INTERACTIVE LANGUAGE TEACHING

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WHAT MOTIVATES YOU TO LEARN ENGLISH FOR THE TIME BEING?

Some time ago, there was this child who did not know what to expect about his life. Trying to figure out what it was going to be, what kind of burdens he was going to have to carry on his shoulders, and what he was going to do with his future, he was still unsure about the decisions he had to make. At that time, he needed someone to help him wake his dreams up; fortunately, he found good people in his way to help him develop his abilities to the fullest, specially one teacher who inspired this child to follow his steps. That child was I, and that teacher was my first English teacher. That is what first inspired me to choose English as the major I wanted to study at the university; but that is not what keeps me interested in learning more and more about this language every day.

In fact, what motivates me to learn English for the time being is that, along the jobs I can apply to, the knowledge I can acquire, and the ability to understand songs, lyrics, books, and even native speakers, I can demonstrate that my effort and the time I put in studying is leading me to be a better person, a better professional, and most important… a better teacher, which is the job I want to get some day. For sure, to accomplish this outcome, I have to work harder each day, and take every opportunity as if it were the last chance I have to do whatever helps me make the person I want to be; for that reason, I have to do many different things in order to better my abilities, and enrich my vocabulary. Reading different kinds of texts written in English, listening to different kinds of accents, and trying to practice my English as much as possible, keep me focused on my objective, and show me non-boring ways of learning by my own. Moreover, watching movies in English helps me empower my understanding and let me discover “new” ways of using my vocabulary even though it is really tedious sometimes. I also try to learn idioms, but some people have told me that they are not used in American English most of the time; that makes me doubt of keeping on learning that kind of English sometimes. However, idioms are part of the things I am being taught at the university, and, somehow, they are going to be useful if I learn how to use them. So I'd better keep on learning more.

Basically, those are the reasons that motivate me to learn English, and the resources I am using to do so. I know there would be plenty of other ways to better my skills, yet those are the ones I am aware of now. In addition, the free time I have seems to be not enough sometimes, and looking for new ways of learning appears to be an impossible mission. To be honest, I prefer to trust in what I know instead of trying new things as it has worked for me all the time.

TRANSFORMATIONAL PEDAGOGY MODEL

After spending about 18 years of my life studying, being at school, facing the day-by-day routine typical of any educational environment, I wonder what’s the that makes some people want to become teachers and spend the rest of their lives in a school environment, and if there’s any motivation beyond the need of a job and survival in this world. Well, I’d like to have an answer for everybody’s questions as there might be many reasons involved in the choosing teaching, first as a major and posteriorly as a career, but the only answer I have is my personal opinion of why I want to teach. First of all, there must be something inside the person that makes him or her have the desire to teach FAR BEYOND A PERSONAL GOAL; for me, that’s the inspiration I got from one specific teacher I met when I was in Junior High School. What made that teacher different from the others was his teaching methods, personality, passion, and well directed objectives for his students. He didn’t want to be better to brag about it; he wanted to be better for us to learn more and wish to be better than he, and to some extent he accomplished that goal as some of his students decided to follow his steps. Now, that’s exactly what leads me through the journey I am in, the desire to change somebody’s life and inspire him or her to become a professional.

 Once one has clear why he or she wants to teach, it’s time to think of what kind of teaching is the most appropriate to the goals and expectations he or she has and what kind of teacher he or she wants to become... is then when the transformation pedagogy model can be a really good source of experience for both the teacher and the students involved in the process. The transformational pedagogy model is that which takes the students and the students’ development as the center of the educational process and the one that “is designed to demonstrate that holism in education can have a transformational quality” (Transformational Teaching In The Info Age, Page 15), it means students are not seen as individuals that have to study and store information in their brains to pass an exam or to finish a course of studies. Students are seen as skillful individuals that need to be “touched” by someone to discover their inner potential and then keep on working on their skills to be successful people in the future. For sure, the whole process is developed with the guidance of that “someone”, in this case the teacher implementing the transformational pedagogy model. But this model is designed not only to change the learner academically but also to chance the learner socially and spiritually. This leads the teacher to build a different kind of relation with the students and then “to be changed as much or even more than the learner is changed” 

(Transformational Teaching in the Info Age, Page 18). By applying the traditional teaching methods, but converting them into deeper implications for students’ lives, a teacher can build a different relation with the students, and encourage them to think of studying as more than a tedious routine they have to do every day.
A teacher using the transformational model is aware of his or her students’ feelings, so he or she can detect the changes in a student’s mood and adapt the environment in the classroom so it can be more supportive for the student and unconsciously enhance the bonds between them. [Transformational Teaching in the Info Age, Page 24 (Anna’s parents’ divorce)]
We can also quote the main purpose of education “self-fulfillment” that, in some cases, has to be inspired by someone else in a student’s life. In cases like this, a teacher can transform the student by giving him or her support and help when needed. [Transformational Teaching in the Info Age, Page 20 (Nathaniel’s problem)]
So it’s clear that both pre-service and in-service teachers can be changed by implementing the transformational teaching model; it depends on the level of commitment put into practice while teaching.
To wrap up, the transformational teaching model allows us to be a source of inspiration for our students as they don’t want someone TO TEACH them, they want someone whom they CAN TRUST IN and LEARN FROM. Good teachers can make great sources of inspiration for their students, and good students can make teachers as the ones they ARE INSPIRED to imitate. All students need is someone to lead them through the way to success.