MIRIAM'S INTRODUCTION

However, it was there when I realized that all years I had spent studying English at school and even in academies had been a loose of time. All my colleagues and I were not able to effectively communicate to other people and it was really disappointing. At that moment one question came to my mind, which was the following: Why did we spend so much time learning lots of vocabulary, grammar and so on when, in the end, we were not able to talk to others? In fact, this is one of the main reasons that made me make the decision of being an English teacher, because then I realised that there were so many things that were going wrong in terms of language teaching.

 

As teachers, we have to bear in mind that learning how to communicate with other people should be the main purpose of learning a language. Teachers should help students to face real situations, and this leads us to change the way we teach language. Thus, knowing how to communicate is not a matter of knowing lots of grammar and vocabulary, but to know how to apply this knowledge in real communicative situations. This is a key point as children should find a real purpose to learn the language.

 

Finding a real and significant context is sometimes difficult, taking into account that students do not have the need to use English in their own context. That is the reason why I find difficult to put this theory into practise in terms of English teaching. I hope this subject could give me a solution for this key aspect. 

 

Another important issue to tackle is the fact that until now, we have acquired a general knowledge about planning lessons related to different subjects. However, we have not worked on teaching a foreign language. It has to be taken into account that students, in English lessons, have to use a different language from their L1 so some aspects about planning should be different. So, I think we should learn some strategies and resources so as to know how to deal with these linguistic issues. 

 

Apart from the previous aspects and taking into account the European Portfolio for Student Teachers of Languages. A reflection tool for language teacher education (EPOSTL), there are so many aspects in which I have to work so as to be a good English teacher:

 

• First of all, I have to know how to design activities that can work the four skills (listening, reading, writing and speaking) within a sequence with a real and significant purpose.

• Furthermore, I should learn how to plan suitable assessment activities that can help the teacher both to keep track of students’ learning and to help learners overcome their difficulties.

• Finally, I have to learn how to integrate technologies in my teaching, as a resource to teach a foreign language, basing my teaching on project-based approaches.

 

I hope this subject could help me to get answers to my questions!

 

If you want to get to know me a little bit more, you can watch my presentation video: