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As I said before, I am a bilingual person. I started studying English at the age of 4, when I started kindergarten. I started at a bilingual school, Platero, and then my parents transferred me to Padre Claret school. The latter had a very basic level of English. However, I really liked it when we had English classes.

From a very early age, I became really interested in the language, mostly because it was not difficult for me. I remember I found (and I still do) solving exercises really entertaining. Differently from my classmates, it did not bother me when the English hour started.

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I have attended English classes my whole life. When I was very little, around 4 years old, I started having English classes at school; then, throughout my whole primary and secondary education. My parents have always considered the learning of English as crucial in a person's life, so apart from school, I have always gone to a private institute. Therefore, I did not 'choose' to learn the language, but I was fine with it. I liked solving exercises, listening to songs, reading and trying to improve my pronunciation.

I do not remember very much about my kindergarten education of English; however, from what I remember, they taught English as a workshop. Since we were very little, we would learn words and maybe phrases, but everything through songs, games or projects.

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My formal English language learning trajectory

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My formal English language learning trajectory

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Apart from school, I started at the age of 6 in an institute called 'Bridge'. I really liked going there because, even though we had to go at nap time and I was little, I liked the fact that the classes were small (5 to 8 students) and the atmosphere was very friendly. Also, they organized a lot of games for special ocasions like Spring day, Student's day, 25th of May, among other festivities. Them doing this really encouraged us to keep wanting to go there. They made learning English very fun and interesting.

When I started secondary school, I changed to 'Colegio de Lenguas Extranjeras' (CLE). And this is another story: in order to enter the institute, we had to present our Spanish language average from primary level (not even the English one). I did not enter that year because my average was lower than the rest. I was really frustrated about this since English was my subject: I was very good at it at school and even at the institute, and sometimes I did not even study. Yet, this was a challenge I was willing to accept: entering the following year.

That year (when I was in seventh grade) I did not study any extracurricular English. In the summer, however, I prepared myself take an exam at CLE as 'libre' and skip first year. I was very nervous, mainly because I had not touched any English material rather than the simple things they gave us at school. Luckily, I got in. I studied the four years in that institute until I graduated from there.

The teaching techniques and approaches were very structuralist, following the PPP (Presentation, Practice, Production) model. I did not mind, though, since that was the only way to learn English I knew. In order to learn the language you had to know the grammar, which you learned through a coursebook.

I finished that course of English when I was in fourth year of secondary school (16 years old). It was a 'tradition' in my house to sit for the FCE (First Certificate Exam) at one point in our lives. Therefore, during my senior year of school, I went back to Bridge Institute and prepared to take the exam. Fortunately, I passed, and this exam exempted me from the entry exam to university.

So I can say I have learned English my whole life, I needed to like it! But apart from that, English always was the only subject I enjoyed, I felt good at, I felt motivated to have.

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As regards my school, I think that the teaching practices could be improved. Every person I have spoken with (who has gone to my school) feels the same way. It is like we saw the same basic topics throughout the whole secondary years. Since it is not a bilingual school, I understand that they are not prepared to give more difficult topics; however, at least the way in which they teach them could be different.

For instance, changing the structuralist and traditional approach to learning: that students are empty boxes who need to be filled with grammatical rules. I remember having done some activities that were different, like learning from songs or performing plays, but it was almost never like that. I do not see that the teaching practice they chose catered for our interests, nor were they mixed-ability classes. We used to work with a book and the book only. There were some oral instances where we could expand ourselves a little bit, but that was it. At school, English classes were not engaging; at least from what I remember.

Luckily, I had more contact with the language because I always went to a private institute besides school. Yet, I think it could have been more engaging had the school catered for the students' interests. Or at least presented us with different kinds of activities so as to know the language from a more approachable perspective.

As regards the institute, I really liked going there. Those were the two contacts I had with the language, and I very much preferred the institute. The classes were smaller, the activities were more engaging and they catered for our interests and different abilities. Classes were interested.

As a kid, I did not have any other contact with the language since no one close in my family spoke the it well. As a teenager, however, I always tried to watch movies and series in English and, now that I have a better understanding of the language, I also watch them with the subtitles in English. Watching series, or setting your cellphone in English, or navigating through the media are other contacts with the language. In fact, they teach you the language that native people actually use, something that is not taught in formal institutions.

I think that how you are taught something really influences how you will be able to manage it in the future. For instance, having had a behaviorist education of the language, where I had to do nothing more than repeating what was in front of me (even though I did like the language) has had an impact on how I use the language to communicate with others today. I am constantly thinking about how I said or will say something wrong and will be ashamed of it, when that is not really the point. Of course, you need to know the language so as to be able to use it, but if you can make yourself intelligible, you will learn the rest on the road. This is another thing I think could have been different in my education, both in the institute and at school. Students need to feel safe and engaged when learning and producing the language so that they want to do it again and to keep learning more and more.

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As I mentioned before, English came very easily for me and I really liked it. When I was younger, I used to study a lot because I liked to get good grades. However, as I grew older, specially as an adolescent in CLE, I did not study so much and did well anyway during the year. The problem came when I had to sit for the final exam. It was senior year, and I thought I would do great without studying so much. So I took the exam, and I passed but barely. I felt so frustrated after that exam because I did not understand why I had gotten that grade. However, I later realized I was seeking the wrong goal: I was more focused on the grades than on actually learning the language. This does not mean I did not like the language, but, even worse, I was not enjoying it. So that was a switch in my life as an English learner: ever since that day everything that was English-related I decided to approach with pleasure. I think that is the best thing that I could do, and I am really grateful that situation taught me that.

Another situation I remember was at school. I was in third year of secondary school, and I got on really well with my English teacher. She knew I liked the language and that I was pretty good at it. So, one day, she was evaluating some students, and she did not have time to correct some tests from lower courses. Therefore, she asked me to take a look at them and correct them with a pencil, so that it would help her correct faster later. I felt so proud and she made me feel so important. I remember going back home and telling my mom about it, and how excited it had been. After that, I was much more immersed in the classes and payed more attention. Knowing that my teacher had that confidence in me really increased my self-esteem as a language learner. Now that I think about it, I realize how important it is the way in which the teacher approaches both the language and his or her students.

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Experiences and beliefs always shape our new experiences, even when we do not realize it. In my case, studying English started as an obligation, and ended up being what I am going to dedicate my life to teach. Therefore, even if I have my reservations about the way in which I learned the language, it clearly marked me positively. Every day I am more and more interested in the language. Even better, I am more and more interested in the aspects I was never taught about the language: phonetics, literature, history of other places...

Yes, it is frustrating to learn a new language since you are learning something completely new, or at least that is how I saw it at the beginning. There are many words, sounds, expressions that are different from the ones in our first language, but that is the good part about it. We get to widen our vocabulary, our listening and speaking abilities. Learning a second language, in my case English, opens so many doors for the learner. It can give us the chance to travel abroad and to be able to communicate with other people who do not speak our first language. What is more, it is self-rewarding and self-motivating: knowing that we are able to manage another language encourages us to choose to learn more languages, or the one we are learning in more depth.

I think it is better to be, at least, bilingual. English is a global language nowadays: it tends to be the lingua franca among people from different countries whose first language is not English. Every day English is being used more and more, so I think it is important to learn at least two languages in one´s life. Not only is it better, but it is sometimes necessary to learn the language since most countries speak it and require foreigners to do so as well. As I said at the beginning of this autobiography, learning a new language is a door-opener.

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As I said before, the way in which I learned my second language was a traditional one. I did not question it because it was the only way in which things were taught. However, today, as a fourth year student about to become an English teacher (hopefully very soon), I think language can and should be taught differently. As a child, it did not even crossed my mind that things could be learned in a different way. But now, looking backwards, I can see how the main reason why we should learn a language is not present in the behaviorist view of the language. I was not taught how to use the language to communicate with others; instead, I was taught isolated expressions I now see are important, but that is because I like the language (independently from how I was taught) and became interested in learning more about it. But people who prefer other subjects rather than languages, will not be equally engaged in learning the new language, because the way in which it is presented to them does not cater for what they like. Therefore, they do not have any intention to learn something they do not care about or see no purpose in. I think it is extremely important that classes cater for the students' multiple intelligences, mixed abilities and also their interests, because their attention will not be caught if they are not interested in what is presented to them.

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As a language learner and user, I think my weaknesses are, first of all, that I am a perfectionist. Therefore, I do not produce the language until I am sure that what I am about to say is perfectly built (both pronunciation and grammar). Also, I do not rely very much on what I know: I tend to doubt, specially when I am writing, whether I am doing it right or not.

As regards my strengths, I think I am a very persistent person, so I do not allow myself to give up until I have completed or understood a task. Also I really love languages, and I think that is the key to learning a second language (or more!).

I think we are learners all of our lives. Some day, I hope to overcome my weaknesses, to enhance my strengths and to develop new ones. I know that there always is more to learn, and I really look forward to that. In the future, I see myself looking for different courses to keep learning, either about English literature or phonetics, or even learning other languages! In fact, I never want to stop learning, because there is always something we do not know yet. Yes, I have knowledge of grammatical rules and phonetics, but there is so much more out there to learn: literature, history, how to teach literature or phonetics, to kids, teenagers or adults... The thing is, it is important to know that learning is a process that never stops.

In fact, last year I was talking to one of my classmates and we were discussing exactly this: what are we going to do next? And the best part is that there is always something else! And with that knowledge, specially as a teacher, I can do so many things!