Participatory photography : enhancing respect and understanding otherness through 9th grade EFL students' life stories.

Abstract

The objective of this action research is to improve productive skills in English and enhance the concepts of respect and otherness through students’ life stories in photography galleries. The study employed the participatory photography method and the task-based approach with 9th grade students at Colegio La Merced IED. During twelve sessions, students were involved in tasks of photography, paragraph writing, oral debates, journaling, multi-perspective stories, roleplaying, and gallery creation. The results showed that students were able to improve their productive skills using adapted scripts, roleplays, and immediate feedback, which helped them reduce the affective filter when communicating in English. However, time constraints, and lack of depth were limitations in the reflective process.