Page 22 - Apuntes de Investigación en la Enseñanza de Idiomas

6 Apuntes de Investigación en la Enseñanza de Idiomas

fer, 1990, cited in Bjork, 1994 p.173), and Anwar (2016) points out that self-confidence is construc-
ted from “natural experience” in the process of accomplishing “learning goals and learning process”.
Thus, the development of self-confidence is influenced by previous experiences and the amount of
experiences as well as the level of perceived success. It will determine whether learners believe or
not in their capacity to deal with communicative problems, and accepting opportunities to participate
again or not. A successful experience is likely to produce more voluntary participation and increase
confidence level and self-esteem.
Self-regulation is defined as a process of setting, goals, designing action plans, implementing and fo-
llowing those action plans (Mithauq, 1993, cited in Wehmeyer, 2010), increasing or decreasing efforts
according to the level of difficulty of tasks, and assessing oneself on the grounds of awareness of
personal weaknesses and strengths as well as the perception of the necessity to actively participate
for the fulfilment of a social or academic need. Then, self-regulated speaking implies the existence
of students’ self-generated thoughts, feelings and actions which are systematically oriented towards
the development of the skill by means of active participation where assessment helps the learner
understand and be conscious of their progress when they speak, as a process composed of stages
where the speaker acts and interacts by creating a product for the next stage (Luoma, 2011).

Methodology

This research is carried out with a qualitative approach. The development of self-confidence to speak
is analysed on the grounds of phenomenology. Students´ experiences are collected by means of in-
terviews and non-participant observation to select the candidates to be interviewed. The participants’
experiences are interpreted on the grounds of dialectics as the method of reasoning which allows us
to concretely understand the development of self-confidence in speaking in all its movement, chan-
ge and interconnection with other elements, even with the opposite and contradictory sides of the
phenomenon as a whole.

The context where the investigation is developed is the Faculty of Languages, BUAP, where the stu-
dents have many resources that could help their development as future English teachers. The parti-
cipants considered for this research are students from the program Licenciatura en la Enseñanza del
Inglés (LEI) in the fifth semester. They have completed four courses intended to reach a B2 CEFR in
English which amount to 720, plus skill-based workshops.

Preliminary Results

The results so far show that the judgment about the capability for the accomplishment of goals from
students of low participation is based on the belief that they can produce speech without taking into
account specific criteria established in the CEFR for the B2 level. Meanwhile students with high par-
ticipation are aware of the quality they are expected to reach. Along their accumulated experiences,
they perceive their strengths and weaknesses in their attempts to satisfy the norms implicit in the
social context, their communicative competence and the CEFR.

The development of self-confidence is related to the volume of participation students have. The
quality and the specificity of the feedback students received determines their self-regulation and the
development of speaking. It also determines the process of setting goals, the implementation of a
plan, understanding the development of speaking, consciousness of the expected outcomes and
their efforts to accomplish a task.

Participative and non-participative learners’ experiences differ in the amount of previous experience
but also in the quality of feedback they receive, which is useful to build up criteria to assess their own