OPD IV: Essay 1

Skills of the English teacher: Weaknesses and strengths as a teacher

The purpose of this paper is to defend the following proposition: when learning a second language is mostly effective the contextualization of it that the simple use of grammatical tools. To achieve the main purpose of this essay, it is structured as follows: in first place there  will be a brief introduction to the topic; then the body of the paper focus on the explanation of various tools and strategies that facilitate the contextualization of language, and in the explanation of why these strategies facilitate learning a second language, the explanation of the previous strategies is related to the abilities and tasks that the second language teacher must achieve in order to attain a successful learning of the second language; eventually it explains the conclusion of the initial statement.

By way of introduction is necessary to understand that we live in a globalized world in which space and time barriers have been overcome by advances in technology, allowing a greater rapprochement between different populations around the world. One benefit of globalization is the cultural exchange, however to achieve this cultural exchange is still a barrier: the diversity of languages. As a result, it is necessary that the world's youth, specifically the Mexican, be ready to face language the barriers that are submitted, and that rather than seeing them as obstacles, be seen as an opportunity to approach to different ways of thinking and living. If it pursues this objective it is necessary to transform the way of teaching  a foreign language, to pass from a routine experience, isolated and detached, to a fascinating experience to open our doors to other cultures.

 Once understood how necessary it is to transform the teaching mode, we must ask ourselves how will we  achieve it? And how will the new learning strategies generate much more interesting learning?

First it is necessary to rescue that  the Mexican school has a serious problem in the teaching of foreign languages ​​(specifically English), it remains teaching traditionalgrammar. So the first step to solve this problem is to move from a grammar approach to a communicative one.

A very interesting strategy to achieve this is to appeal to the curiosity of students, especially their curiosity about other cultures. That's when teaching a foreign language must become cultural, this means not to focus exclusively on the mastery of the language but also know the other elements found in a culture, such as know the customs, the history, the traditions and even the fashion and youth behaviors that are at the moment. This will  achieved an identification with the foreign culture and hence the interest in learning the language will increase.

To achieve this, it requires the use of attractive materials for the learner, as well as simulation of similar contexts  of the foreign culture to their own culture . An example of such contexts may be situations of travel, tourism, airports and so on. Or any kind of  communicative contexts common to live anywhere, but not within the country itself, but simulated in the foreign country, that is, if we are going to simulate a situation in a restaurant, it must not be simulated within a Mexican context, in the case of teaching English, you can take an British context, Australian or American.

Another strategy recommended is the use of music and games to draw interest to the foreign language.

Another strategy is the use of different forms of expression, not only focus on verbal expression. This means that we, as teachers must use another kind of expressions ways, such as movements, gestures, images, sounds, body language and a lot more, by making this, we teach our students that there are a lot of ways to communicate an idea, and we encourage them to do the same.

Finally, the description of the strategies mentioned seems to be a highly effective proposal to appeal to student interest, it is very likely to be achieved mainly focus their attention on the language. Thus, through the development of different skills the students will learn in a more effective way that  with the simple language learning and use of grammar.  This means that the teacher must develop himself the ability and task of an intercultural learning before he can teach it to his students.