A handbook for Exploratory Action Research

| Extra material
Answer Key
Chapter 6 
Task 6.5
Chapter 7 
Task 7.3
Teresa’s students indicated they enjoyed ‘dialogues’ and ‘role-plays’, and they also mentioned ‘songs’ as something they 
would like to do in class.
In the bar chart above, there are two noticeable peaks; one 
that shows 8 students who understand 90% of the class and 
then 7 students who understand 40%. If you look at the 
peaks again, you will be able to see that the highest peaks 
show students understand over 40% of the class or more. 
What this graph shows is that Daniela has a mixed-level 
class at least in terms of language comprehension. Even 
though most of her students understand most of the 
language used in class, there is still a big number of 
students who struggle and therefore she needs to work
on making her language more accessible and supporting 
understanding.
Task 6.6 
Mostly, statements where most students agree or disagree 
are those which relate to feelings of fear, shame and 
frustration. These answers indicate that students feel afraid 
to use the language, mispronounce and therefore lack 
confidence. However, students also say that they want to 
learn and do better. 
Regarding the questions ‘What are students’ feelings about 
English?’ and ‘Are they comfortable and confident with 
learning the language?’, Javier concluded that;
“The results confirmed my suspicions - many of the 
students felt that they couldn’t learn English, or pronounce 
it, but I also realized that they wanted to do their best.”
Task 7.4
Actions
Findings
A. built a better atmosphere to help relax her learners, 
including allowing them to change seats, having 
interviews with students and parents, getting help from 
the school psychologist and having class discussions.
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■
Students feel nervous, insecure, and feel embarrassed 
when speaking because they are afraid of making 
mistakes in front of their classmates. 
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■
They also get frustrated easily when their answers
are wrong.
B. implemented some different classroom activities to 
encourage speaking, including pair and group work, 
using nomination sticks,
1
more formative assessment, 
and asking questions to check understanding.
■
■
They feel that performing oral activities in classes will 
help them to develop accurate speaking skills. They 
also would like more practical, funnier and group 
activities in classes. 
■
■
One student indicated he did not like oral assessments.