Design of a Personalized Pedagogical Strategy to Enhance English Competencies in Middle School Students

Abstract

The teaching of English as a second language in rural contexts continues to face structural, pedagogical and contextual limitations that make it difficult for students to achieve acceptable levels of communicative competence. This research aimed to design, implement and evaluate a didactic model aimed at strengthening the English competencies of tenth grade students from official educational institutions located in the department of Córdoba, Colombia, considering their predominant learning styles. The study was developed under the pragmatic paradigm, with a mixed approach and concurrent triangulation design, including diagnostic tests, interviews, surveys and documentary review as data collection techniques. The sample was made up of 50 tenth grade students. The results showed that the incorporation of differentiated pedagogical strategies according to learning styles – active, reflective, visual, verbal, sequential and global – has a favorable impact on the development of linguistic, pragmatic and sociolinguistic competences in English. In addition, significant transformations were identified in the attitude towards learning, participation in class and the perception of the area as useful and achievable. The proposed model is emerging as an adaptable, validated, and relevant tool for improving the teaching of English in rural school settings, with the potential to be replicated in other regions of the country that face similar challenges.