What
are ways in which you help build your teenage learners' self-esteem?
I deeply believe it is really important to respect people’s identity, pace and behavior in a classroom, especially in teen age. There are teenagers that will never worry of committing errors in class as long as it is the process of learning, and there are teenagers that will feel profoundly affected by being observed when making any mistake.
In this regard, I sometimes commit a deliberated mistake in class expecting students make the correction and show them that since we commit errors in our own language, why not in English, and especially in the process of learning.
Promoting a relaxing environment where everyone of us, students and teachers are learners, also promotes an atmosphere of equality among all the members of the classroom.
What are ways in which you strengthen your teens’ cultural identities while teaching them about different international cultures of the world?
Two things I always consider when teaching English:
1.- I make sure my students be aware that English is just a mean and not the ending itself. We use English for communication, not for alienation. This conclusion usually comes up after a discussion session where students emphasize the real life uses English has and the benefits its learning can bring to us.
2.- Every topic taken to classes is usually adapted to our reality. During the process of Personalization, students are required to produce the language acquired using personal information. And going further, international culture is also brought to classes according to the topic. For example: when teaching greetings: hand-shakes, kisses, hugs, bow, back-slapping, and others are taken to classes as a bite of culture, with emphasis in what we usually do in our country.
Topics like food and restaurants, TV programs, locations and directions, politics, reading preferences, history and arts, ethics and values, personal care, and so many others are highly enriched with our own cultural sense of belonging.
Luckily, Peru is a country with a very developed awareness of cultural heritage that promotes tourism and international businesses. It makes it easier to keep the students always conscious of national and regional identity.
By Dalton Mendoza
Two things I always consider when teaching English:
1.- I make sure my students be aware that English is just a mean and not the ending itself. We use English for communication, not for alienation. This conclusion usually comes up after a discussion session where students emphasize the real life uses English has and the benefits its learning can bring to us.
2.- Every topic taken to classes is usually adapted to our reality. During the process of Personalization, students are required to produce the language acquired using personal information. And going further, international culture is also brought to classes according to the topic. For example: when teaching greetings: hand-shakes, kisses, hugs, bow, back-slapping, and others are taken to classes as a bite of culture, with emphasis in what we usually do in our country.
Topics like food and restaurants, TV programs, locations and directions, politics, reading preferences, history and arts, ethics and values, personal care, and so many others are highly enriched with our own cultural sense of belonging.
Luckily, Peru is a country with a very developed awareness of cultural heritage that promotes tourism and international businesses. It makes it easier to keep the students always conscious of national and regional identity.
By Dalton Mendoza
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