Teaching English Vocabulary to Higher Technical Professional Education Students. Chilean Sign Language as a Multimodal Strategy

Authors

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.5294/laclil.2021.14.1.4

Keywords:

teaching approach, language teaching, teaching English as a foreign language, sign language, adult education

Abstract

Chilean adults report a low level of English proficiency compared to their OECD ­peersFor this reason, the teaching methodologies of this foreign language should become more relevant in tertiary education, especially in Higher Technical Professional Education (ESTP). The ­research objective was to determine the effect of a didactic strategy for teaching English vocabulary that incorporates the use of Chilean Sign Language and the manual alphabet in the production of isolated oral vocabulary in ESTP students. A quantitative methodology and a quasi-experimental design were used in the study. Two groups of 30 people between the ages of 16 and 44 participated, to whom an instrument was applied to evaluate the oral productive vocabulary in four categories of words. One of the groups underwent the designed multimodal teaching strategy and the other group received traditional vocabulary instruction by oral repetition. After the intervention,
both groups were evaluated with the same instrument. Nonparametric analyses concluded that the multimodal teaching strategy implemented with the experimental group produced a short-term positive effect on the oral production of the isolated vocabulary of the students, as compared to the control group.

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Author Biographies

María Francisca Lohaus Reyes, Universidad de Chile

M. Francisca Lohaus-Reyes is a Master in Education, curriculum and educational community of the Universidad de Chile. CONICYT Scholar of National Magister 2017-2018. She completed her undergraduate studies at Universidad de Playa Ancha de Ciencias de la Educación, graduating in 2014 as a Bachelor of Education and Teacher for Technical-Professional Education. She has taught English as a foreign language in Higher professional technical education institutions, as well as undergraduate teaching in diversity and inclusion. Her research areas are linked to the Teaching of English as a Foreign Language, curriculum, diversity, and inclusion.

Valeria Herrera-Fernández, Universidad de Chile

Valeria Herrera Fernández, Ph.D. in Psychology from the Universidad Complutense de Madrid (Spain). Between 1993 and 1997 she completed her undergraduate studies at the Universidad Metropolitana de Ciencias de la Educación (UMCE) in Chile, graduating as a Bachelor of Education and Special Education Teacher. She was an associate professor at UMCE from 2004 to 2013 and coordinated the Doctorate in Education program at the same University between 2007 and 2013. She has been an undergraduate professor at the Universidad Andrés Bello and the Universidad Academia de Humanismo Cristiano. From 2014 to date, she is an associate professor in the Department of Education of the Faculty of Social Sciences from Universidad de Chile. She has published over 30 scientific articles and book chapters in the areas of pedagogy, education of the deaf, and educational psychology.

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Published

2021-11-22

How to Cite

Lohaus Reyes, M. F., & Herrera-Fernández, V. (2021). Teaching English Vocabulary to Higher Technical Professional Education Students. Chilean Sign Language as a Multimodal Strategy. Latin American Journal of Content & Language Integrated Learning, 14(1), 99–122. https://doi.org/10.5294/laclil.2021.14.1.4

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Articles