MY EXPERIENCE WITH ENGLISH

Good morning everyone!🙋

In this post, I am going to talk about my relationship with the English language throughout my life. First of all, I have to say I was 14 years old (more or less) when I began to keen on learning English.

In Primary School, English was the subject I hated the most. I don’t know if that was because I wasn’t able learn a new language or because the teachers didn’t know the way to motivate their students to learn or be keen on studying this subject. Their methodology  wasn´t good to the extent that I only have two good memories from this period of my life (related to the English classes):

One the one hand, the first good memory about this period is a song which I listened when I was in preschool. This song is about the alphabet and it was sung by a bear who was called Teddy. With this song I learnt all the alphabet in English and I still remember the music of this song.

I am going to put here a similar song.⇩

On the other hand, it was a teacher who was called Paulino. I remember him with great affection because he spent a lot of his free-time giving us some extra lessons due to the bad level of students (like me). In these extra lessons, he helped us to improve our English in order not to fail our English exams.

In High School, I started to study the grammatical structures of English and work the listening skill. At the same time, I started to see how some people I know went abroad to study English in something like Summers Camps, so I decided to do some research in case there were some grants so I could go there too. However, we were feeling the effects of the crisis so the Government removed all the grants of this type. Another option was to go abroad without any scholarship, but these classes were and are very expensive. For this reason, I chose to talk with my parents and ask them to sign me up for classes in an English academy in order to improve my speaking skill (this skill is never taught in by the Schools and I considered and consider that it is a basic skill to have a good English language level).

When I finished High School, I managed to improve my spoken English, but I knew that I needed to go abroad to find out if I was able to communicate in a real situation.

Later, I started University and, by chance, I saw a poster announcing a grant from the Xunta of Galicia in order to improve some languages in their country, but the requirement was to have completed 60 credits of the some degree.

The next year, I completed all the application forms and in summer I went to Chichester (a village in the South of England) for three weeks.

There, I didn’t really learn all that I had to learn because there were a lot of Spanish people (in my class there were 15 students and 13 were Spanish) but it was a good experience and I improved my listening skill and the pronunciation (a bit).  Despite not having learned a lot, I think that it was good because it was a motivation to keep improving my English.

In short, I consider the methods of teaching of English language at schools have not been the appropriate ones until today. Because of this, I think it is necessary to be very up-to-date in this field in order to teach lessons and I am sure that if you motivate students with the suitable materials, everyone can learn a new language unawares.

Hereunder, I am going to put some links with some grants which can be useful for you:

• Grant to learn English in Madrid      
• Grant to learn other language in their country
• Grant to practice English as a teacher

Being a summer camp monitor

At the age of 7 I went to my first summer camp during 7 days, it was my first time away from home and it was completely horrible.

The next year my parents send me to another camp again, but it wasn't as horrible as I remember it, so I began to liked it. It liked me that much that I was waiting the whole year to go to a summer camp, this days were the best of my life.

Then when I grew up my parents decided that it was better for me to go abroad to learn English during summer, so during four years that was what I did. 

Despite I really liked it, it wasn't the same at being on a summer camp, so I decided that when I get older I was going to be a summer camp monitor.

And that's what I did, I found a course that allowed you to be a freetime monitor, I did it and after doing my practices I began to work on something that I really like, and where I don't care spending my summer without hollidays.

This helped me also to realise how much I liked children, how many patience I had and also it helped me to be a more opening person, and mostly it helped me to do teamwork something very important for our future as teachers.

Being monitor it's difficult, because you have to be always active despite you have only sleept for fou or five hours a day during 12 days, you have to be focus on everything and mostly focus on children. It's hard but it worths it.

I know it's difficult to understand how amazing camps are, but trust me, if you have the oportunity to go to one and work as a monitor, don't hesitate it and go.

It's amazing to feel that children love you, that for them during 12 days you are like a big brother/sister or like a hero, it's really comforting feeling part of a big group of people that began a family in a short period of time.

I know that this feeling depends on the person, but believe me, once you try it, it's difficult not to get addictited.

I hope you could understand what I wanted to transmit.

The importance of motivation in learning.

How do you think motivation is important for students to learn? Maybe you
have never stopped thinking about this topic, but the influence in learning and
teaching is bigger than you ever though.

The way of teaching is beginning to change, nowadays there are less teachers
who exercise their profession by speaking the whole time, they try to do the classes
more interactive, more participative. Students are the most important part of this
method of teaching-learning, so they have to be motivated in order to learn what
we want them to learn. It is not easy, but all of us can afford it if we try.

One of the methods used is Pygmalion effect, watch this video:

Rosenthal defines 4 key factors which drive this Pygmalion effect:

1) Climate factor: teachers who expect more of certain students tend to create
a warmer climate for those children, both verbally and non verbally (for example,
they will smile more often at them).

2) Input factor: teachers will tend to teach more material to children they
think they are smarter.

3) Response opportunity factor: children who are expected to bloom
academically will get more chances to respond.

4) Feedback factor: if the expectations of a child increase, they will get more
motivated when they are right, but they will get more differentiated feedback
when they make a mistake. Children who are not expected to perform get less
feedback when they are wrong because teachers would seem to think that
the children in question would not understand the correction and so the teachers
spend less time trying to correct them.

Maybe unconsciously you were used this method, or not, but it works, I swear you
because I tried. I am sure that not all the cases are the same, but in a high percent
they are.

I would like you will give me your opinion about it, or tell me about your
experiences with this method.

Choose your own way

 

Hi guys! Today I wanted to share with you one of the most recurrent thoughts that I´ve had lately. It is related with English but also with life in general. Let´s start with a flashback.

            I was in the school when I failed my first exam. It was an English exam. I started believing that it was my fault, maybe I wasn´t good with languages. Adults told me that I didn´t have to worry if English wasn´t my strong point, I will find one someday. I started High School wondering which would be my favourite subject, and English didn´t seemed an option for me. A few years later I started going to an English academy and little by little I improved and I realised that I loved it. It´s quite crazy that I ended up my High School going to England on a scholarship, one of the best experiences of my life.

            Right now I look back and realise that I never had anything to worry about. Children don´t know their own potential. Teachers have to show them that with effort they can be wherever they want. It doesn´t matter if you fail once, twice or twenty times, if you like it you have to try again.

            Currently I´m studying to be an English teacher, I´m really motivated but I know I still have to learn a lot of things, everyone has. Hopefully one day children will go to school and learn because they want, and not because they are obligated. Experimenting new things is the best way to know if you like them or not, but succeed isn´t going to happen in a blink, it´s made of hard work.

            This was my experience with English, if you want to leave in the comments something similar that happened to you, I´ll be really happy to read it. See you soon!

ENGLISH ONLINE

Learning a foreign language is very important nowadays.

It's important that children learn English at an early age because it's easier for them than adults.

For children to show an interest in English we should make this a fun learning experience. Nowadays we have many resources for a more funny and meaningful learning.

Thanks to the new technologies we have a great variety of content, games, app, videos ... A very fun and economical way to learn the new language. It's only necessary to have internet access and an electronic device.

Here you can see some resources online:

Http://www.funenglishgames.com/
It's a website for children to learn English with activities, videos, games ...

It's a video so that the little ones learn new vocabulary in English



Http://www.educapeques.com/los-juegos-educativos/juegos-de-ingles-para-ninos/portal.php?contid=70&accion=listo
It's a game that children can complete words, make matches, sort letters, choose the right word ... and have several levels of difficulty.

BULLYING

Hi!!

I talk about bullying in class.


What is bullying?¿?


Bullying is the deliberate and continuous physical  or psychological abuse of a child by another or others, who behave cruelly for the purpose of subjecting and frightening him or her in order to obtain a favorable outcome for the bully or simply to satisfy the need to attack and destroy that these usually present.

Bullying implies a continuous repetition of teasing or aggression and can lead to social exclusion of the victim.



 Characteristics:

- Teasing, threats, physical attacks, systematic isolation, etc
.
- It tends to originate problems that are repeated and prolonged for a certain time.

- It is usually caused by a student, supported by a group, against a victim who is defenseless.
.
- The victim develops fear and rejects the context in which he suffers violence; Loss of confidence in oneself and in others, and decreased school performance.

- It diminishes the capacity of moral understanding and empathy of the aggressor, while a reinforcement of a violent style of interaction takes place.


- It reduces the quality of life of the environment in which it occurs: difficulty achieving objectives and increase of problems and tensions.


Types 


- Physical: pushing, kicking, aggression with objects,

- Verbal: insults and motes.

- Psychological: undermine the individual's self-esteem and foster a sense of fear.



- Social: seeks to isolate the youth from the rest of the group and colleagues.

Similarities between Ireland and Galicia

I have chosen this topic because the last week I read an article about this in the newspaper and I found it interesting. I had listened something about it, but I have decide to look for some new information. I hope you enjoy the reading.

The result of a genetic study of the Trinity College of  Dublin announced in 2010 showed that Irish people could have direct descendant of Galicians and Basques. The three races would share the Y chromosome. This theory coincides with the mythical legend of Breogan,a Celtic king whose descendants and whose army would have arrived in Ireland and would have conquered it, respectively, after the death of the first ones mentioned.

In fact, Celts, in the Iron Age, founded the culture, religion and homeland of Galicia that later would transfer to Ireland in the later emigration to the British Islands. As evidence of this, actually there are many coincidences in the culture of both nations: in mythology, there are heroic and mysterious legends, characters as gods and magical witches; in music, the bagpipe, the tambourine, the folk dance and music; in linguistics, each nation has an meaning of the word morriña, in Irish, cumha; in culinary terms, the copious meals; finally, the most acknowledged similarities: the rainy weather and the green landscapes. 

Now, we have to pray for Galicia to approach our sister nation's high per capita so that the parallelism is completely happy.

Landscape of Irlanda

Landscape of Galicia

Typical Galician dance and music

Typical Irish dance and music

Erasmus experience

In the first semester, I had been an Erasmus student in Warsaw, when I arrived in the country I was very surprised because I didn’t expect it as it was. The first week, while I was looking for a flat for rental, I stayed in a hostel with more Erasmus students, finally we found one. Luckily, our landlord spoke English, so we didn’t have any problem talking with her.

At the beginning, it was a bit strange as it was very far from Spain and the Polish people wasn’t very friendly with foreigners.

Few days after that, the first of October, the classes at University started, where I had to catch a tram to go there. In the class, we were all Erasmus students, Turkish and Spanish. I chose five subjects but later I decided to change two of them, because, they were taught in Polish, being so difficult. The teachers were very nice, and the coordinator solved all the problems quickly.

There was an association called ESN, which organized trips and other activities. One of these trips organized by them, was to Krakow, which I decided to go, enjoying very much the city and meeting many interesting people.

The weeks were passing and the weather was getting very cold. In November, we were at 0 degrees celsius or even less. In this month, my friends and I traveled to Wroclaw, a charming but small Polish town.

 At the end of November, we traveled to Berlin, which I loved it. After this trip, we went to Stockholm, a nice city too but very expensive.

In December it was snowy, so it was very cold. At the end of this month, I returned to Spain for Christmas.

After Christmas, I returned to Warsaw, when I got off the plane it was very cold, -14 degrees. In this month I didn’t travel, but my friends came to visit me.

Finally in February, I returned to Spain.

To sum up, I loved this experience and I recommend it to everyone.

MY EXPERIENCE WITH ENGLISH LANGUAGE

Hello everybody!!

I liked a lot of the English language in secondary school. I paid attention to the way of my teacher's teaching and I imagined how would be my way of teach when I be teacher.

My thoughts changed when I was in Baccalaureate because I began to hate the English language. I had writing and grammar exercises all time since I was child. I never did oral exams and I think that this is very important. 

I think that the method of schools should change. The subject of English should be more practice and more oral exercises or exams  than writing exercises.

To teach English to child without “traditional methods” I think it's good:

1.  Don't force the situation.
2. To create mystery in the class.
3. To see cartoons in original version.
4. To play with funny games.
5. To sing English songs to learn new vocabulary.

We will be future teachers of English and we should keep it in mind when we become great teacher. This  change depends on us.

THANKS YOU!!

Learning English with movies and series

Using series and movies to learn a language is a method that has many advantages. They are a fun way to learn English when you are too tired to do anything else. They can, also, give a cultural insight so you´ll be able to understand the culture and history of the country. Thanks to the new technologies we have a great variety of audiovisual elements and possibilities of interaction with them.

Some advantages of this method are, among others, that you can learn real English, the kind that native people actually speak. The English spoken in movies is very natural and use some colloquial expressions that aren´t found in textbooks.

You can hear how words are pronounced which is a very interesting and important thing to learn because it allows you to better communicate with native speakers and to improve your English level. Also, you can understand how words are said, taking into account the tone of voice, so you will be able to know what the person who is talking wants to express, further than just paying attention to the words. This is an advantage that we don´t have if we want to learn this by reading (which doesn´t mean that reading is not a good method, on the contrary, since it helps us with vocabulary, spelling and syntax) because reading doesn´t allow us to observe the characters or interpret their expressions.

Movies and series can give an idea of the context in which the words that you have just been learning are used. This is an advantage in relation to learning from vocabulary lists, which is very common, for example, in schools. It´s obvious that knowing the meaning of the words is essential but knowing where and when to use them is important too, as well as the different meanings they acquire according to the context in which they are used.

The last advantage that we are going to comment is the possibility of turning on or off the subtitles during the visualization of the movie or series that we choose. Although many people recommend seeing them without any subtitles, this can be challenging at the beginning so I think that maybe they can be gradually turned off. For example, at first, you can have them in Spanish and, as you improve, they can be switched to English and then, finally, you can turn them off completely. Perhaps it would also be a good idea to watch easy movies and series, and the ones that matches with your current English level so it´s not too complicated when you start. You can even watch films in English that you have already seen in Spanish first. On the other hand, the subtitles may present the problem of reliability depending on who make them since not always are experienced translators who carry out this work.

For all the previous advantages I think that series and films constitute a good way of learning without this supposing to take away importance to the other methodologies.