Students’ Perceptions of Their Oral Participation 3 STUDENTS’ PERCEPTIONS ABOUT THE DEVELOPMENT OF THEIR ORAL SKILLS IN AN ENGLISH AS A FOREIGN LANGUAGE TEACHER TRAINING PROGRAM

The globalization of English and a growing demand for good English speaking skills in English teachers place a great emphasis on the teaching of English on a Preservice EFL program in Colombia. The ‘Professional Development Program for Teachers of English‘ (PDPTE) offered by the ‘Otún University’ (OU) focuses during the four firsts semesters on providing instruction that may help pre-service teachers of English to acquire the necessary English skills. This research project has investigated students’ perceptions about the development of their oral skills during the course, the interactional opportunities offered to the students by the different activities proposed in the class and the factors that students report as influential in their participation in class activities. Throughout the data collected during the observations and the field diary, questionnaires and interviews applied to students of the *Oral Skills Course, and its subsequent comparative analysis, it was found that students perceived improvement on their oral skills, students perceived the importance of using the target language inside the classroom, but they did not interact spontaneously and the presence of the teacher was needed to encourage the use of English in the class, fears of making mistakes in front of the classmates were perceived as negative influence in the students’ participation in class, while the grade was perceived as a positive influence. Implications of this study for ELT education include among others that teachers should be aware of the need of helping students to develop their autonomy and a sense of self responsibility own learning which motivate them to participate in class. 1 Pseudonyms were used throughout the document for names of institutions, courses, and participants. Students’ Perceptions of Their Oral Participation 8