Communicative competence strategy proposal for enhancing English language speaking skill among Kichwa and spanish speaking learners

Abstract

The objective of this research was to propose a Communicative Competency strategy to enhance speaking skill in English by Kichwa and Spanish speaking students of the Language Department of the National University of Chimborazo, from October, 2017 to March, 2018. The research was conducted with students of the 4th level of English, class A2. A pre and post evaluation was adapted through the Cambridge PET exam (Preliminary Exam) and the Top Notch 2 book, level A2 + (Common European Framework of Reference); In addition, a rubric was adapted, they were validated by seven experts. The instruments were applied during the pre and post evaluation. The collected data was calculated by using the statistical program (SPSS) with the paired T-Student sample, before and after employing the test. The calculated data belonged to 28 students of the experimental group, and 28 of the control group, total 56 participants. The academic intervention lasted five months. In the final test, the students from the experimental group obtained 11.40 out of 16 points over the control group who reached 10.52 out of 16 points. There were 25 degrees of freedom, with a level of significance of 0.05, so the probability value was p = 0.035, less than the significant level; thus the null hypothesis was rejected by the alternative hypothesis. It is concluded that the applied strategy allowed enhance speaking skill. In effect, students enhanced their pronunciation, fluency and coherence, language control, discourse management, communication strategies, reading purposed and critical thinking, through extensive audio reading exposure, vocabulary study, paraphrasing, constant conversational practices and feedback. Finally, the applied strategy also allows building a cognitive, meta cognitive, affective and social awareness.