meetings, we discussed strategies, such as icebreakers, an effective technique that encourages participants to speak based on a simple prompt (for example, Name three items you would take with you to an Island) to ensure active participation of all students. The participants also used the chat tool to communicate if they forgot or did not know a word in English. Throughout the project, it allowed the participants to take responsibility for conducting the meetings. In addition, they were allowed to critically reflect on what went well and what did not go well relating to their speakingskills. The participants for the project were from 1st-year high school students and technical education students, and they shared their experiences based on their previous English language learning experiences. After the project was implemented, we were very excited to see the students’ English language development. We could evidence the improvement when they communicated with other people after attending the project. Additionally, English language proficiency was also manifested in their academic engagement in the number of curricular and co-curricular activities conducted in the school. After this, we realized that in addition to the oral skills practice, the students could share their ideas on the different topics in a very informal environment, unlike an actual classroom setting.
As the world is experiencing a global pandemic these days, we used different modes of communication among the members of our team and the participants, including our institutional email and Instagram. We also created an official profile to publicize our schedule, carry out polls and collect suggestions on topics of interest. In addition to exploring other actions related to the English language, the use of a specific social network, despite its limitations, allowed EMI students to be engaged in constructing the project space. To engage the students via Instagram, a series of posts with specific content were created, consisting of research, production, and sharing of thematic materials (cards), such as the “Real-life English” series, which presents idiomatic expressions of slang, among other curiosities of the English language linked to its daily use; the series “Learning to learn,” in which tips for learning the language were developed; and the “Memorable Tuesday” series, which features humorous content in the English language. Based on the success of this project, we recommend that Tinga Talks be complementary to the regular EFL classrooms, particularly for improving speaking skills.
Conclusion
From this project, Tinga Talks, we conclude that Tinga Talks as a conversation club has been critical to developing students’ English language oral skills. Therefore, we recommend that this project complement our regular English language class in an EFL setting to improve students’ oral skills. We learned from this project implementation that such projects could fill a significant gap, often impossible to cover in the traditional teaching format to teach verbal skills in the EFL teaching context. We hope to create and strengthen a language practice community with the project’s continuity by sharing ideas and collaborating despite our geographical distance. We also learned that it is essential for EFL teachers to provide the students with resources, strategies, and an informal environment to freely their oral skills. In doing so, the students can better improve their communication skills in the English language because they love to talk about the topics chosen by them.
References
Bygate, M. (2009). Teaching and testing speaking. In Long, M. H., & Doughty, C. J. (Eds.). The handbook of language teaching (pp. 412-440).Blackwell-Wiley.
Fulcher, G. (2003). Testing second language speaking. Taylor & Francis.
IFRS. (2021). EDITAL IFRS Nº 17/2021 – BOLSAS DE ENSINO 2021. https://ifrs.edu.br/wp-content/uploads/2021/03/Edital-Bolsas-de-Ensino-2021_-Retificado-em-22_03_2021-1.pdf
About the Author
Dr. Daniela Nicoletti Fávero works as a Portuguese and English language teacher at the Restinga Campus of the Federal Institute of Education, Science and Technology from the Rio Grande do Sul (IFRS), Brazil. She holds a Ph.D. in Letters – Theory of Literature from The Pontifical Catholic University of Rio Grande do Sul (PUCRS). Her Ph.D. dissertation research explored the outcasts’ representation from the Celtic Tiger riches in the Irish short story. Before continuing her Ph.D., she earned an MA in Letters from PUCRS. Dr. Nicoletti’s master’s thesis vividly represents the Irish identity in James Joyce’s Finn’s hotel. Her research interests include studying English literature through cultural studies and English as a foreign/second language learning.
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