Tercera edición Revista Pienso

8
Contemporary approaches
to second language learning
emphasize challenges associated
with reducing student anxiety in
the classroom for most students;
however, the classroom teaching
environment is one place in which
students have the opportunity to
practice speaking in the target
language.
The teaching of a foreign language
is a complex process watched
by several institutions and laws;
this starts with the” Ministerio
de Educación” who created the
Bilingual National Plan (2004-
2019) including the new standards
about the communicative
competence in English, using the
common European Framework
of Reference as a guideline to
determine the levels that students
must accomplish. The goals
proposed by the “Ministerio de
Educación” are:
Teachers must teach English in
basic education: B1 level
Teachers of basic education and
teachers of others courses: A2 level
Eleven grade students: B1 level
Post grade students: B2-C1 level
High education students: B2 level
In addition, the National Bilingual
Plan uses the levels given by the
Common European Framework of
Reference (CEFR) to teach English
by stages, adapting them to the
Colombian Educational System.
LITTERATURE REVIEW
This literature review attempts to
show and present the different
perspectives found in five different
researches which became my
support in order to conduct my
study, it means my action research.
Besides, these five articles are
divided in two different groups,
first the studies focused on the
use of podcasts and technology
in educational field, these studies
were proposed by Morris (2010),
Mugwanya et al (2012) and Gannod
(2007). The second group of this
literature review is based on the
use of podcasts and technology
to learn a foreign language. The
articles involved in this category
are, the study of Brennan and Palak
(2011) and the study conducted
by Huann Tan (2006). Likewise, in
the following paragraphs you will
find information about all those
articles.
First Group
In Morris research (2010) the aim
of this study was to combine
podcasts of lectures with mobile
assessments (completed via
SMS on mobile telephones) to
assess the effect on examination
performance. Students (n = 100)
on a final year, research-led,
module were randomly divided
into equal sized control and trial
groups. The trial groups were
given access to podcasts / mobile
formative assessments for lectures
on the module. Towards the end
of the module, all students on
the module completed a „mock
examination on the material in
the lectures. Students in the trial
group who listened to podcasts
of the lectures and completed
mobile assessments (n = 31)
performed significantly better in
the formative assessment (58.1±1,
mean ± S.E.M; P