From Secondary-School EFL Gaps to University Oral Presentation Challenges in Chile: A Qualitative Case for Authentic Language Immersion

Abstract

The significance of oral skills in the language learning process is indisputable. This becomes even more crucial in EFL (English as a Foreign Language) environments in Chile, where students have limited opportunities to participate in social transactions in English. Based on retrospective difficulties experienced by public secondary school students in foreign language acquisition, this qualitative case study explores the prospects of authentic language immersion for enhancing oral competencies. In particular, differentiated learning emerging from these prospective programs would be a distinct stimulus to students whose exposure to English is confined to very few hours in the conventional classroom. While being subjected to the institutional ethical guidelines, the primary data were collected from twenty-one first-year university students who were fresh from their secondary schooling, and seven professors teaching at the same university. Qualitative interviews with the students were conducted in Spanish, and those with the professors in English. For data analysis purposes, major tenets of the qualitative interpretivist paradigm, such as inductive reasoning, subjectivity, lived experiences, and contextual relations, were employed. This study is informed by Kolb’s experiential learning theory (1984), which emphasizes the facilitative role of exposure to authentic contexts. The findings demonstrate the difficulties experienced by EFL students associated with oral skills, and their impact on making presentations in tertiary studies. In particular, they also provide a rationale for future design and testing of authentic immersion programs. Studies on the nexus between secondary school EFL pedagogical practices, authentic immersion programs, and oral presentations in tertiary studies remain underrepresented in the currently available indexed refereed journals.