Reflection Activity 10

Final Reflection 

This subject was an interesting way to lear how to teach, I learned a lot of things that I can use in my classroom. And obviouly it was an excellent experience, because we played like children and we enjoyed the class with all my classmates.
I know that this knowledges are going to be with me  for the rest of my life.
To do a didactic class is the correct way to teach our future students.

Reflection Activity 9

What is your learning style?

In clases I remember that we did a kind of test about our learning style, and my result was there Im Kinaesthetic.

"the learner learns best through using the body"

what strategies do you use/have you used to help you learn english?

* Guessing the meaning of unknown words
* Recording yourself speaking, then judging and correcting your pronunciation. 
* Another thing that I usually do, is talking to in front of the mirror and judge the way that  I express my ideas. 

what is your past experience of learning english?

I was no so good, because my teachers were lazy and always taught the same thing. They were not motivating at all. And all the class was based on the book and nothing else. 

Reflection activity 8

How did the age, ways and context in which you learnt english influence your success at learning?

Well, everything is combined because we need to have the right mixture of all these concepts. if we had a good teacher that gave you the right knowledge in the right age, everything is going to be easy for you. The way that we learn is very important and obviously all the contexts involve in our learning. If we want to have success at learning is necesary to count with a very good teacher, who helps you to understand and assimilate the foreing language.

Reflection Activity 7

Do you agree with these teachers and learners comments? why?/Why not?

1.- I like my teacher to correct all my mistakes.2.- If I don´t correct my students, they will continue to make the same mistakes and these will become bad habits.3.- It's impossible in class for a teacher to know why student is making a mistake.4.- It's difficult to use  different correction techniques with different students.

Well I going to be honest Im not agree with any of this comments, because on the first one is easier for the student to have all the correction but they will never do anything alone.And so on, I prefer to do half and half of corrections, they have to understand their mistakes and do not do it again. (if they can understand what they are doing wrong, this can happen easily)

Refection Activity 6

Which Method of learning English Would you prefer: Communicative, form-focused, grammar- translation, or combination of these? why?

Well, I prefer a combination of all, because when you are a teacher, you need to mix every single method to make your students understand and enjoy what their are learn. If you only use one method they are gonna be bored easily. But if i have to choose one, I will choose Form-Focused because like we saw in classes

"we need to focus our attention on the form of the foreign language, on how it is pronounced or written, on how its grammar is formed and used, and on the form and meaning of vocabulary".

What method(s) do your learners seem to prefer? why? Do you agree with their preferences?

Well they seem to prefer communicative learning style, I have a very fun students and they really want to learn how to talk and say many of words that can they learn. And obviously they enjoy doing real- life situations on clases.

"Students' motivation to learn comes from their desire to communicate in meaningful ways about meaningful topics."

Reflection Activity 5

What is learning English like?

For me learning English is like: "Learning piano"- I have learnt it for many years and am still not very good at it." 
Well  I choose this sentence because we had  plenty of classes of english in our life but no one is very good for us, our teachers always teach just the necesary things and that is it. And it doesn't matter if you learn very well or not. It is difficult to have a good level of english with these kinds of opportunities, so that is the reason because I choose that sentence. If we can have a good level of english, it´s up to us. I mean learn with videos, music, lyrics and all the things that we enjoy, so it going to be easier learn this second language.

Reflection Activity 4

“Opening a classroom door”

1.    What was the role of the teacher?

The role of the teacher was to be in front of the class and manage the students. for example she made them to be quite all the time, I was like a police women or something like that.

2.    What was the role of the students?

They have to be quite, in order, pay attention and nothing else. It was boring to see.

3.    What were some characteristics of the teaching/learning process?

She used a mixture of all methods, but the latest class was based on Direct method and grammar translation. She was like very interesting to show them grammar and nothing else.

4.    What was the nature of student-teacher interaction?

Well it was like the weather, they some days were very interesting in the class, but other days not at all, ( it was like hell ), no one wanted to learn and the chaos was awful.

5.    What was the nature of the student-student interaction?

They were very closed to each other, they were allways helping to the ones that couldn´t learn very well, but sometime were some kinds of fight for stupid things, but they could over the problem.

6.    How were the feelings of the students dealt with?

They were very good but, they were hyperactive children, all the time were talking to the next table or played with something. 

7.    How was language viewed?

Well it was a very good class, but they think that english is not important, because they are going to study another thing. It was sad to hear that.

8.    How was culture viewed?

well, they were very interesting in some things like sports, music, but nothing related about culture styles.

9.    What areas of language were emphasized?

well  the teacher only emphasized in reading and writing, I think that was the reason that they thought this class was boring.

10. What language skills are    emphasized?

Like I mentioned in the other question, The entire class was focused on writing and reading.

11. What was the role of the students’ L1?

She used L1 a lot, she explained every single thing in spanish and teacher always avoided to talk in english. I was like very disapointing, because I wanted to talk in english but she always answered in spanish.

12. How was evaluation accomplished?

Well she used the same evaluation all the time, match the sentences, true or false, etc.

13. How did the teacher respond to student errors?

well sometime she correct them in front of the class, and it was very bad to see, because of that the students did want to participate the rest of the class.

14. What techniques did the teacher use?

Dictation Translation Memorization

Reflection Activity 3

"Teaching philosophy" 

Well I think this is a mixture of enthusiasm/ expressiveness, clarity in explanation and rapport/interaction. The teacher must be very didactic and everything must to be clear for the students, maybe there is no formula for this, you just need to be quite open with your students, I mean you have to understand them and make them feel comfortable in classroom.

Second language are learned by using all the skills of our students, for example give them the opportunity to explore all their possibilities and all their knowledge. They must feel like their learning something for life, and this new language is going to be use.

Well, the most important factors to learn another language are the age of the students, maybe their previous knowledge, or their cultural background, the way that they learn.

The role of the teacher should be like a personal trainer, I mean we have to give them the tools  and show them the best way to learn, and then they have to continue this knowledge by themselves, and we just correct their mistakes, helping them to know what is important in this new language.

Reflection Activity 2

Children learn a second/foreing language easier than adults.

I think this sentence or assumption it is rigth, children are like an sponge, they can absorb what ever you teach them, that is very impressive, and also it is a good tool to give them more knowledge about the foreing language that they are learning about.

According what we saw in class, after puberty (critical age), brain loses its flexibility and this makes it difficult for an adult to acquire a language like a native.

I was reading an article about this statement, and I  found some very interesting ideas, for example:

"Children are much quicker at learning a foreign language because their brains are still forming and accept new information much easier"

Another quote that I found very interesting was:

" When children are taught a foreign language at an early age, they learn in a method that works for their brains, and many language learning programs are trying to replicate this learning process".

http://onlinefreespanish.com/aplica/news/10_15_08.htm

Reflection Activity 1: Autobiography

My life in a few words

I was born and raise in viña del mar, since I was a child, had the necessity to teach other people,but it was in 2002 when I took the decision to became a teacher, I talked to my parents and they told me that we didn’t have money for university so I had to study in a technical school. 
It was the worst thing in the world because I really want to become a teacher, So I had to study for being secretary in Liceo Comercial de Viña del Mar.
In that year it was very common that teenagers study these kinds of careers like secretary, counter, seller, etc. So my parents thought that was the best opportunity to have a good job.

I was very sad with that decision but they were my parents so I had to do the things that they wanted.
But when I finished the school and I worked as a secretary in Saint Benedict college for 2 years, and working in this school I knew that I had to study to become a teacher.

I took the decision in 2008, but  it was in 2009 when I went to the university and now I’m here trying to do the things right and working and studying for this dream. 

I hope that I can finish this career and working as a teacher of English in a little school, teaching to little kids.