This research proposal aims to identify the speaking strategies used by students in the English language programme (PUI) at the University of Quintana Roo. The study seeks to answer several research questions about the strategies' frequency of use, benefits, differences across levels/majors/gender, and role of teachers in providing strategies. Data will be collected through questionnaires, focus groups, and class observations, then analyzed using statistical software. The results hope to provide guidance on strategies to help students develop their English speaking skills for professional purposes.

1. UNIVERSITY OF QUINTANA ROO
DIVISION OF POLITICAL SCIENCIES AND HUMANITIES
DEPARTMENT OF LANGUAGE AND EDUCATION
RESEARCH PROPOSAL
Thesis
ENGLISH LANGUAGE PROGRAMME
Luis Octavio Dominguez Rendon
Yasser Alberto Varela Novelo
FREQUENCY AND USE OF SPEAKING STRATEGIES FOR
DEVELOPING SUCCESSFUL LEARNING IN STUDENTS FROM THE
PUI AT THE UNIVERSITY OF QUINTANA ROO
DECEMBER 11TH 2012

3. Rationale
Some students of UQRoo, basically the ones who are studying English at the
Programa Universitario de Idiomas (PUI) seem that they are not developing the
speaking skill the way they need for their professional development. One of the
assumptions is that they have not given by the speaking strategies needed for
their improvement. It is common that some students are attending to English
classes just because their major curriculum asks as a subject and not because
they want to, and so, the result is the same lacking of development in oral
production.

4. OBJECTIVE
The objective of this study is to identify which speaking strategies
are being used by the students of our University. It is known that the
use of speaking strategies help students to become more successful
in their efforts to learn and communicate in a foreign language. Our
principal motivation is to provide students strategies that would
help them to develop their own learning process and how this can
be embraced by teachers in order to help their students.

5. RESEARCH QUESTIONSRQ1
RQ1. What the most frequently reported speaking strategies by the students of the PUI?
With this question we want to figure out which are the speaking strategies that are most
frequently reported by the students of the PUI; of course this means students of English from
all majors.
RQ2 Which benefits the students may get by the use of speaking strategies?
This question aims to find the advantages that students who are using speaking strategies are
achieving in their professional development.
RQ3 To what extent the teachers are providing useful strategies for developing
communicative skills for their students?
The reason why we decided to ask this question was because we think that the role of the
teacher as a guide and supplier of the correct strategies is very important for the student´s
professional development in classrooms.

6. RQ4 Is there a difference in the use of Speaking Strategies across the levels of English at the
PUI?
The difference that might varies come across the student´s level of English at the PUI. The
Program offers since introductory level to advance.
RQ5 Are there gender differences in the use of speaking strategies?
Some studies argue that women tend to use more speaking strategies than men whenever they
are in a language course; and so, the results are better in them. The development is considerably
in female compared with the male students.
RQ6 Is there a difference in the use of speaking strategies across the major?
The PUI allows students from all major to study a foreign language. With this research question
we want to find out if there is any difference considering the different major that students are
developing.
RQ7 Is there a relationship between student´s age and their use of Speaking Strategies?
We want to notice if the age plays as a factor in the use of speaking strategies between students.
Probably, grown students would tend to use the more the speaking strategies; or the opposite.
The population of the UQROO has no age limit.

7. REVIEW OF LITERATURE
Our literature review was divided in the following way.
1. Learning strategies. 2. Communicative strategies 3. Speaking strategies
Second language (L2)
Foreign language learners may learners must
). O’Malley and Chamot encounter various communication communicate through a
(1990) viewed learning problems when their language that is not their
strategies as ‘‘the special interlanguage (IL) is limited. In own. It is inevitable, then,
thoughts or behaviors order to convey their messages that when they use the L2
that individuals use to and remain in a conversation until they will sometimes not
help them comprehend, their communication goal is have the language they
learn, or retain new reached, EFL (English as a Foreign need to express
information’’ Holec Language) learners need to themselves. In such
(1981) argued that employ communication strategies situations, learners use a
learning strategies can (CSs), which have been defined range of speaking
foster learners’ generally as devices employed by strategies to help them
autonomy in language L2 learners to overcome perceived get their message across.
learning. barriers to achieving specific Such strategies have been
communication goals (Færch & the focus of much
Kasper, 1983). research (e.g. Cohen
1990; Rubin & Thompson
1994)

9. PARTICIPANTS
The students that will be considered in this study have different ages. In addition there is no
restriction about gender in this study, so the participants might be both female and male. The
PUI offers certain levels which are: Introductory, Basic, Pre-intermediate, Intermediate, Post-
intermediate, Advanced 1 and Advanced 2. However, this research will work a specific division
of those levels.
Level 1 introductory and basic level
Level 2 pre- intermediate and intermediate level.
Level 3 post-intermediate, and advanced levels.

10. METHOD
Questionnaire
Focus group interviews
Class observation.
The main objective of the Secondly, Focus Group
The last instrument in used
use questionnaires as the work in a way the
for the investigation will be
first instrument is to elicit participants can share
the class observation which
the most suitable their own opinions with
will allow us to mix our
participants of the next themselves on order to
project and change the
step of the investigation be supported by others.
approach, making this into
descriptive-qualitative
perspective

11. Data Analysis
In order to identify the frequency and use of speaking strategies by students of PUI data will be
analyzed in following way. First, the data obtained with the questioner will be entered and
process using the software Statistic Package for the Social Science (SPSS) version 10.0.
Next, the focus group interviews produce large amounts of data. The best thing we can do is
first; group the answers from all interviews to each question. In order to do so, we will work
with programs of descriptive statistics. Then, what does each group of answers describe?
Organize and classify answers into categories, percent, medium and mode for example in order
to quantify frequencies. And finally, to analyze the findings and determine how they answer to
our research objectives. This will be a very analytic procedure
In order to compare the variables of level of course and major we will use on-way ANOVA. For
the age and use there is a statistic called Pearson r correlation that we will take into.
The results of the class observation will be achieved with the use of a checklist. The checklist wil
have specific points for the students to cover. Their performance and results will be embodied in
the checklist.

12. REFERENCES
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