Strategies to Reinforce Audio-Oral Skills in English

Abstract

English Second Language students are constantly dealing with different issues to develop an appropriate performance of their audio-oral skills, so they often do not know what types of resources are needed to do so. This case study investigated the kind of strategies that can be useful to reinforce audio-oral skills in ESL students through independent work outside of the classroom. This study used a mixed research approach and was conducted collaboratively with the English teacher. The subjects of this research were 10 third semester students from the Modern Languages Program of the University of Quindio. The data in this project were in the form of observations, field notes, one speaking test, one listening test, each of them with different type of questions, and an online survey. The results of this research project showed that despite all the students recognize the importance of using different strategies outside the classroom, the majority do not spend the necessary time to improve their listening and speaking skills. This has particularly been reflected in the low academic performance of the tests.