Benefits for students of the Bachelor in English Teaching out of practicing english outside the classroom at the Foreign Language Department of the University of El Salvador, year 2014

This study tends to measure how students from the Bachelor in English Teaching get benefits out of practicing outside the classroom at the FLD. It is known that teachers are involved in developing the students‟ skill but sometimes they find themselves in a dilemma on how make them practice indeed. On the other hand, it is also hard for students to be participant in some activities due to the lack of knowledge, vocabulary, shyness and other factors that might affect their development at the moment of putting into practice their skills. This brings a dilemma on how both agents can work together in order to develop the skills in the pupils. First of all, the learners must be conscious about the need of joining the subject and the practice together to communicate with people. They must know that they have to speak not because the teacher is asking them to do so but because there is a strong decision to do it outside the classroom more than in class. Students sometimes need the opportunitie s to practice the skills to be encouraged and motivated to develop them and do a good job. In this way, the teacher‟s role is an important part in the process; thus, in order to both have better results in the teaching-learning process an intensive work must be done mutually. Outside the classroom, most students are immersed in a first language environment with limited exposure to English. Thus, it is sort of difficult for them to get that required exposure to the English language, and find people who they can practice with might be another difficulty. It is important to clarify though that if students really want to make a little effort to pay attention to the language as it is used in their daily lives, they have to look for ways in which they are going to apply what they need to develop their skills. As Hyland agrees: “[Language learning] can take place at any time and in any place, including the home and the community” (2004, p. 180). All together, it is suggested that teachers and students make better use of the authentic English resources that exist at the neighborhood level (Educational Testing Service, 2010; Hsieh & Chu, 2006). In this way, it is clear that the exposure of the language is the key in the development of English skills. For this reason, a study is going to be made so that the researchers will find out what are the benefits that students get when they practice their skills outside the English classroom.