1.     Definition of action research

2.     The writing process

3.     Personal aspects to improve in writing and suggestions to work with students

4.     The ideal lesson plan

5.     Analysis of students needs as a benefit for the process of effective lesson planning.

6.     Applicability of teacher’s role workshop

7.     Resource centers and autonomous learning

8.     The most effective way to teach writing and the effectiveness of sophisticated materials

9.     Creation of a course and future inclusion of learning activities through moodle workshop

10.  Reading strategies and super food text

11.  Reading strategies challenges PARAPHRASING

12.  Reading implication, ways to overcome its challenges and clear specific goal

13. “Good writers concentrate on the overall meaning and organization of a text, and engage in planning activities.  This involves thinking about the purpose of the writing……The particular purpose implies an organization for the writing and a style appropriate for the readers” (Hedge 2000:305

14. Strategies to linking devices use and their identification from readings

15. Autonomous learners by Reinders Hayo (2002)

16. Similarities and differences in both listening and reading strategies and benefits of similarities

17. Listening strategies

18. Which approach/methods best meet the linguistic and affective needs of your English students?

19. One strategy to contribute to raising the self-esteem of learners.

20. Classroom management and discipline

A letter to the teacher you observed giving him/her some advice on how to brush up on their skill of one of the following aspects:

a.  Correcting their students or

b.  Managing classroom discipline

21. Benefits and disadvantages to teaching phonetic symbols to your English students

22. Agree or disagree on

1. Pronunciation needs to be deliberately taught.

2. The non-native teacher should serve as a model for target language pronunciation.

3. Pronunciation should be taught as a separate activity.

23. Informal assessment validity

24. To what extend do you consider developing the intercultural skills in your students an important step in the learning of a language?

25. Using free webs: To what extent do you consider that the use of technology may encourage teachers to create their own teaching material suitable for their students’ needs and characteristics?

26.  Benefits from the use of Hot Potatoes

1. Definition of action research

A self-reflection oriented process, based on cooperative work, which involves fact-finding techniques in order to intervene and solve teaching and learning problems, hence improving classroom practices.

2. The writing process

Writing is a cognitive process that requires intrinsic motivation and implies sharing with others ideas and opinions about specific topics. In order to be efficient in writing its necessary to follow some steps which I would rank as follows: sourcing as the most relevant because it implies taking into account previous background on the topic; revising for mechanics on second place, which is best to be done on final stages, and thinking about audience, that is determinant in defining style and register.

Even though it is absolutely necessary to get used to follow these steps I find it difficult to brainstorm and outline ideas before writing. In addition, deciding what the adequate register should be used according to audience might be complicated too.

3. Personal aspects to improve in writing and suggestions to work with students

Regarding the writing skill I consider that one of the things I need to improve is the lack of synonyms because I frequently use the same words and I would like my writing to be more like academic texts. One of the strategies I intend to use from now on is to search for words in a monolingual dictionary in order to build up my lexicon and find other ways to express my ideas.

Concerning my students I consider important to share with them this strategy, apart from others like unscrambling sentences, gap-filling exercises, peer and self correction and every day practice through keeping a personal or group journal.

4. The ideal lesson plan

There are a lot of aspects and stages that should be taken into account when planning a lesson. Nonetheless, each teacher, based on the knowledge that he has gathered through daily interactions with students, should reflect and decide on which stages an ideal plan would have.

In an attempt to fulfill this individual necessity I would mention the following stages as relevant components of an ideal lesson plan

-         Warming-up: during which vocabulary could be presented

-         Aim-product: the teacher should inform the class what the aim of the oncoming activities is and discuss the final product the students are expected to do

-         Presentation of the topic: which should be done through meaningful activities in real contexts

-         Grammar explanation: only if necessary

-         Practice: controlled and free exercises that could lead the class into the final product regarding communicative functions and competences, vocabulary and grammar.

-         Product: evidence of students’ progress and learning

-         Publishing stage. Students are allowed to share with other their products

After reflecting on lesson planning I consider pertinent to mention that an effective lesson plan should answer the questions of what, what for, who, when, where, and how regarding the learning process through the simple reading of its stages.

5. Analysis of students needs as a benefit for the process of effective lesson planning.

Several pedagogical approaches have stated that education need not be a fixed set of rules and theories but an evolving science which can easily be adapted to societal changes. Every day human beings face different challenges regarding technological advances, scientific discoveries and cultural changes. Consequently, they need to be equipped with various competences in order to survive in this changing world. Thus, school and teachers have a great responsibility in providing students with useful and essential tools as communicative skills (both in their mother tongue and foreign language), logical thinking and problem solving abilities, adaptability and social competences. Because of that, when planning lessons, teachers should be aware of this reality and provide, through their classes, the ideal environment to develop these characteristics in pupils.

Apart from this, analysis of student need ought to broaden to a perspective of affective requirements which, if not taken into consideration, might result in lack of motivation from learners and, what is worst, human beings without values, principles and projects for life.

6. Applicability of teacher’s role workshop

For a long time, the role of a teacher has been regarded as that of a problem solver and knowledge provider preventing other types of interaction that are vital for learning, in particular when learning a foreign language. Fortunately, this view has changed within the last decades, opening a whole new atmosphere into classrooms.

Teachers are no longer the ones who need to worry about having an answer for everything; of course a broad knowledge is desirable, but beyond that being a successful teacher implies other requirements such as acting as a mediator between knowledge and students, whereas reinforcing pupil’s motivation and logical thinking are essential tool

The applicability of these concepts is related to the lesson planning process, for it is during this stage that teachers are required to foresee what role is expected from them and which interactions are most useful for a particular group and activity.

7. Resource centers and autonomous learning

Today’s’ technology allows students, and any person interested in learning, to deepen intro any area of human knowledge, particularly when the matter is learning a foreign language. Nowadays, most of the schools and universities have realized that having a resource center, where students and teachers can autonomously interact with a considerable number of devices, is absolutely necessary.

Yet, it is not only a matter of providing means, facilities, technical support and human assistance; resource centers should encourage and accompany autonomous learning, if not, they risk becoming a collection of well-organized computers and books. However, teachers have a great responsibility in this area because of their roles as motivators and facilitators or the learning process. That is to say that pupils need preliminary activities in order to develop skills and routines which are basic for autonomous learning.

8. The most effective way to teach writing and the effectiveness of sophisticated materials

Dealing with writing it’s a great challenge for every human being due to the fact that it requires complex mental processes. On the other hand, teaching someone how to write is far more complicated than providing some topics, ideas, materials and instructions to write upon.

It is clear enough that the first challenge for teachers is to find the most effective but subtle way to motivate students towards written expression. This goal might be achieved when the real nature of writing is taken into consideration; that is writing is an intentional human activity. As a consequence, purpose in writing is vital when teaching someone how to write. Nevertheless, motivation and purpose provided do not necessarily imply success in the task of writing; undoubtedly, reading is the ultimate foolproof source of writing, for it is a mental process that requires coding and decoding abilities and can work perfectly as a writing activator.

9.  Creation of a course and future inclusion of learning activities through moodle workshop

After exploring Moodle and the great many possibilities that it offers to teachers, such as forums chats and posting of resources and activities I consider it a highly valuable source in order to create and implement an English course. What I view as the most remarkable characteristic of the Moodle platform is its theoretical basis which includes concepts of social constructivism, constructionism and autonomous learning. Therefore I find it quite interesting to include Moodle as a tool for language teaching. Because of the way it is developed and planned, this software matches perfectly with the needs and requirements of language learning which range from autonomous work, own pace, interaction with others and so on.

Having said this, I think it is relevant to mention the great responsibility that teachers have regarding the fact that they need to keep updated in order to create a course using Moodle. Besides, students require previous preparation to move from a content-based environment classes to an autonomous learning approach.

10.  Reading strategies and superfood text

Being reading a very complex process I find it useful and essential to work on strategies and activities that can boost any reader’s understanding, enjoyment applicability of a text.

Today’s text, Superfoods, gave the chance to think on how important it is to propose texts that deal with real life  topics that concern every human being. As teachers, we prefer a literature or complex text over simple every day writing because the former are considered the most challenging, therefore more suitable for academic work, not taking into account that any passage, no matter how trivial it may seem, can be subject to reading strategies that only search for understanding but contribute in developing thinking skills.

11.  Reading strategies challenges PARAPHRASING

Paraphrase: to express the same message in different words. In my opinion paraphrasing is one of the most difficult, but at the same time, effective reading strategies to implement. One of the challenges that it implies is the requirement of a wide range of vocabulary on the part of students, because synonyms, idiomatic expressions and even phrasal verbs are desirable when paraphrasing ideas.

On the other hand, and based on constructionism, we can say that there is an effective learning when constructing something for others. In other words, when a person is able to explain or give examples of what has been subject of study, one can really say that there is effective learning. Therefore, paraphrasing meets the needs of assessing understanding when reading, along with developing communication through expanding vocabulary.

12.  Reading implication, ways to overcome its challenges and clear specific goal.

In my teaching experience I have found that one of the less used, yet still extremely productive way to face a passage is activating background knowledge, and that is because teachers often see students as empty individuals who need to be filled up with information through activities held up in the classroom. One way to overcome this situation would imply trying this before reading strategy in the classroom, at least once, in order to assess its applicability; teachers and students will find out how broad and useful their knowledge on any topic is, and the way motivation is encouraged.

Our goal, as teachers, is to find the most successful and appealing ways to activate students’ background knowledge regarding not only reading, but also writing and listening tasks. 

13. “Good writers concentrate on the overall meaning and organization of a text, and engage in planning activities.  This involves thinking about the purpose of the writing……The particular purpose implies an organization for the writing and a style appropriate for the readers” (Hedge 2000:305)

Regarding Hedge’s point of view about the process of writing I consider appropriate to state that it meets the necessities of anyone looking forward to writing in a coherent and meaningful way. I completely agree with the fact that it is imperative to set a clear purpose for any piece of writing, for it is at this point when a writer can make decisions on audience, style, register and layout.

Undoubtedly, setting purpose implies a whole series of upcoming planning stages according to Hedge’s statement, what I view as a pertinent argument when it comes to writing because organization and planning give a writer a path that will surely lead him to put across his/her ideas and opinions in an understandable way.

14. Strategies to linking devices use and their identification from readings

Linking devices are a significant, yet complex, part of language that must be taught to students to help them write coherent texts. To my view, linking words and expressions should be introduced to students in a funny way, by means of matching and bingo games, flashcards, sorting activities which involve different categories and even unscrambling words and phrases. When pupils are familiarized with linking devices, use in context would be introduced more easily through gap filling tasks, identification from readings, completion of dialogues and so on.

Admittedly, emphasis on four skills should be taken into account in the context-presentation stage for it will help students acquire the new input and tell between “academic” linking devices from those that can be used in everyday situations and contexts.

15. Autonomous learners by Reinders Hayo (2002)

Even though the words autonomous learning might sound trendy, as well as it has happened with all new theories in search of explaining learning processes, it is undeniable that teachers’ effort should focus on understanding what this model implies for our daily pedagogical practices.

I find it particularly interesting to analyze how society strongly influences education; social changes place special demands on teachers as well as students. If we want our teenagers to become successful citizens of this global world, attention is to be paid on the requirements of such environment.

On the other hand, it is particularly true that this model suits nowadays needs of learning, not only in a specific area such as language learning, but it can also be expanded to any field of human knowledge. Therefore, it is an unquestionable responsibility for teachers to gain consciousness on the implications of such model in order to start implementing it, keeping in mind that its main goal it’s not only limited to language learning, but it is also oriented to provide students useful tools for future success.

16. Similarities and differences in both listening and reading strategies and benefits of similarities

Being both listening and reading input skills, it is clear enough that they share many aspects in regards to strategies that should be used to introduce texts. One of those similarities lies on the fact that teachers need to emphasize their planning on activities that come before presenting the input text, in order to activate student`s background knowledge. Doing this, will result in students willing to listen or read about any topic and, at the end, comprehension and extensive listening and reading might be encouraged.

Consequently, we as teachers could take benefit from these similarities in order to plan our classes, bearing in mind students learning styles. It could be interesting to try presenting a new topic using both skills alternatively, thus meeting pupils’ learning styles.

17. Listening strategies

18. Which approach/methods best meet the linguistic and affective needs of your English students?

Having studied the different methods that have been incepted throughout history it is my belief that the one that best meets my students’ linguistic and affective needs is the Freirean approach. This method aims to learn the target language through the process of inquiry about real-life and relevant issues.

One of the main issues teachers have to deal with is the lack of motivation of students towards the learning of a foreign language and it is probably due to the fact that they see no reason for learning and they do not find it any useful to be able to communicate in a language that is not their native one. With this approach, relevance to pupils’ own environment is taken into consideration what makes it significant for them to communicate through the target language. Another major advantage of this method is that it fosters communicative skills through various activities and tasks that concentrate on the development of critical thinking abilities which will undoubtedly meet students’ needs.

19. One strategy to contribute to raising the self-esteem of learners.

In my opinion, raising self-esteem in students it’s not a matter of strategies or specific workshops or activities designed specifically to address this issue. For me there are two factors that are to be analyzed in order to raise learners’ self-esteem, being them: teacher acting as a model and student attitude towards error and failure.

It is widely known that being a teacher goes far beyond from transmitting knowledge. In this sense, teachers are viewed as models, they’re also expected to be coherent, meaning that every single action that they take should correspond to their personal opinions and beliefs, and their attitudes are to be assessed in terms of sincerity and reliability. Therefore, if a teacher is to implement some strategies to raise pupil’s self-esteem it would be advisable to take some time to analyze personal opinions about his/her students’ chances of success.

On the other hand, I consider that in any educational environment time should be taken in order to explore and question students’ attitude towards failure. Pupils might have better results if they were trained to accept, identify and analyze their own mistakes as an essential part of any learning process which will lead them to a more efficient and autonomous education. Thus, raising self-esteem in the classroom would not be related to find the most suitable strategy but it would be the result of an attitude of life.

20. Classroom management and discipline. A letter to the teacher you observed giving him/her some advice on how to brush up on their skill of one of the following aspects:

a. Correcting students or

b. Managing classroom discipline

Dear teacher:

After observing your class, the first thing that I have to say is that I feel grateful for that opportunity.

Secondly I would like to state that among the many aspects my observation intended to focus on the principal item was that of correcting students. Accordingly there are some criteria that I have applied in my classroom and have proved to work well; therefore I would like to share them with you. In the first place it is not advisable to correct every single mistake students make, doing so will cause pupils to be ashamed or reluctant to communicate in further activities. Instead, I would recommend you to take some time in order to observe what the most common mistakes are and give some further practice.

Another point to consider is the fact that not all mistakes affect communication. Sometimes it is better to ignore a slip of the tongue which does not greatly interfere with the message a student is trying to convey for the sake of real genuine communication.

Finally, I may state that correcting mistakes is one of the most difficult issues a teacher has do deal with because it is closely related to motivation and self-esteem. Hence, we as teachers, have a strong responsibility to find better ways to perform this uneasy task.

Truly yours

Deyanira García Gómez

21. Benefits and disadvantages to teaching phonetic symbols to your English students

To my view, there are many advantages to teaching phonetic symbols to English students; among them I consider significant to refer to the fact that knowing phonetic symbols will make students aware of the particular characteristics of English pronunciation and the necessity of being as accurate as possible when speaking. Moreover, getting to know the phonetic symbols can be a plus or added value to pupils’ autonomous learning because it will enable them to keep on perfecting their mastering of the language.

On the other hand, there´s still a disadvantage to teaching phonetic symbols and it is the fact that most dictionaries have their own set of symbols which can be confusing for learners; Anyway, it would be prudent to make students aware of this situation in order to avoid inconveniences and disappointment.

22. Agree or disagree on

1. Pronunciation needs to be deliberately taught

2. The non-native teacher should serve as a model for target language pronunciation

3. Pronunciation should be taught as a separate activity

Integrating pronunciation activities into the classroom might be as imperative as planning activities to strengthen vocabulary, for that reason I completely agree on the idea that it should be deliberately taught as part of any English syllabus. As for non-native teacher serving as a model for pronunciation I consider that pupils undeniably require some guidance in order to reproduce, as accurately as possible, the target language. Thus, teacher becomes that guidance and model students require. Nevertheless it is unavoidable for teachers to provide pupils with several input models for target language as that found in listening activities, songs, videos and other communicative situations that involve native and non-native speakers.

Finally I have to say that I completely disagree with that position of teaching pronunciation as a separate activity, I believe it useless to allot specific time to do so, if pronunciation of new input language is not persistently worked out.

23. Informal assessment validity

Before considering the validity and feasibility of using informal assessment within the classroom, it is essential to state that teachers are evaluating different aspects of learning such as students’ progress and motivation, lesson planning success, classroom atmosphere and even discipline management, through mostly non formal activities.

Having said this, it is clear enough that my point of view regarding informal assessment is that it constitutes a valid form to verify pupil´s progress and achievement of learning objectives. Among the different types of informal assessment studied I would like to try self-assessment for I think it is necessary and highly educative that students share along with teachers the responsibility of evaluating to what extent they are achieving proposed learning goals.

24. To what extent do you consider developing the intercultural skill in your students an important step in the learning of a language?

I have always thought that learning a language it´s not a goal itself; being able to master the English language allows any person to access different areas of the human knowledge. Besides, I strongly believe that when a person can communicate in a foreign language the way he or she understand the world changes completely. It is as if the brain went through a process of adjustment to that new input and we start thinking in a different manner.

Accordingly to these viewpoints, I couldn´t agree more on the opinion that developing intercultural skill is an important step in the learning of a language. Moreover if we take into account that factors such as body language, context, authority relations and cultural background greatly affect our intention when conveying a message. Consequently, culture should accompany target language teaching; not doing so would end in students mastering a set of grammar rules and vocabulary with no sense of purpose for communication and, what is worse, failure to communicate.

25. To what extent do you consider that the use of technology may encourage teachers to create their own teaching material suitable for their students’ needs and characteristics?

Using technology today is an essential aspect teachers should consider when planning their classes, not only because it benefits pupils’ learning process and facilitates lesson planning but because it is a way of literacy for the 21^st century and subsequently, teachers have some responsibility in providing students with enough training to deal with cutting-edge technology.

What is more, using technology provides a valuable tool for teachers to create, adapt and even personalize materials that can address students’ needs, interests and characteristics. In order to do so teachers are required to empower themselves in the use of technology; therefore it is vital to view autonomous learning along with being resourceful and creative as compulsory characteristics of English teachers to young learners

26. Benefits from the use of Hot Potatoes and exploring of other software tools

Students as well as teachers might be greatly benefited from the use of software applications such as Hot Potatoes because it is an easy-to-use tool to produce funny, yet meaningful teaching material, suitable to fit individual and whole class needs and characteristics.

To my view, Hot Potatoes can be mainly used for assessing pupil’s goal achievement because of the kind of exercises that can be produced such as matching activities, gap filling tasks, multiple choice questions, true/false statements and the like; altogether with visual aids that meet diverse learning styles.

It is my intention to continue exploring this tool, along with others like J Quiz, J Cross and J Mix that allow the creation of exercises which, as I mentioned previously, can help the way I assess learning objectives achievement.