System of autonomous activities as contribution to speaking skill development of third-semester students from pedagogy of national and foreign languages degree

Abstract

The aim of the present study is to contribute to the development of oral expression in English of students in the third semester of the Pedagogy of National and Foreign Languages degree at the Universidad Técnica de Machala during the regular academic period 2024-1. The difficulties that appear during the production of oral expression and that affect the process of the students of English as a foreign language can be related to the lack of knowledge of adequate strategies and resources, which are vast and easily accessible nowadays. The proposal implemented in the study group of 28 students was a system of activities based on the autonomous learning approach. Theoretical methods such as hypothetical-deductive and systemic and empirical methods such as measurement, non-participant observation and pedagogical testing were used in order to collect, measure and analyse the relevant research data. This allowed us to corroborate that the implemented proposal contributes significantly to the development of this skill of the study group. It is recommended that the proposed system of autonomous activities be applied to larger populations belonging to similar third-level studies.