How did the age, ways and context in which you learnt English influence your success at learning?

I studied in a public school so the context of learning English was never good, almost nothing could be learned at school, so I learned more in my house looking for things that interested me:  translating songs with the help of a dictionary, If I had any questions I asked to the English teacher showing  my translations,  so he could correct my mistakes. Watching movies I learned to pronounce words and express myself in English (in classes we never talked in English).

This was the reason that motivated me to study English because I want to teach kids how fun and useful it is to learn a second language, I don´t want to be like my teachers were based on a single book or a photocopy for a class.

Motivate children is the best way I can teach , doing fun activities, showing the entertaining use of English, I want to teach them to lose their fear of speaking English!

I like my teacher to correct all my mistakes...

I agree with this statement, because my experience as a student is that I need my teacher is there for me to answer my questions clear my doubts, correct my mistakes ... so I think that my students need the same from me, I think is the best way to learn: learning from mistakes, and motivated to keep going!!

Which Method of learning English Would you prefer: Communicative, form-focused, grammar- translation, or combination of these? why?

I think the combination of all is the best way to learn, makes it much easier and dynamic learning of English in different ways to keep students busy with various activities

I personally prefer as a student the communicative method because  allows me to have more interaction with my classmates and teachers at the university.

What method(s) do your learners seem to prefer? why? Do you agree with their preferences?

Students seem to prefer the grammar translation method because it is what most are used to, this is using a dictionary to translate word for word to form a complete sentence.

I d n´t really like this method because it can only translate texts it would also be impossible to remember each of the searched words in the dictionary, it makes the learner's slower.

Learning English is like ...

Today learn a second language in Chile is like learning to play the piano, because children spend years in school trying to learn English but in spite of that still have a very basic level after school.

 Public education in Chile is becoming more difficult to teach English  because many times the teacher 

doesn´t have the tools to make a class more dynamic, such as the use of a radio, a data show, etc.. Especially in a classroom where they usually have 40 children trying to learn. With so many children in the classroom is a bit more complicated for the teacher to try to capture their  attention and keep them in order and quiet so they can learn.

Private education is not the same becuse after school children have a very good level of English, are fewer children in the classroom and have the means and resources for learning, facilitating the task of the teacher.

Teaching philosophy

An effective second language teacher, is one that is always improving in all aspects needed to teach English to children in an entertaining and dynamic way,  that not only doing the classes based on photocopies or study guides but also can teach through school activities like games, songs, poems,  with the idea to keep children interested in learning English.

Motivation is an important factor because it is the only way they want to keep learning more and more, making the teacher's job as easy as possible, we must remember that in public schools the teacher's role is quite complicated because they have at  least 40 students in classes and we need each of them  learn the maximum possible.   Using different teaching methods we can ensure that children can  speak, write and listen and understand in English,  we can use technology to show children recordings, videos, songs, pictures so they can see the effective use of English in daily life.

Is essential for the teacher create a relaxed atmosphere in classes for students feel calm, so that they can learn more and better, to feel free to ask any questions , to express an idea, give an opinion etc. The teacher's role is always be aware of the questions that children can do, responding in a clear and simple way, if is necessary repeat over and over again and correct as many times as necessary, we must remember that learning a second language is not always easy.

Children learn a second/foreign language easier than adults.

This statement is true,  because children are literally a “sponge” that absorbs everything,  that is scientifically proven to children is more natural and easy to learn a new language, and that doesn´t make the translation process in his mind, the child associates the words such as "synonyms", in fact, this shows that children can develop perfectly well in multilingual environments, this means that the school can learn English and French at home  talk to his parents in Spanish and this doesn´t affect the child development and their ability to express themselves with the environment.

For adults is a little bit complicated because they're used to certain grammatical rules and express themselves in a way that totally changes when you are learning a new language, so adults should devote much more time and make the translation process in his brain to learn how to speak in another language.

Learner Autobiography

It's hard to talk about yourself, but in these lines i´ll  tell you why I chose a career Pedagogy  in English and why  I chose the University of Playa Ancha.

In elementary and secondary education, I always had bad English teachers actually never learned anything useful, only translate text and a few guides to make it at home, nothing hard …well at least for me it wasn´t, but many of my classmate were afraid of the English class because they usually didn´t understand anything.

Actually in school (in general)  I didn´t have very good grades but I liked the English class and was the subject that I was better, so I decided to study education in English for two reasons, first of all because I like,  the second reason to help others to learn a second language is not as difficult as it seems,  you just have to have an interest to learn and dedicate the necessary time, knowing also that the English can open many doors.

I chose the University of Playa Ancha because it was the only one with the carreer in evening mode, which would give me the opportunity to work and study at the same time.

And here I am now trying to do the best!