Language Teacher Education and Development

Analyzing my role as an English Teacher. To start with, I have to think about the experiences I have had and still have as an English learner. I believe, - as I said it in the previous post- that the fact of being able to understand the messages in the songs, was a big motivation for me. Also, when I first opened a Facebook account I communicated with people from Asia and I felt good when I undesrtood them. That specific feeling was the reason I continued (and still) learning English. I wish my students (and everyone I have the opportunity to be with) to understand that this language will really make a difference in their lives and will allow them to understand the world outside. At the very beggining of my English learning acquisition I conceived language and its learning as the mere fact of being able to translate words and knowing their meanings. Now, I see this activity as something more complex because translatins is not the only thing a person has to master when speaking...

I have to admit that I was not aware of the  importance of keeping yourself up to date when you are a teacher. I thought that I had learned everything I needed at university and of course, that I was not going to need to learn anything more. I believe many teachers think in that way because of this i-know-it all ego and because many see as an insult the mere fact of considering that they need to work on their teaching practice. I have not had many experiences with sponsored professionalism. However I believe the fact of  Universidad Surcolombiana allowing us to study the masters with a discount was something good and a motivation for many of us. When I was working in a private school, they once paid us the inscription for an ASOPI conference at an hotel. I remember this was because the coordinator of English insisted a lot to the owners of the school and highlighted the importance of this.  My biggest and most remarkable experience with independent professionalism ...

First of all, I must admit that what Professor Kubanyiova proposes is interesting and somewhat follows what Critical Literacy and Critical Pedagogy have said before. I am in agrereement with the fact that teachers need to be up to date with what happens in their world (because every teacher's context is different) but also we need to know what to do with that. We should give an space for students to listen and talk about the many things that occur, but also to guide them to have a critical view on that.  To do this, teachers can not ignore and be blind to the problems and situations around them, but know them  and recognize them as a source of educating material. Also, English language teachers should question what Kubanyiova mentions at the beggining "what does an additional language means in peoples' lifes?" What does English mean in the life of the ones I am in charge of educating? Carolina S.

Hello everyone. Here I share with you the five principles from KARDS model proposed by Kumaravadivelu.  Also, I answer the question asked by professor Insuasty. 1) How would you keep the lamp burning? I am not sure there is a way to do that. It is perhaps because of the lack of motivation that I feel this way. Perhaps, I would keep the fire burning by continuing reading about Professional Development and how to start constructing knowledge from our experiences in the classroom. In my case, I would like to explore more the way of learning a third language as it is English to my indigenous students.

March 2017 - Vereda El Centro - Neiva, Huila My name is Carolina Santa and I am 25 years old. I am currently working at a High School located east of Cauca department, a place I felt enchanted by since the first time I placed my eyes on the mountains of Kokonuko, Puracé. I have always liked the idea of learning English (specifically). I do not remember having faced any struggle while getting used to the phonemes and linguistic aspect. I believe the reason for that is the fact that I like reading since a very young age and it helped nourish my knowledge on grammar ascpects of the language per se. Also, my mother used to listen to 70s & 80s american and british bands and I believe this is the reason why pronounciaton and phonemes were not a big deal (not that I am the best at speaking). I can't recall having a lot of language learning experiences. I never went to an institute nor took any kind of particular English classes. Everything I learned I did it at school and...