Out of the english classroom activities: an appraisal system analysis

Abstract

"This study reports on students and teachers’ perceptions towards out of the classroom activities carried out in english. The activity selected in this research was a play which is presented every year in a technological university of a central state of Mexico. A questionnaires was administered to 45 students, 9 teachers and 3 coordinators. In order to analyze this data, the appraisal system (Martin & White, 2005) was used. This framework explores the emotions and feelings expressed in discourse and is sub-divided into different domains that will be discussed. This paper will focus on how the typology of “judgment” is presented in the various answers obtained through the questionnaires after the play was performed. It is discussed the concept of out of the classroom activities, its importance in education and why these may be important for second language acquisition. This presentation will give a wide glance of appraisal system and it will describe the three typologies of attitude: affect, judgment and appreciation. Then, examples of these typologies will be suggested. Finally, this presentation will show how participants sanction or praise linguistically this out of the classroom activity in order to provide guidance to improve it. The findings of this study aim to promote more out of the classroom activities, to improve and challenge students’ capacity to understand spoken English and trigger their interest in continue learning english. By experiencing different activities outside the classroom the school community will have the opportunity to explore other places, cultures, and ideas promoting in a different way english language acquisition."