EXPLORING TEACHER'S BELIEFS

1.      What beliefs or assumptions about language learning and language teaching have you held throughout your English language development and your teaching career?

·         LANGUAGE LEARNING  SHOULD BE MEANINGFUL FOR THE PARTICIPANTS

Metaphor:” it is necessary to provide real examples and make students use the language in real situations and relate what they learn with their real context”

Autobiography “she was very committed with teaching English and she enjoyed what she did”

Journal 1 “After talking to Alejandro, one of the ideas was that he could prepare an oral presentation about any topic.

Journal 2 “I always begin by asking myself what my students should know and how they can apply what they learn”

Journal 3 “to make students feel that they really need to attend classes and construct their own knowledge”

Journal 4 “When the teacher said the topic and said: “Tell me, please, the name of some sports” the majority of the students wanted to participate even answering in L1.”

·         ENGLISH TEACHING FROM A HUMANISTIC PERSPECTIVE

Journal 4 “What was interesting in this part was the students’ attitude, they were helping each other and solving the activity”

Metaphor “Students are different, each one of them have their own story that could inspired our job”

Journal 3 “ it is my responsibility to know who my students are…We as teachers should bear in mind that our work deals with human beings rather than subjects”

Autobiography “It was grateful to be in touch with other people, to know their needs, listen to and guide them.”

·         AN ENGLISH TEACHER NEEDS TO BE CREATIVE AND RESOURCEFUL

Journal 1 “Those previous conditions make me think of a different activity for him”

Journal 2 “During a class I like to engage students in different kind of activities:”

Metaphor “Each journey is unique and offers new knowledge, even if you return to the same place events are not the same”

·         ENGLISH TEACHING IS AN ONGOING PROCESS

Journal 1 “If you want to learn English, you have to do an extra effort and think that you can learn it”

Journal 2 “Learning is not an ending process and the teacher is a learner too. I strongly believe that teachers need to continue their professional growth, to do so, teachers can be part of educational associations, to attend conferences or doing advanced studies are excellent strategies to be updated in terms of new methodologies and strategies that emerge every day”

Autobiography “For me, the most important things are to do my best, to enrich my profession and to be updated and be prepared for my lessons”

·         TECHNOLOGY: A NEW TOOL FOR ENGLISH TEACHERS

Journal 2 “the school has a bilingual computer room where we can work listening exercises, watching videos, worksheet solving using Word or Power Point”

Journal 1 “Those previous problems teachers have to handle when working with technology. Finally the day arrives and Alejandro could present his topic.”

Journal 4 “Each couple received a tablet with a video about a sport called BOSABALL. Students had to watch the video and complete the chart. The students were so enthusiastic using the tablet”

2.      What sources have you derived those beliefs or assumptions from?

Taking into account Richards and Lokhart (2004) my beliefs derived from the following sources:

a.       My own experience as language learner. I have had the chance to have excellent teachers during my studies and maybe those positive experiences and the way my teachers used to teach made me build the ideas I apply inside and outside the classroom.

b.      Experience of what works well. Fortunately, I have deal with different kinds of situations, contexts, students and policies and those previous experiences have given me the opportunity to notice what could works and what needs to be improved.

c.       Educationally based or research-based principles. I have tried to use the major part of a communicative research method but sometimes it is necessary to implement other methods. I did not have any idea about the theoretical support of this common situation but thanks to the master program I have found important assumptions in the post method era.

d.      My colleagues. They are a real support for my daily practices.  Sometimes, my colleagues express their ideas and conclusions about something they have done previously

3.      How would you challenge some of those beliefs?

I think that every single day is a new learning experience, in that way teacher must be open minded in order to reflect about each situation into the classroom and take advantage from it. Reflective teaching offers us a new path to see our profession from a critical extent.