Medición del grado de utilización del enfoque integrado en un curso de inglés para adultos

Abstract

Given the relevance of the use of an integrated (communicative) approach to teaching language skills for the achievement of a good level of language proficiency in adult English courses, it is important to be able to determine, through a reliable instrument, the extent of use of such an approach, in order to have relevant information that would make it possible to objectively decide the adequacies to be carried out for a better development of the communicative language skills proposed for a given English course. In this article, we present an original survey, prepared by the researcher, that allows to evaluate student perception of the use of the integrated (communicative) approach in English programs. This instrument was subjected to validity and reliability tests before being applied to a group of students who had completed their first year of study at the English Center of Quality Leadership University (QLU). The information collected through the survey revealed a high use of the integrated approach in the QLU program. Most of the students that were surveyed consider the degree of use of the approach to be high, while a minority consider such degree to be medium. Also, it was possible to identify areas of improvement, so that the use of the integrated approach to the learning of English may be optimized in the English courses for adults at QLU; these areas have to do with the need to foster a greater combination of language learning with content learning from other topics (sciences, business, sports or history, for example), as well as with more clearly establishing learning goals and/or results related to everyday life, which students are expected to achieve in their English classes.