Contextualized English:

As in the video is shown, contextualize English is the meaningful language use for real communicative purposes, or the act of adapting the learning process of English to real situations or the environment and students’ age. When we are teaching certain language, we tend to relate the features of our teaching to cultural aspects that are part of our reality. Particularly, I think the students likes are also part of this issue, since in some curriculums or teaching methods, classes are taught in a democratic way so that the context and the reality can be related with the learning process.

When we contextualize the teaching process, students feel familiarized with the contents because they work with real situation or topics that are popular at that moment. In addition to that, the class is enriched by a variety of activities that drag students into a meaningful and integral learning.

When teaching to children, we have a different context to when teaching adults; therefore, we have to adapt activities to their age and to what they know so far. After that we have to be on the look out of leading students toward the learning purpose of such a language. As an example we can say that the English learning aim can be business or education, so teacher have to be aware of that in order to adapt topics and contents to the prime aim.

While teaching English, there are contents that can be related with certain topics. For instance, when we teach THE TO BE BERB, we related it with occupations. That is how we get students involved with topics that we previously prepare for them to have a better understanding and a relationship with reality.

A positive classroom environment:

I think that a positive classroom environment depends on the teachers and students attitude. As teachers, we can start improving our personality and behavior, and then, we will lead the students into the environment we desire.

The respect toward each student is fundamental; we can have fun with them, but we also have to set some limits. Having a fun class doesn’t mean to disrespect the others.

Each student is important in the class; therefore we have to value them as persons and assist their needs.

There are teachers who try to intimidate their students to have a, let’s say, a peaceful class, but students don’t learn appropriately in those circumstances because the environment is tense. Teachers have to learn to manage with those disruptive students so that the rest of the class can be normal and the environment can be amazing.

Teachers have to drag students into a relaxed relationship, and they also have to work as a community; as members of the community, teachers have to be reliable and real friends.

This is what I consider can contribute to create a positive classroom environment.

Teaching across proficiency levels

Teaching a foreign language is always challenging, since we have to manage with a class that is pursuing an integral learning.

Role of the teacher:
Teaching at some levels has different degrees of difficulty, so teachers and student’s performance will vary.

As teaching beginning levels is considered the basis of the foreign language process, the role of the teacher must be very active.
As beginners are students that have few or no knowledge of the target language, the teacher is going to be the spring from which students will absorb the knowledge. Teachers have to be the model to follow, so they have to speak accurately and clearly so that students can understand the transmitted message. As the teacher is the center of attention, he has to be careful with the pronunciation of tricky words. Teachers have to manage students interacting activities in order to take advantage of peer support, given that we always have students who have a more advanced knowledge or better understanding than others.
When students are in a beginning level they act as if they are babies who learn to talk in their native language; therefore, the material presented in the classroom has to be as abstract and meaningful as possible.

Authentic y of language:
When teaching beginners, teachers have to be very conscious that they are working with students who may not have the expected expertise to understand simple language spoken in a high speed, so they have to make pauses and stop using technical language. As everything goes from the simple to the complex, teachers have to start with easy patterns as greetings and commands, lots of repetition and activities appropriate to this level. As the course advances, teachers should increase the difficulty of the spoken language.

Student’s creativity:
For being creative, we have to speak, draw or act, then, as students don’t have lots of vocabulary, their creativity is limited. But they can be creative in their context; for example, when students invent words in the target language, make assumptions of certain grammatical matter, or inquire in something related with the target language, they are being creative. Teachers have their students write and speak freely to let them be creative and discover hindrances as they perform and then correct their mistakes. We are very intelligent and what we need is an appropriate guidance and constant motivation.

Teaching English across age levels

Now that we have study some theory about teaching in different ages and with my experience as student, I can conclude that teaching children, teens and adults has its own differences and teachers might find it hard to teach one of these levels.
Particularly, I would teach teens rather than teaching children and adults because I find it mentally and physically tiring to control children behavior as they perform in the classroom. When we work with children, we have to treat them softly, and we have to have an array of techniques to lead them since we rarely negotiate with them and therefore, sanction their fault.
It is true that teaching children may seem easier according to content since we teach them Basic English, but we have to deal with the maintenance of their attention span and their motivation.
Working with adults is cool as they are more conscious about what they want to learn, and their attitude toward education is more responsible than the majority of teens and children. However, sometimes we find troublemaker students while teaching adults, and at some point it is difficult to work with them. I would like to work with teenagers because they face a crucial phase in which their identity is being shaped; therefore, what a teacher does to help them is always unforgettable. We can influence positively on teens identity by helping them to overcome their difficulties. As students need real friends and affection, the relationship that exists between students and teachers is special. You can negotiate with teens as you do with adults, and the best part is that you can have fun with them, but you have to set limits so that you can keep the due respect.

A comment about Didactics

The trade of education is something great, and the satisfaction of being a teacher I consider is amazing. However, becoming a good teacher requires constant practice and an appropriate guidance.

I felt unconfident to accept a job because someone told me that it was crucial that I took Didactics, which made me muse such as case. I don’t know the teachers goals toward us as student, and I wouldn’t like to be misunderstood, so I just want to provide my point of view about the presentations.

I really need a guidance to carry out an activity in the classroom if I will be evaluated as a teacher who must deal with students, materials and time, because I have never done it before, whereas other students may have experience at teaching. Yet, they also need it. I personally commented this to the teacher, and it worries me because my grades have been low. I understand that there are aspects that the teacher can’t change, for example our personality or style while teaching, but there must be basic tips that we must know, and then, after a bit of theory, we will be quite ready to perform upon them as beginners.

class activities

The last activities my classmates presented.

All of my classmates who acted as teachers last class, did it well, despite this was the first activity they carry out as teachers. They were very precise since they went to the point, even when the activities seemed quite simple but adequate. Enrique led his activities appropriately to a lower level, and that’s how children would learn in an active way. Through repetition is haw knowledge get to stick in our brain, so children and even adult, need of this so that they can acquire new information and the right way to pronounce, in the case of learning a language.

Luis did it very well, his expertise which he speaks English, helps him to have a nice and entertaining development of his class. That kind of funny material helps to keep students attention. I have seen Luis performance many times and I think he is a good teacher; he says right things.

Xavier did it great and was very precise; he used the time properly. His activities were very entertaining and meaningful. He knew how to adequate his activities according the characteristics of Content Based Approach, as everyone has done it.

HELLO PEOPLE!
We have already developed three more activities that belong to three different methods.
I was the first one, and as my method dwells on the usage of reading texts to work on the remaining skills, I chose that activities, which I noticed that were not as amusing as the other ones. As my method involves reading activities as a base to develop the rest of skills, the activities I presented were aimed for higher levels.

Rosa Elida is very talented when developing her activities, and as her method requires, she brought very dynamic activities to the classroom. Beginners or children would learn properly in that way because children love moving their bodies, and teachers must take advantage of that, in order to teach new contents or knowledge. I know two little children who like to sing and dance, and they have learned the month days through songs as they dance, so I say those activities would do the trick with children.

Ana and Lily were very creative because they brought colorful pictures to make the class motivating. As Rose, Ana presented an activity to teach in low levels, and showing pictures of what we want them to learn is a very effective way to teach content to children because they need to see things to hold the attention. Lily developed a nice activity, which is roll play, in which students improve the speaking skills. I pretty like those activities because are very funny.