| dc.description | The relationship between learning a foreign language and personality traits such as self-confidence and self-esteem it is a relevant factor that teachers must consider when planning lessons since these latest can have a positive or negative impact on students’ learning. (Arancibia, Herrera &Strasser,2011)Thus, the aim of this research focused on using strategies to help students build self-confidence and self-esteem to improve their communicative competence. The research took place in a subsidized school located in Santiago Centro, in students of tenth grade that claimed to feel nervous, and insecure when having to express in English. Hence the strategies used to achieve the objective were based on five concepts claimed by Reasoner (1991) as important elements to promote positive feelings in students regarding their academic performance in English. For example, strategies such as providing a positive environment inside the classroom, giving positive feedback to students, among others were used as a way to foster a sense of security, identity, belonging, purpose and personal competence. Furthermore, all lessons were focused on a Communicative Language Approach to make students practice speaking skills while developing self-confidence and self-esteem. At the end of the unit, students showed if strategies were useful for them in a speaking assessment, where they were interview by the researcher on topics seen in classes. Finally, results showed that even though students were more willing to express themselves in a target language, they were still feeling nervous when expressing in English. | |
