Información Importante La Universidad de La Sabana informa que el(los) autor(es) ha(n) autorizado a usuarios internos y externos de la institución a consultar el contenido de este documento a través del Catálogo en línea de la Biblioteca y el Repositorio Institucional en la página Web de la Biblioteca, así como en las redes de información del país y del exterior con las cuales tenga convenio la Universidad de La Sabana. Se permite la consulta a los usuarios interesados en el contenido de este

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... cumento para todos los usos que tengan finalidad académica, nunca para usos comerciales, siempre y cuando mediante la correspondiente cita bibliográfica se le de crédito al documento y a su autor. De conformidad con lo establecido en el artículo 30 de la Ley 23 de 1982 y el artículo 11 de la Decisión Andina 351 de 1993, La Universidad de La Sabana informa que los derechos sobre los documentos son propiedad de los autores y tienen sobre su obra, entre otros, los derechos morales a que hacen referencia los mencionados artículos. BIBLIOTECA OCTAVIO ARIZMENDI POSADA UNIVERSIDAD DE LA SABANA Chía -Cundinamarca patience and help which were crucial in the development of this project. Finally, to my colleagues with whom working together we could carry out this research and established very important friendship ties. From Roosevelt Soler Ramirez: First, I would like to thank God for the opportunity he provided me to access and complete this Master´s program successfully. Also, I would like to thank my father and my wife for their wise advices and support along this process. To my colleagues in this research proposal for their commitment, professionalism and enthusiasm but, mainly, for their friendship which make this process easy handling. Abstract This qualitative study is aimed at improving students writing and critical thinking skills in three groups of students from the Cundinamarca School (Bogotá, Colombia) through the implementation of the task-based approach and the use of movie-clips. The population selected for this study includes three different courses (third, sixth, and eleventh graders) with different language levels, however, all of them belonging to A1 according to the Common European Framework of reference for languages (CEFR). As students of a bilingual institution, the participants have acquired some abilities to communicate ideas, express their feelings, and understand instructions in English. Notwithstanding, in the needs analysis stage, difficulties in the students" writing process and critical thinking skills were identified, revealing thus substantial problems when constructing statements and when conveying meaning. For these reasons, this study has been considered as an action research due to the fact that it is intended to look for improvements in order to contribute in the language level process of the students. Consequently, in the pedagogical implementation, movie-clips were used within the context of task-based lessons to develop critical thinking and writing skills for effective communication. The results obtained from surveys, rubrics and artifacts in the data analysis stage evidenced the positive effects task-based lessons using movie clips gave to the development of writing productions in students. Participants" developed of writing skills was shown by two relevant aspects: lexicon improvement and the development of higher-order critical thinking skills. Additionally, extrinsic motivation was identified as a meaningful aspect that benefits students" writing process.