ORAL LANGUAGE TRAINING WITH THREE TEACHERS OF ECUADOR USING EVALOE-SSD DIGITAL APPLICATION: SELF-ASSESSMENT, MAKE-DECISION AND INTRODUCTION OF CHANGES IN CLASSES

Submitted by: Lia Hermida
Abstract: School is a natural context where the communicative strategies used by teachers when interacting with students are essential for the development of their communicative competence (Mercer, 2010).
The school context is one of the systems that promotes communication skills in children, so that the school, specifically the interactions given in the classroom microsystem, promote the development of linguistic competence. The mediation of the teacher allows the child to use language as a tool to manage their learning. (Acosta, 2005, Bronfenbrenner 1987, Coll, Onrubia, and Mauri, 2008)
Previous research on Decision Support Systems (SSD) shows that the use of this tool allows decisions to be made taking into account different approaches, hence EVALOE-SSD is structured so that the teacher can self-evaluate their teaching practice related to the teaching of communicative and linguistic competences and making decisions to improve this practice. (Bolloju, Khalifa and Turban, 2002, Gràcia, et al., 2015).
The goal of EVALOE-SSD research in Ecuador is to validate the use of this tool, and analyze how this use contributes to the development of students' communicative and linguistic competence. Through action research and the study of cases, the challenge is to know how the use of SSD can contribute to the development of learning environments that encourage communication and linguistic skills. The data collection and analysis follow a mixed methodology (qualitative and quantitative). Participants include 3 Early Education teachers and their student groups. The EVALOE-SSD is a digital system that includes different resources. The main one is a 30-item questionnaire with three response options grouped into five dimensions (instructional design, conversational handling by the teacher, conversational handling by the students, communicative functions and teaching strategies, communicative functions of the students). It includes a description of each dimension and each element. In addition, it incorporates a set of "aids" in various types of support (written text, audio, video, image) that teachers can consult while performing the self-assessment, and when they subsequently have to make decisions about what action or strategy they will undertake and introduce into your next classes. For 7 months, we followed the teachers' weekly use of the tool to self-assess their classes, make decisions and make changes in their classes. During the same period, the researchers made 7 observations in each teacher's classroom with their students and evaluated them with the tool. The experience was used to introduce changes in the tool to improve its usability.
The results highlight that teachers perceive EVALOE-SSD initially, as a complex tool. The more they become familiar, the more they appreciate its usefulness. Considering the social customs and cultural areas changes in the form of teaching and structure of the classes are evidenced. The results also indicate differences among teachers regarding their participation, motivation, knowledge and use of the tool, as well as their self-perception of the degree to which their use has improved their teaching practice and the skills of their students. Keywords Professional development, tool, oral competence, teachers, students.


Keywords
Professional development, tool, oral competence, teachers, students.


Bibliography
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