Promoting Productive Language Skills through the Use of Learner-Generated Surveys

Abstract

Learner autonomy and critical thinking skills seem to be essential learning attainments for foreign language learners. As an attempt to integrate these with the productive language skills, this study outlines a three-week project carried out to discover how class surveys designed by learners themselves contribute to the development of writing and speaking skills of a group of elementary EFL learners in a state school (n=24). In groups of six, the learners followed a number of steps ranging from group formation to task allocation and from peer correction to self-evaluation. These steps gradually helped each group build a survey on a chosen topic, administer it to peers, analyse and report the results, and evaluate the overall process and the video-recorded presentations, thereby giving the group the chance to account for a real-life problem. It was observed that learner-generated surveys significantly facilitated the development of writing and speaking skills. The process of preparing the questions, editing them and commenting on the results broadened the students’ horizons. Despite these valuable contributions, some problems pertaining to affective domain emerged. That is, during these task-based lessons, emergence of such restricting affective factors as the fear of being observed or the challenge to express oneself in front of others seemed to persist. In the light of these observations, this study not only provides the reader with strong points of such instruction, but also makes some suggestions for possible solutions to the aforementioned problems that may persist in prospective in-class practices.