WHAT EXPERIENCE DO YOU HAVE OF LEARNING A SECOND OR FOREIGN LANGUAGE? HOW WOULD YOU CHARACTERIZE THE TEACHER'S TEACHING METHOD? HOW EFFECTIVE DID YOU FIND IT?

The first time I began to study English was completely dissapointing  for me. It was when I began to  study middle high school. I was 12 years old, and at that time I was so interested in learning English because I had always wanted to learn it. Unfortunately, my first teachers were not so good and creative; as matter of fact, they did not leave a trace in my life as it should have been. I just rememeber few words, but I did not enjoy the classes  as I would have liked. Then, the next year was even worse. The English teacher I had that year was good and very creative; nevertheless, he almost all the time had other things to do, and that year all the teachers were attending to some  courses related to computers, so the teacher missed clases with us very often and as a result,we did not learn more than few vocabulary.

Some years later, since I loved English, I decided to study my major, Licenciatura en Idioma Ingles opción enseñanza, so from the very begining I promised to be the great teacher I could not have when I was younger. Once we began the first semester, I tried to do my best at the university; however, I did not succeed. Why did not I succeed? I did not succeed not because of the teachers I had at that time but because I had not been taught the way I needed. When I began studying at the university, I realized that my preevious teachers had not done a good job, so it affected my learning process. I could not understand almost anything. Whenever the teachers asked me something in English I was so afraid and ashamed for I was not able to answer their questions in English. I did feel so frustrated because my other classmates did understand the language; meanwhile, I was totally lost and felt as if I was the only girl who did not know anything in my class. Later, when I entered to to university, everything changed in my life. My English teachers have been awesome. I have enjoyed every single class and I have learned and improved my English a lot. I can say teachers at the university have been such a great help for me to acquire the second language

At the begining Learning a second or foreign language was too difficult for me and I really would have liked to have better teachers at school so that It had not been like that. Now, as a teacher, I want to be the best and to be such a role model for my students so that they can face any situation at the university and they can have great job opportunities in the future.

Probably, my first teachers’ teaching method did not work with me. They may have lucked more creativity, a better and more organized lesson plan, and the desire to change their students’ lives. I chararterize their teaching method as poor and boring. I do not find it so effective for some reasons. For example, they made us to just repeat the vocabulary and write it down on our notebooks. However, they did not warn us top ut the language into practice. We almost never did dialoges nor did we have any listening activities. So, in order to be effective, their teaching method should have had a well organized lesson plan and more creative didactics material. In fact, They almost never used any didactics material.

Teachers surely should care about their students outcomes from the very begining of the teaching period so that they can stablish good objectives in order that their students learn. All teachers should have a purpose mainly led towards their students; especially, when they teach a foreign language to students who are studying the foreign language for the first time.