Resumen

Introducción Three-step interview strategy is considered as a cooperative learning activity for many educational purposes. Students have to work together to solve a specific problem, complete a task or create something. Moreover, these types of cooperative learning activities allow learners to work and participate in small groups or pairs. In class learners can discuss, share, agree or disagree ideas. This research emphasizes on the application of the aforementioned strategy to promote the students’ speaking production through guided discussions, debates where students have the opportunity to use all their language resources for specific tasks or purposes. Cooperative learning activities have shown to be very effective at the moment of developing the oral skills by enhancing the active participation as for teachers as for students.

Objetivos To define Three-step interview strategy and speaking production. To identify the benefits of Three-step interview strategy in speaking production. To demonstrate the effectiveness of Three-step interview strategy in speaking production

Método Interventions were divided into 6 meetings, 2 for the application of the pre and post-test and the rest for the implementation of the strategy in order to observe if there were changes in the students speaking production. A pre-test based on Cambridge KET A2 International Exam was used. Therefore, the first synchronic intervention was used to apply it to the students to evaluate their speaking performance through a standardized rubric called Assessing Speaking Performance A2. The researcher explained about all the process and the objectives of having the different meetings. The introduction of the methodology of the strategy and the rest of the work process were described. Once the pre-test was applied, the researcher prepared different activities that were adapted to the Three-step interview strategy so that students could have the opportunity to practice and improve their speaking performance. The different activities were developed in each class through the guidance of lesson plans. In these lesson plans, interviews, debates, conversations and discussions were included. The students performed all the activities into groups to practice the strategy. They were given time to brainstorm their ideas and to record their voices as the evidence of the tasks. Finally, all the meetings were synchronic and the students worked in breakout rooms with different pairs for each activity.

Principales resultados According to the results for the part of Grammar and Vocabulary ,students show limited control of grammatical forms. They used simple grammatical structures for daily conversations. In pronunciation, they demonstrated they had limited control of phonological features but they were mostly intelligible. Finally, for interactive communication they required prompting and support since they could maintain only simple exchanges.

Conclusiones Three-step interview strategy has a positive influence on speaking production. The results obtained from the pre-test and post-test have revealed that students improved several aspects of oral communication. For example, new vocabulary, appropriate use of grammatical structures, better pronunciation, fluency and social skills like interaction, social and problem solving skills. Three-step interview strategy is defined as a collaborative activity that involves three steps. The students get in pairs, select any topic and exchange their ideas by making and answering questions about. This strategy is suitable to practice different aspects of the speaking skill. selecting suitable words, appropriate grammar structures, organization and correct articulation in order to be understood by the receiver of the information. The benefits of the Three-step interview strategy are evidenced along the performances prepared by the students of the different activities. The students can increase their engagement by arguing topics that are not related only with education. By talking about different themes and working in pairs, they can enable their critical thinking.