A cade study of Gurue General Secondary School Autor.Maquineiro

1. Author: Albertino Orlando Maquineiro
Supervisor: Hermenegildo da Helena Nicolau, MEd. & MBA
UNIVERSIDADE ROVUMA
TEACHING SPEAKING SKILLS IN LARGE CLASSES. A CASE STUDY OF GURUÈ
GENERAL SECONDARY SCHOOL, 2019.
“LICENCIATURA” DEGREE IN ENGLISH LANGUAGE TEACHING

2. STRUCTURE OF THE WORK
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Chapter I: Introduction
• Chapter II: Literature Review
• Chapter III: Methodology
• Chapter IV: Statement of Results and Discussion
• Chapter V: Conclusion

3. Problem statement
During the supervision work as Delegate of the English Subject
group at Gúruè General Secondary School, it was noticed that
the classes are composed of 80-90 students. So Teachers could
not help learners master the speaking skill.
Therefore, it came to the decision of investigating the influence
of large classes on the teaching of English language, specially
of the speaking skill. It was also asked if there are activities that
teachers are not using that could enable students to improve
their speaking skill in a large class context. However it was
equally noticed that not only teachers but also students face
difficulties in the process of learning to speak due to the number
of students per class.
As a result of this scenario, it was decided to search for the
answers to the following question:
“Do large classes influence the teaching of speaking skills?
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4. Objectives
General objective
 Study the influences of large classes on the teaching of
speaking skills.
Specific objectives
 Identify the advantages and disadvantages of large classes on
the teaching of speaking skill;
 Describe the interaction between the teacher and students in a
large class;
 Propose activities that can improve learning of speaking skill in
a context of large classes.
Critical questions
 What are the advantages and disadvantages of large classes in
the teaching of speaking skills?
 What interaction patterns predominate in a large class?
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5. Merit of the study
English language is learned in Mozambique from grade six up to
grade twelve with zero progress in speaking skills. It is for this
reason that it was decided to conduct this study with the aim of
analysing the influences of large classes on the teaching of
speaking skills.
This study is very important for it will enable Mozambican teachers
teaching in large class contexts to adopt the techniques and the
procedures that might be brought by it.
Delimitation
This study tackles the influences of large classes on the teaching
of speaking skills. The target school is Gúrùe General Secondary
School. It is located in Gúrùe District, Zambézia province. The
study was carried out with stream A grade eight (08). It involved
all the students of the class.
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6. METHODOLOGY
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Research paradigm
The interpretative paradigm was adopted because it advocates
that the researcher should build the ideas as he/she studies the
problem and at the end of it he/she will come to a conclusion
basing on the reality faced.
Research approach
The research approach used was qualitative. It advocates that
the researcher is based on documents study, observations and
interview from the real world so that results can be discussed in
order to meet the defined objectives.

7. . Research Design
The design of this research is case study. It focuses on the
understanding of the behaviour of a certain group. Case study
was chosen as a research design.
Instruments
Observation vs. Interview
Using these two instruments it was possible to collect
information related to the advantages and disadvantages of
large class, the interaction between the teacher and the
students in large class and the methods in order to make
students to speak English.
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8. STATEMENT OF RESULTS AND DISCUSSION
Statement of results
The data were collected using two instruments: structured interview
and observation. Five lessons were observed in grade 8 at Gurué
secondary school and the objective was to study the procedures,
techniques and type of interaction taking place in the classroom.The
first result presented is on the advantages of large class, With facts it
is known that where there is advantages, there are disadvantages
.Advantages
The interview conducted pointed out that one of the advantages of
large classes is high level of interaction between the teacher and the
students. "I have students who know a little bit of the language and
the interaction is good because I give them space but very few are
able to say something in English." It could be seen during the
observation.
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Disadvantages
The interviewed teacher said that it was not easy to deal with many
students in the same classroom because of the noise and lack of
students’ attention, as the interview states: “[it] is something that is
really hard to work with, many students [make] a lot of noise and the
students can’t pay attention and to control the classroom is not easy
it’s a hard work”.
Interaction between teacher-students
As a matter of fact, the teacher uttered the following statement:
“I have students who know a little bit of the language and the
interaction is good because I give them space but very few are able to
say something in English”and most of the class interacted when the
language in use was Portuguese.

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Interaction between students
The interviewed teacher said that there is interaction between
the students. “Some students when they make errors I just tell
them to correct the error and they do it themselves.” It could be
seen that they interact when those who understand English
translate teacher’s instruction to Portuguese.
Students’ centeredness
As a matter of fact the teacher states the following: “I give them
space at least to say something in Portuguese so that I can tell
them in English, accepting their idea”. It was clear during the
observation that the teacher was making a lot of effort in order
to center the lesson on the students by calling their attention
and ask for their opinion most of the time.

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Material choice
During the lessons observed there was no use of speaking
material to facilitate the process of learning “The school doesn’t
have material So If there is something that I can do I use my
cell phone, they hear and the try to drill or sometimes I take my
laptop into the class that they can drill some speaking records”.
Discussion
Advantages and disadvantages of large classes
From the research carried out it can be concluded that the
advantage of large classes is high level of interaction between
the teacher and the students.

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Patterns of interaction between teacher and students in large
class.
From the research carried out, could be concluded that there is
space for interaction in large class, The students express
themselves freely. Effective interaction between the teacher and
the students happens when the teacher allows those who are
not able to speak English to speak Portuguese language.
Speaking skill’s improvement in large class
The research led to the conclusion that, it is hard to follow each
students speaking skill improvement. “Control the classroom is not
easy, it’s a hard work.”
For a student to improve his/her speaking skills there should be
space for this student to say something, allow students make
errors/mistakes, so that the teachers can be aware of student’s
weaknesses either in pronunciation or in grammar

13. CONCLUSION
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From the research carried out it can be concluded that the advantage
of large classes is high level of interaction between the teacher and
the students When dealing with large classes it is challenging
whereas classroom management constitutes major disadvantage.
It was possible to conclude that another disadvantage of large class
is lack student’s attention; the teacher has to call the students many
times so that they can pay attention to the explanation or to the given
tasks. It was noticed that there’s lack of interaction whereas very
small group of students interact with the teacher, leaving the rest of
the class distracted and making noise.
The strategies in a context of large classes its proposed that teachers
design activities as a way of giving opportunity to students to speak
the target language by providing a rich environment of interaction,
using authentic materials and suitable tasks

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Proposals
Suggestions and Proposals
At this stage, it is suggested:
 Teachers to make groups of study at least with a student who speak a
bit of English in order to facilitate the understanding of the given
contents or activities in a short time;
 Teachers to use some teaching resources’ or material such as didactic
videos which highlights the speaking skills in the context of large
classes as a way of strengthen their capacities as individuals or in
groups.
 The school equip itself with teaching material which will facilitate the
understanding of all areas of knowledge;
 The school Provide enough condition for the teachers which will
enable them to explore different teaching resources in the context of
speaking skills in large classes

15. Cont…
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There are some activities that are proposed:
Describing pictures.
 Use of “is”/ “are” or (there) is / (there) are to describe a scene;
oral brainstorming or written.
Materials: large pictures that can easily be seen by the class;
small copies for all the class of the same.
- Discussion Farming in Guruè
 Vocabulary: Rice, Maize, Peanuts, beans, tomatoes, onions…
Material: Wall charts, image of a farm. - Role plays
 Professions
 Use of “I’m a...’’

16. THANK YOU FOR YOUR
ATTENTION
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‘’Nothing in life is to be feared, it is only to be understood’’
Marie Curie (1867 - 1934)
Physician