When I think about my experience as an English learner, I could say that there have been three stages in my learning process. First of all, there was the school stage, where English was a subject and it wasn't really motivating or fun to learn English. At school I had a lot of grammar drills and repetition. We used to spend a lot of time doing exercises from a book and then we used to check them with the teacher. I wouldn't say that I learned lots of English in my school stage. But it helped me to realize that learning languages was not very difficult for me. I realized that I had a good ear for languages, at least for English. Then , the university stage came. I got to the university having a base in English, but not really knowing how to express myself in English. I wasn't really able to write or speak English very well or very accuratetly. In this stage I learned a lot of English and I improved a lot my writing and speaking, which were the most difficult areas for me. Also in this stage I did my internship in a bilingual school, where I learned a lot from all the teachers. The third stage began after I got out of the university and I began to work. I started working in a non bilingual school, but I had to speak everything in English to my students. Therefore, I maintained my English, but certainly not at the same level, because the English thta I used at work with small girls was much more basic than the one I used to speak at the University with my teachers and classmates. That is, in part, why I decided to get into this masters program, to maintain my level of English and avoid losing what I learned at university.
I think that the most difficult areas for me are speaking and writing in English, so I am always focusing in improving those two areas. I hope I am able to do it during this masters program and I also hope to improve my teaching methodologies and strategies. I want to teach English in a fun way, not in the same way I was taught when I was a child.
My experience is the same as mine! We studied at the same school, with the same teachers, we followed the same English minor, now we work at the same school and we are studying the same Master. I feel completely identified with your story and I also want to improve my teaching methodologies.
ResponderEliminarYes, I agree with you, it's hard to speak fluently and try to find the right words to express properly, but all what you have learned through all these years will allow you to teach in a fun way, because now you have the right tools to do it.
ResponderEliminarAngela, you already know what you didn`t like when you learned English, so I think that you are not and will not make the same mistakes, as taken the motivation from your students away.
ResponderEliminarMotivation is very crucial in our lives, it can be demonstrated with your experience, since you hadn`t a good school experience, you crossed the barrier and motivated yourself.
I agree with Alejandra that motivation is crucial in our lives. Some experts like Earl Stevick have suggested that it is the most important factor for successful language learning. You're lucky that you have a good ear for English, and your students will benefit from your desire to be a fun teacher with good methodology and strategies:)
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