XIII Encuentro Internacional de Estudiantes de Psicología

Influence of motivation through didactic aids to develop reading skills in the English Language major

No programado

20m

Facultad de Psicología, Universidad de La Habana, Cuba

Póster electrónico Educación, subjetividad y desarrollo humano

Ponente

Fabian Rodríguez Naranjo (Facultad de Lenguas Extranjeras)

Descripción

Introduction: The learning of foreign languages requires the development of specific skills such as reading comprehension. In the teaching-learning process of such skills, motivation plays a crucial role because it can significantly affect students' participation and academic performance. To enhance motivation, didactic aids are effective; however, it is necessary to understand how these aids influence the development of language skills.

Objective: To describe the influence of didactic aids on students' motivation for the development of reading comprehension skills in the preparatory year of the English Language major.

Methods: A study was conducted at the Faculty of Foreign Languages, with a qualitative approach, which included interviews with teachers and students as well as classroom observations. Four teachers and 24 students from one of the subgroups of the preparatory year of English Language were interviewed to examine perceptions and experiences regarding elements of didactic materials that influenced motivation. Three classes were observed, one of them did not use didactic aids, while the others did.

Results: Teachers reported perceiving greater motivation when audiovisual aids were used and when they used information and communication technologies. Students emphasized the updating of materials' texts and the use of interactive aids (reading comprehension in social media posts) as fundamental elements for their motivation. The observation confirmed the need for the usage of aids. In the lecture without the aids, students appeared as passive subjects showing little interest in the content. In classes with aids, greater interest, participation, and better teaching results were observed in the one that used current young adult literature available for mobile devices.

Conclusions: The use of didactic aids that link information and communication technologies, are updated with themes of young adult literature or social media posts, positively influences the development of reading comprehension skills in the preparatory year of the major English Language.