Teaching Language Arts with TEDx talks to eighth graders

Abstract

This article presents the results of an action research study that was conducted for one year in a Language and Literature class with 20 eighth grade students in Chía, Colombia. This research portrays TEDx talks as one of the central strategies of the English Language class, which develops a variety of personal, social, communicative and linguistic skills. The pedagogical intervention fostered class discussions and argumentative tasks that encouraged such skills and promoted students’ agency to express their ideas toward topics of interest. The article explains the evolution of this project from when students sketched ideas, wrote the script, and presented their own TEDx talk at a school event to when they received the license to hold an independent TEDxYouth event. Results indicate that students developed critical thinking and strengthened English language proficiency. In addition, the organization of the licensed event helped to promote inquiry. The teacher-researcher improved her relational, teaching and evaluation practices, motivated by the engagement and positive behavior of the participants. The conclusions point to highlight the advantages of using TEDx talks in the language classroom to improve second language proficiency.