This blog will share the work of my students in the course Content Area Conditions & Nature II: English.
We will share our thoughts about what it means to be a teacher in Colombia, the standards and guidelines that operate in Colombia, and everything it takes to be a great English teacher.
All comments in this blog are the scholarly and personal opinions of my students and me.
Colombia's National Standards by Stephanie Arroyave Gil and Carolina Murillo:
ResponderEliminarColombia's National Standards for teaching English are based on sadly, on the common European Framework of Reference, according to that, all the time we ignore the last word of this name that is indeed, a “reference” and not something mandatory. In addition, what the Colombian educational system has to do in this century is to take the standards and guidelines with good purposes and challenges for Colombian education.
Nevertheless, Colombian government should take into account other important aspects in order to improve and enhance the broken, empty, and mediocre system we currently have. One of this aspects are the context and needs of our country, which is a multilingual because there are about 42 indigenous languages and 3 dialects spoken in the pacific Caribbean by the afro-Colombian communities. On the other hand, most of the Colombians' view of English language, is only for academic purposes. Moreover, in Colombia is promote what we call “Elite education” leaving the message that English is just a resource to get a better job and build links with other countries for “better” opportunities.
Questions:
*How could the gorverments and all the Colombian communities make coherence the standars with the reality?
*What is the role of an English teacher in this change of mind?
What kind of strategies should the government apply to achieve a bilingual country?
*Is it accurate to set English in every single Colombian school?
*How can we foster in teenagers the learning of a second language?
*Based on the MEN's definition of foreign language and a second language, should an English teacher have English as a second language or as a foreign language?