Dando Sentido a la Práctica de las Capacidades Sociales de los Estudiantes en el Aula de Clases de Inglés como Lengua Extranjera

Abstract

The present paper reports on the results of a descriptive case study carried out with a group of sixth graders at a public school in Bogotá. The project aimed to illustrate the insights into the use of stories based on values in an EFL classroom, to analyze the way in which students reflected and put into practice social capabilities concerning their own world, answering the main question: How do sixth graders make sense of the practice of social values in the EFL classroom? Qualitative research and the grounded theory allowed the analysis of the phenomena in its natural setting, where the instruments used for the triangulation process (teacher’s field notes, students´ questionnaires and artifacts) revealed how social capabilities represented the opportunity to students learn how to live; in other words, how to be. From data, the category “listening as a social attribute” and the patterns “respect as the base to educate” and “tolerance to coexist in a community” emerged to illustrate the school’s duty, where students make sense about their roles as students and citizens, giving response to educate whole people as the main challenge that society faces.