ME and ELT

The beginnings with English 

 Learning English, I am immensily proud to state, has been the earliest, if not the first, of my big decisions in life.

      I was about 10 or 11, at a time when technology and media were timidly appearing and Primary educational curriculums did not include any Second Language Teaching; I can still remember daily torturing my dad to teach me to count to ten in English and constantly asking him ¨how do I say X in English?¨  My dad, it seems, had also influenced me with the listening of music in English, which I completely fell for and wanted to sing and understand. Eventually, he couldn’t help me more, since he himself had only a limited knowledge from his technical secondary school days. Consequently, one afternoon, he came up asking me if I would like to take lessons of English, and, it was that very day that this story began!

    I regularly assisted to private lessons, travelling each December to the capital city to take exams until I finished secondary school to left town and take the Teacher Training at Universidad Nacional de La Plata. Personal events prevented me from graduating; I had to come back to my hometown ans then I began working as a teacher in public schools. That was when I fortunately came to know I could finish the course of studies through distance learning.

No doubt times were completely different now: this time I had technology on my side! I enrolled IFDC Lenguas Vivas Bariloche in mid - 2012 and, here I am writing this Portfolio, eager and anxious to finally graduate as a Teacher of English. 

Teaching beliefs

Just as I had made English part of my life, it has made me the person I am now… truly different from the girl concerned with mastering 10 numbers in a different language…

¨LEARNING A SECOND LANGUAGE HAS INFINITELY OPENED UP MY WORLD!¨

 It is not just the ability to express in English, but the innumerable things I have learnt and experienced through it. It was this feeling which drove me into longing to become a teacher of English: ¨I wish I will be able to lead others successfully through this bridge that language is, to eventually arrive in the vast land of knowledge¨.

 Teaching implies understanding learning and the people who learn. Teaching, hence, is not just about explaining, presenting, practicing and correcting; teaching is much more, more than that!

 An effective educator, in my view, needs to be well informed about the subject matter and culture, concerned about the variety of educational trends, inspiring to and interested about students, critical and flexible about decisions, open to change, creative and realistic about the context, but most of all, they have to be passionate!

Teaching philosophy

All during this becoming-a-teacher-process, future teachers are commonly asked about what approach or methodologies they subscribe to or support. Many times I had been unable or uncertain about how to answer coherently to this question.

Methodologies, as everything else, evolve and transform. New ones keep appearing, showing light on past mistakes on teaching. Of course, this does not have to mean that theories are disposable, or, that what seems inappropriate or useless to some would not be effective to others. It is in this premise in which I have found the foundations for my teaching philosophy: ¨ I favour an Eclectic Approach¨

Teachers teach learners and these should ever be at the heart of any decisions made; it is in this sense that having a varied and complete understanding and knowledge about educational and psychological theories and trends plays the biggest role. 

An Eclectic Approach allows teachers to include and, purposely and effectively combine techniques, activities and strategies without following a strict or linear process or method, but rather, focus on what is more beneficial to learners, or groups of learners, consciously considering the real context. This view of teaching promotes creativity and can derive in limitless educational experiences, thus fostering students´ skills and abilities, pointing to multiple intelligences, creating group identification and collaboration, and developing autonomy and affective values.

          Undoubtedly, I would, whenever possible, follow a Communicative objective, trying to become a facilitator to students, providing them meaningful opportunities and tools from varied sources to help and guide them in becoming successful users of the English language. 

MY CV

Patricia adela barrionuevo cv de Patricia Barrionuevo