Problem based learning and english oral production

Abstract

The current research project is based on the problem-based learning method (PBL) with the purpose of determining its incidence in contributing to the development of oral skills in students. The design of this research was pre-experimental with a single group of 39 participants who were students in the fourth semester of the career "Pedagogy of National and Foreign Languages" (PINE) at the Technical University of Ambato. The research had a single experimental group with a duration of 6 weeks divided into six interventions, 3 synchronous and 3 asynchronous, involving the use of the PBL method for problem solving in a real context focused on speaking practice. To collect the results, the researcher applied a real test of the Cambridge test (FCE) that evaluates the ability to speak at the intermediate B1 level. The objective was to demonstrate the effectiveness of PBL in oral production from students. Based on the results obtained from the pre-test and post-test after applying the interventions, an increase in the level of oral production could be evidenced. Through the statistical analysis with the SPSS software, the comparison of results was made, where it is shown that the students in the pre-test had a 9.3, and in the post-test, they got a 13.7. It demonstrates the effectiveness of the PBL methodology in oral production