Desarrollo del léxico en estudiantes de Inglés como lengua extranjera (ILE) de la tercera etapa de Educación Básica en Venezuela

Abstract

EFL students, especially those in the first stage of secondary school in Venezuela, demand first row position, dynamics and diversity. Therefore, it is important to use a variety of teaching activities, methods, models and approaches in lexical teaching/learning. One of the alternatives is through the use of content area. Many IFL teachers have difficulties adapting and using them in their classrooms. The purpose of this study was lo explore, describe and analyze the ways in which a teacher taught and encouraged vocabulary learning in her EFL class in a third year level class at a high school in a town in the western part of Venezuela. It was conducted under a qualitative approach, specifically a case study. The teacher and four (4) students were the informants. Data was collected through observations; written documents; semi-structured interviews; a pre and post-test and an elicitation scale. Among the most relevant findings were that the selected content areas for the school period made the class more interesting and motivating for both teacher and students; teaching activities and resources gave context for the learning of vocabulary; thanks to this contextualization, students developed their own learning strategies towards vocabulary building and even though Spanish was constantly used in class, students learned and used vocabulary in EFL. Content area topics allowed a balance between EFL and content, generating comprehensible and stimulating input lo both, teacher and students.