UNIVERSITY OF MISSISSIPPI

English for Teaching English for International Purposes

Instructor: Tamara Warhol, Ph.D.

Student: Joel Loor Ponce

Date: June 7th, 2012.

Post: Discuss your own experience as a multilingual. What are the challenges of using a language other than your mother tongue? What are the benefits? What do you hope to learn/perfect about your own English language use? What do you hope to learn/perfect about using in a language classroom context?

As an English teacher in Ecuador, I have had the opportunity to know different cultures related to this universal language and to share with my students how important it is. English in my country is considered a foreign language because a small percentage of the population speaks it fluently. We have had many inconveniences in teaching English due the lack of preparation of teachers, the insufficient hour load in schools, especially in public schools. Nowadays, the panorama is encouraging because the current government is supporting many programs to increase English teaching level.

In this days, education is being developed in global sceneries, reason for what, it is necessary to give English teaching a special treatment where professors and students feel the necessity to learn the language in a permanent and efficient way in order to be globally competitive. 

Learning English is a great opportunity to open world doors because it is the language of science, technology, business, and sports, among others. People from nations like Ecuador, which is considered an underdeveloped country, can have the chance to be immersed in a social, educational and scientific sustained development.

I have the great challenge to improve my English level in order to be a professional that can compete with qualified professors. At the same time I have to recognize I have not had a proper preparation during my school and university studies, for this reason it is been a little difficult to be properly immersed in this program, also because we have not had an intensive preparation like this, but I hope to feel more comfortable ahead.

Active methodological strategies are the keys to be a successful teacher, it does not matter how much English he or she knows. We, as teachers, have to use methods and techniques to motivate and attract students’ attention in order they love English and feel the necessity that it is their passport to be universally successful.