@mastersthesis{uninimx1034,
           title = {An Action Research to Boost the Motivation of EFL students at Universidad Santiago de Cali through the Implementation of a Task Based extracurricular material for a virtual space for English practice},
           month = {Marzo},
          author = {Victor Hugo Cort{\'e}s Escobar},
            year = {2022},
        keywords = {Virtual learning, task-based, EFL, CLT, Cooperative Learning, Autonomy, Self-Access Centre, Gathertown},
             url = {http://repositorio.unini.edu.mx/id/eprint/1034/},
        abstract = {The current globalization along with the difficult pandemic situation we are living in has resulted in the need for more and better ways of improving the education in English as a Foreign Language and the development of different places that generate opportunities where the students feel motivated, despite of the difficult conditions they are going through not only as students but as humans as well. Also, along with the different courses offered by different institutions around the world, the need of a space for the students to practice autonomously the English Language, a space to complement their learning process with extra-curricular hours as students used to do before this health emergency context, has been demonstrated.In response to the before described, this project, which aimed to develop an action research to boost the motivation of EFL students at Universidad Santiago de Cali, successfully designed and carried out a Task-Based extracurricular material for English practice in a virtual space with a group of 52 individuals studying English (A2) in the language institute of this same establishment.The methodological part of this research followed a very qualitative, descriptive approach that also involved a lot of participation of the different members of the study, hence during three weeks of intervention the different contributions, feedback and theories resulted in the development of a virtual space where the students could practice English autonomously.The material presented in this study was built under task-based, CLT, active learning approaches and also included meaningful learning, multiple intelligences among other theories that were able to characterize the group with the help of a questionnaire, hence making the virtual space fit to the specific context. Along with the before described, this study used different tools that helped in the improvement of the material and the activities presented during the intervention process where new data, motivations and ideas were discovered through observation and leaning diaries.The results found were that the motivation can be indeed boosted by considering the student?s participation, opinions, likes and needs to learn the language and that using different and new technologies as a way to innovate in the classes and the learning process can result in very positive outcomes in the motivation. This study also shows that there are difficulties that the current teachers are facing nowadays, for example, students? lack of autonomy and collaborative work, which presence needs to be considered by all the members in order to progress in their learning of the foreign language at a higher pace.In addition, the general conclusions of this project led to considering the involvement of new technologies as the education is reinvented in the times of the pandemic to keep the students? motivation in their learning, and also calls to concepts as the students? learning autonomy and cooperative learning that are key to learn English as a foreign language as a possibility to deepen in future research lines.}
}