Fostering English Language Learners' Speaking Skills

Most of the time, when thinking about learning a foreign language, we immediately think of someone who can provide us with the appropriate tools for learning it successfully: a teacher. If being a teacher means to provide, therefore being a learner probably means to receive. This one-way relationship seems logical and effective at first sight; nevertheless, when this giving-receiving relationship makes the learner a passive actor instead of an active performer of the language, the learning experience is incomplete. This work proposes Project Based Learning (PBL) strategies and Communicative Activities as an effective way to foster English language learners' speaking skills. Framed by the Action Research approach, this study explores the impact that PBL and communicative activities have in student's speaking skills.