LEARNING REVOLUTION by Esther Isabel Rufo

MY LEARNING REVOLUTION

ester_iru — 2019-01-30 17:32:56 UTC

There are many ways of teaching and I really believe that all of them have positive contributions. The key is to find a balance between all them and try to get the best of each. Apart from that, I consider that looking at the L2 learning, one of the most important things is that students realise that a language is something very useful in their real lives, which can be related to their daily routine and developed from their own knowledge. They have to understand that English may become one of their most powerful tools in both professional and personal fields. Therefore, my revolution will be focused on using a way of teaching that include meaningful materials and real contexts, trying to make students realise of an L2 importance and contributing with their motivation development.

Use of meaningful materials

ester_iru — 2019-01-30 17:42:17 UTC

One of the main features of significant learning, which can be considered as a pro, is that the materials resources are real, they appear and can be used in everyday life in different contexts. As a result, the use of these kind of sources and materials gives us the opportunity of using the language in context.
These sources can be used not only in order to develop oral skills but also for writing, reading and listening. Some examples could be: the news (use of BBC news, radio, newspaper, etc.), role plays about daily life situations they can come across, letters of complaint or application, etc.
The great advantage is that through this kind of practice they can develop other competence like grammar, pronunciation, spelling, etc.

Use of attractive real contexts to develop language contents

ester_iru — 2019-01-30 17:53:12 UTC

I also consider very important to use and work with situations and different contexts that attract students. A good example to show the importance and benefits of mastering a universal language as it is English is its use to communicate with people from other countries in everyday life or when travelling. Nowadays, everybody is very into travelling so this is a topic than can be very attractive for students and meaningful and practical at the same time. People travel abroad and they have to face many different situations and context in English: from the signals they find as soon as they get off the plane to situations to order anything in a restaurant or trying to get information about directions, for example.

Learning new contents by matching them with previous knowledge

ester_iru — 2019-01-30 18:07:29 UTC

It is really important to be aware of what our students know since we can make the best of this knowledge by using it as foundation of new contents.
As far as I am concerned, giving the students the opportunity of working from their own knowledge, will make them be more confident and feel more comfortable. The way students feel towards the learning process is considered for me as an essential fact in the development of this process as well as its results. That's the reason why I believe that teaching new contents by means of students' knowledge and personal experiences is a very interesting and valuable technique.

CONCLUSIONS

ester_iru — 2019-01-30 19:30:18 UTC

This way of teaching will contribute to increase students' motivation given that thanks to it, they will realise how important and useful a language can be. Furthermore, the idea of working with topics that can be attractive for students, as the topic of travelling, may also make them be more interested in studying English.
From my point of view, there is nothing more powerful in teaching than being aware of students previous knowledge, likes and dislikes, special interests to get them involved in their own learning. I consider this kind of acquisition as natural and useful for both, students and teachers.
According to Khrasen (1982), a second language is acquired the same way as a modern tongue, by being directly exposed to it. This is what we have to look for in our lessons in order to make the best of our students.