Thoughts About Action Research

Over the course of this semester I designed and implemented an Action Research Project. My Action Research Project concerned the use of Media and Popular Culture in the ESL classroom:

Problem or Issue –
When teaching students who are learning a new language it is usually the case that listening and speaking skills in the new language develop first. This means that they end up being below grade level in their reading and writing skills if they come in at an older age such as the sixth grade level. There is also the issue of keeping the students motivated and engaged in learning their new language while also gaining new knowledge in the different content areas and making real world and personal connections with the subject matter. Therefore, this action research project deals with the following overall question: How might incorporating the use of computers, audio and video, including popular culture such as shows and music for children and pre-teens, into the curriculum and classroom environment of elementary ELL students help them in making real world and personal connections with the subject matter, enhance student literacy including grammar, enhance student comprehension, and motivate and engage students to learn their new language?


Plan of Action –
To determine whether using different medias as well as popular culture in the curriculum would be beneficial to ELL students, I planned to find and incorporate different types of media into the lessons three days a week for four straight weeks. The feedback gathered from student interviews, student observations, class discussions, questionnaires and possible quizzes will help me to understand how using the multiple medias and popular culture alongside text will keep students engaged, enhance their literacy skills and help them make both real world and personal connections with the subject matter.
Some of the types of media and popular culture I used are as follows:
• Dictionary.com
• Music from the Disney Channel and other popular television shows
• Video clips from news programs
• Video clips from government websites such as stopbullying.gov and others
• Video clips from Schoolhouse Rock and Sesame Street
• Video clips from You tube and clips from popular children’s movies when applicable to the subject matter


Section 1: Thoughts about action research - in general - as a tool to improve practice.

I fully believe action research is a useful tool for teachers. I believe it can be very helpful in improving and updating our teaching methods and the curriculum. It is, of course, important that our research does not interfere with student learning and that the research is always done in the best interest of the students. I really enjoyed my action research project and I feel that I learned a lot about how to use and when to use mass media and popular culture in the classroom. I also learned that using mass media and popular culture can be very beneficial to both ESL and English speaking students.

Section 2: Ideas generated as a result of my project.

From my observations I found that the students were very motivated to learn about the topics and read more about the topics after viewing the video clips. They were able to make connections between the videos and readings. They were also very engaged and excited. The discussions and interviews with the students gave evidence of the connections they made between the reading and video as well as the real world and personal connections they made. The journal entries at the end of class also gave a lot of data to support this. The students were given specific questions about the topics as well as the question of how the video helped them in the class when they were given time to write in their journals. This constituted as the questionnaire.

I found that using video that had text as well was also very helpful. I think that using video to ignite interest and engagement in students is very helpful in helping to motivate them to read more about topic. I believe that using the video with text is very helpful for ESL students because they are stimulated through the auditory and visual senses. They can see and here the words as well as see the actions related to the words.

I also found that music and song are very helpful for ESL students to develop vocabulary and help them to remember new vocabulary and grammar rules. The School House Rock clips seemed to be readily enjoyed by all the students and they could even remember some of the songs just after a couple viewings.

I found that using video as a way of introducing topics and lessons was the most motivating and really helped to build some background knowledge for the students so that they can make more connections to the texts and content of the lessons.

I believe using popular culture in the lessons can help students to connect topics to their personal lives outside of school which helps them to see the value in the content.

Section 3: Suggestions to other ESL professionals based on your findings.

I do suggest that video, music and song are used in the ESL classroom. Of course they should not replace text, they should just supplement it. Mass media and popular culture are excellent tools for motivating and engaging students. Video clips are best when they also include text and when used as a form of introduction for a lesson. Songs and music are great ways of helping students to remember vocabulary and grammar rules. I also suggest using songs to help teach different literary elements such as rhyme, onomatopoeia, etcetera. Finally, I do suggest referencing popular culture and mass media when appropriately connected to the content or skill being used to help students connect to the content and lessons.