Content Area Conditions & Nature II

Course Objectives

1. To discuss the Foreign Language guidelines and standards for Colombia as a means
to engage in a process of critical consciousness (Willis, et al., 2008) about what it
means to use them in the diverse contexts (Mora, 2013b) of our region and nation.

2. To reflect on previous and current experiences in light of existing guidelines and
current theories and debates surrounding English teaching.

3. To profile the basic elements of a philosophy of teaching using the discussions and
readings as conceptual and practical bases.
(Mora Vélez, 2014) 

Some ideas I have taken from our classes (most of them are in my class notes) 

* Teachers of English to speakers of other languages (TESOL)

• Age alone does not determine success in learning a foreign language.
• To have a successful class, it is important to have a clear understanding of the program's objectives and goals.
• Materials in the classroom should be selected in accordance with the age of the students, the length of the program, its objectives, and the learning environment.
• The institutional support is important also, the institution should provide resources to use during the program.
• Young ESOL learners should receive their initial reading instruction in their native language.
• Language and literacy knowledge in one language can serve as the foundation for a new language.
• Literacy, cognitive, and conceptual development of ESOL students should be interlaced.
• A balanced literacy program will teach both reading and writing skills within the context.
• Three levels of society and education:
  Macro: government ---> how education is organized, guidelines, standards, national language plans.
  Meso: school (community) ---> curriculum, parents, PEI, resources, learning strategies.
  Micro: the classroom --->  activities, lesson planning, material design, teachers and students.
• Second Language Acquisition (SLA)
  Target language: any language that is in the aim or goal of learning.
  Informal L2 Learning: takes place in naturalistic contexts.
  Formal L2 Learning: takes place in classroom.
  Simultaneous Multilingualism: acquisition of more than one language during early childhood.
  Sequential Multilingualism: learning additional languages after L1 has been established.
• Learning conditions are often profoundly influenced by powerful social, cultural and economic factors affecting the status of both languages and learners.
• In English we talk about evaluation, testing and assessment.
  Assessment has to do with learning.
  Testing is more about standarize exams. It does not care about the learning process.

Ideas from our professor Dr. Raúl A. Mora Vélez

My Philosophy of Teaching Statement

This Philosophy of Teaching is an essay, based on multimodality (Kress, 1997, 2010; Serafini, 2011; Mora, 2013c). What means it includes audio, images, text and different resources to give a specific message with my own objectives and purposes to show you how do I see education and, specifically, teaching field.

I have chosen education as my profession and trough this multimodal essay you will understand how did I get here and what motivates me to continue striving to be better and also what leads me to educate good people for our world.

Enjoy it!

My Classmates and their thoughts about Content Area Conditions and Nature II