Language and Literature Teaching Strategies in Ecuador

Abstract

According to the most recent national and international evaluations, it has been determined that basic education students have reached the elementary level of reading comprehension, written expression and critical analysis of texts. Therefore, it is pertinent to identify the pedagogical strategies employed by Language and Literature teachers in Ecuador. For this purpose, a quantitative, non-experimental, exploratory study was designed. The non-probabilistic sample (n=963), selected by convenience, came from 13 educational institutions located in different cities of the country. The instrument used for data collection was the questionnaire ‘Methodological strategies for teaching Language and Literature’, developed by the research team, validated by expert judgement and subjected to a pilot test with acceptable levels of reliability (α 0.84). The results of the study establish that the strategies most used by teachers are the master class, case studies, cooperative learning, the Socratic method and the inverted classroom, while the least used is game-based learning. The analysis of the sample leads to the conclusion that there is no recurrent methodology for the teaching of Language and Literature and that its results cannot be extrapolated to the national reality. Therefore, further research using specific instruments to identify language and literature teaching strategies, the selection of a representative probability sample and a longitudinal research process are required in order to deepen the analysis of the problem.