TEACHING PHILOSOPHY

Effective means “achieving the results you want”. An effective second language teacher teaches his students in a proper and organized way which let the students control and acquire what he knows is important for them.

There are many people who think that they can’t learn a second language because they have spent many years studying it at school and they can’t hold a conversation or understand a native speaker. This probably happens because the syllabus is based on a lot of grammar explanations and has little use of the language in oral interactions.

Learning a language needs the students to get in touch with its culture and this can be done by watching videos or movies, reading magazines, newspapers, and websites. Using these sources the students can improve their learning process. To acquire a language, students need to be trained in the four skills any language has: listening, reading, writing, and speaking and also need to be trained in a friendly and kind environment where they can develop self-confidence and where they don’t feel embarrassed.

A second language should be taught by using new methods that facilitate practical processes. The teacher must trigger in the students the need to use the second language in all the activities he does (the use of technology, movies, music, social relations), calling his students attention through topics and things that are interesting for them. In this way, the teacher motivates his students to use the second language.

The main role of the teacher is that the students could notice how useful a second language is in their lives. The teacher will have to use methodologies that allow students to get tools in order to stimulate their independence as learners. A teacher should provide significant experiences in order to allow students to practice what they have learnt so they can build together some grammar structures of the second language.

A POSITIVE ATTITUDE TO THE TARGET LANGUAGE IS ESSENTIAL FOR LEARNING

The fact of having a positive attitude not only make goals to be possible, but reachable.

The feelings the student has towards the teacher will determine his performance in terms of getting a god or bad result in any area of the curricula, “if there are not positive emotions such as love, worrying, sense of humor in the whole learning process, there are not agreement between cognition and affections which makes socialization and creative processes difficult.” (Villarroel, 2005, p.2).

The relationship between learning and emotions begun to be studied in the 70’s, but it hasn’t been taken into account. And eventhough it plays an important part in the learning process, it is not consider when designing methodological and assessment strategies. Most of the time, schools give priority to rational thinking than emotions (Villarroel, 2005).

Autobiography

My name is Claudia Andrea Rojas Zepeda. I was born on the 13^th of November 1981, in Vicuña, a city located in the relaxing and enchanting Elqui Valley (Valle de Elqui) in the region of Coquimbo, Chile.

I did my primary and secondary education in this city. At the age of 18, I decided to continue my educational background and enrolled in Tourism Engineering at Universidad del Mar, in the marvelous city of Viña del Mar, mainly motivated by my desire to work on local tourism in Vicuña. When finished my university studies in 2005, I came back to my hometown to gain professional development at the City Hall of Vicuña, specifically in the Department of Culture and Tourism. In 2006, I enrolled in Business & Managment at Universidad Católica del Norte, a post degree which lasted one year. After that, I came back to Viña del Mar where I worked for two years in a Travel Agency.

I have always been interested in the English language, but learning it has been a huge challenge. Since I was a little girl I was taught the language by native spoken people. Later, when I was at the University, I enrolled at the Chilean-British Institute in Viña del Mar, because I have always wanted to communicate myself in this foreign language in order to reach a complete professional development the field of tourism. This interest got stronger and I decided to enrolled at Universidad de Playa Ancha to study English Pedagogy in 2009, with the unconditional encouragement of my parents, which I still have,  and closed love ones.

In 2010, a new challenge greets my path. I started to work as a teacher for the Department of Tourism at Liceo Técnico María Luisa Bombal in Playa Ancha. Up to date, I carry out two important roles, one as a student, and the other as a teacher, two activities that are time consuming and that also need constant effort and dedication, but at the end they make me feel very pleased.