Sixteenth International Conference on New Directions in the Humanities

Abstract

This qualitative action research study focuses on enhancing students’ writing skills in terms of understanding writing as a situated practice through the creation of a diary following a genre-based approach. The basis emerges from two important women’s life stories: Policarpa Salavarrieta and Frida Kahlo. The study was developed throughout the first semester of 2017 and the second semester of 2018 in an EFL classroom with sixty-two students at Liceo Femenino Mercedes Nariño School, Bogotá, Colombia. Data was collected by means of surveys, interviews, field notes, and artifacts produced by the students - diaries. Data revealed that the use of the real women’s life stories as a writing model had a supportive, enthusiastic, and encouraging influence; while the students used the stories as a guide to build their own texts in a diary, they learned grammar, improved their writing skills, and expressed their feelings and dreams. Moreover, taking into account that at the beginning of the project students were not able to recognize the importance of the role of women in society, they recognized themselves as valuable and important members of society.