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This article reports on an action research study that assessed the influence of cognitive and metacognitive strategies-based feedback in the oral performance of a group of 6th grade students at a public school in Medellin, Colombia. Researchers analyzed students' oral performance through assessment and self-assessment rubrics, applied inventories to students before and after giving them the strategies-based feedback, and interviewed all students and one parent. Results showed that strategiesbased feedback supported by previous strategies instruction can help students both increase the use of strategies and improve their oral performance.Key words: Cognitive strategies, feedback, language learning strategies, metacognitive strategies, oral performance. Este artículo da cuenta de una investigación acción que evaluó la influencia de la retroalimentación basada en estrategias cognitivas y metacognitivas en el desempeño oral de un grupo de estudiantes de sexto grado en una institución pública en Medellín, Colombia. Los investigadores analizaron el desempeño oral mediante rúbricas de evaluación y autoevaluación, aplicaron inventarios a los estudiantes antes y después de proporcionarles la retroalimentación y entrevistaron a todos los estudiantes y a la madre de uno de ellos. Los resultados indican que la retroalimentación basada en estrategias apoyada por una instrucción previa en el uso de éstas puede ayudar a los estudiantes a incrementar el uso de estrategias y a mejorar su desempeño oral.Palabras clave: desempeño oral, estrategias cognitivas, estrategias de aprendizaje, estrategias metacognitivas, retroalimentación.

This article presents the results of an inter-institutional research study that assessed the impact of strategies instruction on students' preparation for and performance in oral exams. Two teacher-researchers at different universities trained 26 students in their respective B1-English-level courses in using language learning strategies. The study included pre-and post-intervention tests and on-line questionnaires after each oral exam. After comparing the test scores and analyzing the questionnaire responses, we arrived at two main conclusions: First, that strategies instruction, especially in combination with evaluation rubrics, promotes students' autonomy and enhances their oral test performance. Second, that students' use of language learning strategies is influenced by instructional variations tied to the relative importance that teachers ascribe to specific aspects of oral communication.Key words: Language learning strategies, oral assessment, preparation for oral exams, rubrics, strategies instruction.En este artículo presentamos los resultados de una investigación inter-institucional que evaluó el impacto de la instrucción en estrategias en la preparación para pruebas orales. Dos docentes-investigadores de diferentes universidades capacitaron a 26 estudiantes de nivel B1 en el uso de estrategias de aprendizaje. El estudio incluyó la administración de pruebas antes y después de la intervención y de cuestionarios después de cada prueba. Los datos nos permitieron llegar a dos conclusiones: primero, la instrucción en estrategias, especialmente en combinación con el uso de rúbricas, promueve la autonomía y mejora el desempeño en pruebas orales. Segundo, el uso de estrategias está influenciado por variaciones en la instrucción asociadas a la importancia relativa que cada maestro asigna a aspectos específicos de la comunicación hablada.Palabras clave: estrategias de aprendizaje en lenguas, evaluación oral, instrucción en estrategias, preparación para pruebas orales, rúbricas. * This article presents some of the final results of an inter-institutional study titled, Estrategias de Aprendizaje que Favorecen la Preparación del Estudiante para la Evaluación de su Desempeño Respecto a su Competencia Comunicativa en Inglés (code number 38169). This study was collectively sponsored by Fundación Universitaria Luis Amigó, Universidad Pontificia Bolivariana, and Universidad de Antioquia, and involved the participation of researchers from the language teaching programs of these three institutions. Also, the preliminary findings of this study were presented by the authors during the Despite the ambitious goals set by the national government, inconsistencies between the teaching and the evaluation of English are the order of the day in Colombia. In a Phase-1 exploratory study, Restrepo and Medina (2014) observed that the results students obtain in English oral exams are usually not in proportion to the efforts they make to prepare for 1 While we were preparing the final version of this article, the new government of President...

This case study sought to determine the way in which different actors perceive the impact of anxiety markers on the quality of EFL students’ performance on oral examinations. The group of participants was made up of 17 students, two teachers, and seven external observers from an undergraduate English teaching program in Colombia. The data collection process involved structured observations during students’ presentations and semi-structured interviews to both teachers and students. The results showed that presenters focused on avoiding notorious anxiety markers, but, from the observers’ point of view, these did not affect speech quality as much as intermittent and sustained markers did. Moreover, although anxiety affected students’ oral performance, teachers filtered it out when grading students’ language ability. Teachers and students are therefore invited to reflect upon anxiety’s actual impact on public speaking in test situations, particularly in contexts other than the classroom.

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