Kulturelingual

Reconstructing Kulturelingual

2010-02-12T18:55:00.000-08:00

I know it's been a while. I have been working on a new concept for Kulturelingual...So, expect an upadated and improved blog/site really soon!

What is an English Teacher?

2009-05-06T20:27:00.000-07:00

What is an English teacher? Students and English teachers themselves often portray an English teacher as
• a person who teaches a language
• a person who teaches grammar, linguistics, pronunciation
• a person who administers tests

What is language learning? Students and English teachers often see language learning as:
• communication
• cultural exchange and understanding
• tool in the job market

What is the goal of teaching English? Students and English teachers often see the goal language learning as:
• helping students to get a job
• enhancing opportunities for students to travel abroad
• helping students to have higher salaries
• creating more teachers to teach children and teenagers in the school system

Is that really why you teach English? Do you wake up every morning and get ready to teach solely because you want your students to speak well? Is that your only hope for those students going out into the world: help them land a good job? A good salary? Is that all there is to teaching English?

Maybe you will say you want your students to be successful. What is “successful” to you? Is “successful” working hours on no end at a sports book? Is “successful” working in a private institution and earning over a million colones a month? Is “successful” overworking yourself at a public school with no materials and no interest from students, parents or administrator? Is “successful” going around the world and meeting people from all cultures? Is “successful” passing the Internet TOEFL with a 120? Is “successful” pronouncing English vowels and consonants correctly? Is “successful” writing a five paragraph essay with no grammar mistakes and outstanding organization? Is “successful” getting a scholarship to do a PhD abroad? Is that the end goal of your teaching? If so, you might want to double check your definition of “successful” and ask yourself, what are you accomplishing by doing that? Your students will join the work force and do what? What good does it do to the world that you teach your students to speak English with the rhythm and intonation proper of an American speaker?

Do you realize that all you are doing is training workers for the masses? The market needs English speakers, so society must produce English speakers. From that perspective, there is no much difference between you or I, English teachers, and a breeder.

However, we can refuse to be only that. English teaching and learning CAN be much more. An English teacher can be

• a change agent
• a role model
• an awakener

Speaking English can be the road to reach higher ideals. Especially in a world that faces chaos and tragedy so often, speaking English is a tool not an end. Speaking English can represent the power to communicate a message of peace and justice. Speaking English can be the power to teach children to grow up as kind, responsible, aware human beings. Speaking English can provide the opportunity to make the world a better place. Even more so in the XXI century, English learning and teaching should be

• interdisciplinary
• action oriented
• critical

The world is not longer a world of specialists. English teachers should not only be proficient at speaking English. They should be proficient in history, sociology, and science –among others- and in their relationships with language learning. Important knowledge comes from interdisciplinarity. Those English teaching programs that isolate themselves as only English will fail to provide students with the skills they require in a fast-paced and always-available-information era.

Learning English should prompt social action. Students demonstrate better learning and more attachment to those aspects that prove to be close to their hearts. Communicating their journeys and feelings in a social justice project -through English- can accomplish more English learning and discovery of English than a boring lecture or a grammar class. The students will look for the way to say something they want to say, something they have experienced, not to do something imposed by the English teacher… something that lacks meaning and passion and projection in their lives. Social justice encourages research and leadership. The program of many English majors includes NGOs as a source of employment. Who would an NGO hire: a student with field experience and human tough or a student who spent all his time in the classroom and whose assignments were mainly linguistic and not humanistic? Do English teachers in Costa Rica even know what and NGO is?

Learning English should be critical. English teaching should prompt reflection not memorization or repetition. English teachers should focus on how to teach English to prompt reflection about the world around us and what it means to be in it. English writing and speaking should focus on communicating a message that is important to students, not in imposing assignments. “Easy” tasks such as reading the newspaper in English and sending emails in English, watching movies about social issues, checking out youtube videos about global warming, reading articles about their topics of interest and reflecting about them, that is critical thinking.

Many of you might be saying to yourselves: I do that all the time. Do you, really? Do you focus on the message, or on the way to say it? Do you focus on what to do about those issues, or mainly on understanding the vocabulary used in them? If you stop at understanding and talking but do nothing about the topics you study in class, you do not teach critically… you just teach.

You may be wondering: so, why bothering? All that work, all those dreams of a happy world… who cares? Well, if you are as selfish and self-centered not to care and still think teaching vocabulary, pronunciation, grammar, reading, writing, speaking and listening is all there is to English teaching… if you are so ignorant and absurdly unaware of the world you live in that you think encouraging interdisciplinarity, social action and critical thinking should be delegated to the people in other fields… if you are so arrogant and full of yourself to admit that the definition of English teaching needs to change, then you might want to know:

What do students develop from an English class that embraces thought, collaboration and action? Why should I go through all this hassle? Well, through social action students develop:

• Writing skills
• Speaking skills
• Reading skills
• Listening skills
• Research skills (interviews, field work)
• Translation skills
• Information Technology skills
• Social skills (leadership, solidarity, collaborative work)

Many countries in the world, and scholars in the field of English teaching, linguistics, applied linguistics and the like have been wise enough to recognize that the world does not only need “English teachers,” the world needs “leaders.” It is your choice if you want to awake English students or to hinder them. In the end, ignoring the fact that English teaching as you know it should change will not prevent passionate and committed English teachers from providing English learners with a holistic, humanistic, critical education. There is much more than content to teaching English, how you approach that content will make all the difference.

Looking at the World from Another Point of View

2009-04-14T20:25:00.001-07:00

We usually look at the world like this:

Courtesy of the University of Texas Libraries, The University of Texas at Austin.

But have you ever thought others might look at it like this:

Flourish.org

No wonder there are so many problems in the world. We all insist our way is the right way when in fact many of our ways are just arbitrary traditions. These shows us that, indeed, "it is all in the eyes of the beholder". If you are curious and want to know more about "upside-down" maps (upside-down for whom anyway?), check the Upsidedown Map Page. I highly recommend it!

The Joy of Online Learning

2009-04-10T18:10:00.000-07:00

Joy. That is probably the word that best describes the feeling I get when I realize that no matter where in the world I am, technology can bring most things I would want to my feet. When I write "I," I mean the student, not the teacher. Actually, for the longest time I used the internet as a source to get ideas and materials for my lessons. Even though I still do, I have now been seduced by the appeal of online learning. Many of you might think online learning is nothing new; however, there are many parts in the world where it is -Costa Rica being one of them. Still, even more surprising than that is the fact that miles away, with just a computer and an internet connection, I can continue my professional development for free.

In fact, the TESOL's Village Online workshops preceeding the annual conference at the beginning of the year were the perfect opportunity for me to become an official online learner. I "attended" two workshops, one about Non Native English Speaking Teachers (Non- NESTs) and another about Conflict Resolution for English Language Learners, without having to move from my chair at my computer desk in Costa Rica. The participants and the instructors were all from different countries, and although it was challenging to meet sometimes - I must confess I probably missed all the live sessions because I could never get the time right- the amount of knowledge and experiences that they had to share was sometimes overwhelming, but mostly challenging.

The challenge was also to master the art of reading the threads and understanding who had said what when. To be honest, it took me a couple of weeks to get familiar with the tools and the "logistics" of it all, but after a while I really felt like I belonged in such an eclectic virtual classroom. Downloading readings, uploading assignments, and reviewing and making comments became part of my daily schedule. I had tamed technology for the sake of learning.

So, as I write this, I think to myself: Yes! No matter where I go or what I do, I can now be a student forever. So, that is my joy... to be eternally learning, and etternally discovering the world.

Eats, Shoots & Leaves by Lynne Truss

2009-04-06T17:38:00.000-07:00

Eats, Shoots & Leaves was one of my unexpected Christmas presents last year. As it goes, the most unexpected things are always the most enjoyable. A non-stickler, I am definitely quilty of probably killing punctuation in unimagined ways. Punctuation rules always seemed to long and too mechanic for me. However, being that I am now teaching a composition course to students in the English teaching major, I had to do something about my lack of attention to detail when it comes to punctuation rules.

This book, definitely changed my idea that punctuation was boring and mechanic -something that for a long time had prevented me to really pay attention to punctuation. Instead, I was moslty delighted by the sarcasm with which Truss narrates and describes the history and use of punctuation symbols. A really funny way to learn punctuation rules, indeed, I thought my students would love reading Truss as well. They did. Perhaps because the rules are accompanied by humor and real-life examples of the sometimes cruel, sometimes silly, but always ambiguos destiny of un-punctuated or wrongly-punctuated ideas.

Reading Eats, Shoots & Leaves is definitely a joy that does not even compare to the overwhelming task that many professores have assigned to their students: memorize punctuation rules, like you memorize multiplication tables. I, for one, know that memorizing for the sake of memorizing does not work pretty well with people who find it hard to pay attention to certain details. However, the context that Truss provides in this book, makes it hard for me to forget the uses of the comma or the origin of the semicolon. So, my previous "lack of attention" was pretty much a lack of interest and a lack of motivation to learn something that up to now had seemed decontextualized and meaningless.

The same happens to many of our students. So, why not, having the students read Truss and reflect on the ideas presented in the book, rather than having them memorize and do thousands of repetitive exercises? There is even an educational companion to the book online at http://us.penguingroup.com/static/pdf/teachersguides/eatsshootsleaves.pdf. This guide summarizes the punctuation rules and aspects highlighted in each chapter and provides useful tips and exercises for the students. There is also a website, Save the Comma, by Penguin Group that has a "Test Your Comma IQ" game based on Eats, Shoots & Leaves.

As usual, Truss has arised a fair amount of criticism mainly based on the fact that her book too has several punctuation mistakes. An article in the New Yorker, Bad Comma by Louis Menand, certainly makes it a point to highlight the various comma and parenthesis mistakes in Truss' book. Still, for those of us who still do not aim at editorial perfection of our work -not that such a thing would be undesirable- Truss is a great start. So, if you would like to know more go ahead and check these websites out:

http://www.mediabistro.com/articles/cache/a1424.asp

http://www.hopkinsandcompany.com/Books/Eats,%20Shoots%20and%20Leaves.htm

They both have excerpts from the book. Buen provecho!

The Current and Controversial Situation of English Teaching in Costa Rica and How I did not Know Much or Care Much About It- Until Now

2009-04-06T16:28:00.000-07:00

Still amused by Freire and his critical pedagogy, I have been doing research on why I have never heard of or read about Freire in the Costa Rican educational context. Do I really know that little about my own country's educational system? Well, it ends up I might. After reading about the history of Costa Rican education from 1821 to the 1940's, I realized I had spent way too much time learning about the American culture and language. In fact, just having to write a paper in Spanish has sparked my fear that I do not know how to write a proper Spanish academic paper. Actually, looking back, I do not remember the last time I read a book in Spanish. Ashamed, but with a clear objective in mind: to learn more about education in Costa Rica, I set out to do some research on the history and reason of being of education and education of languages in my home country.

In my quest for information, I ran into lots of online articles on the originis of education in general, but there was very little on the history of English teaching in Costa Rica. The information I found is mainly related to the teaching of English in primary and secondary schools across the country, but there is almost nothing -online- on the origins of English teaching in higher education. Actually, I was unable to find the name of my university, one of the major state universities in the country, in any of the articles I found.

However, what I did find was numerous references to the current, not-desirable situation of English teachers' training in Costa Rica. The problem: The fact that after a set of evaluations requested by the Ministry of Education as part of the government's National English Plan (my translation) many of the English teachers in the country came up as having really low levels of English language proficiency. In other words, the teachers hired by the Ministry of Edcuation were not qualified to teach the students. Furthermore, the fact that the Common European Framework of Reference for Languages was to be implemented as the guide to language instruction across the country whithout apparent thorough consideration was controversial as well.

It has been a while since the controversy first started. After several months, the effort of the 4 state universities to create and carry out a special language training program for the English teachers who failed to pass the English examination seems to be driving negative attention away. However, there is plenty of information about the reasons and implications behind the National English Plan. While looking for more information about "the Plan" I run into Gerardo Barboza's website . According to the website, Barboza is a professor of English with over 15 years of experience in the field. Surprisingly enough, Barboza's thougths were present anywhere I looked. Intrigued, I went back to his websited and quickly browsed through several critiques, written mainly by Barboza himself.

Around 30 articles, all of them mainly on English language education in Costa Rica, and almost all of them written in Spanish, fill his website. However, there is an article in English that you can read "Just a hunch, but English Plan is Lame Old, Same Old". I am honestly delighted to have found a website like this. I believe it is time for teachers of English to organize themselves and speak up, and this is a wonderful opportunity. So, although I have not studied carefully the statements made by Barboza on his website, the fact that those statements are there makes me want to know more and learn more about the current affairs of English teaching education in Costa Rica.

So, I guess I have finally come to the understanding that my wanting to know more about English and be better at speaking English has been getting in the way of me knowing more and learning more about where I come from. I wonder if this has happened to anybody else. I also wonder if I was oblivious to the educational and political events happening in Costa Rica before I moved to the United States, or if I became like that after I came back. Maybe I am just getting older! Whatever it may be, I also know I had never been more awake and more prompt to continue learning about myself and others until I traveled abroad.

Paulo Freire and My New Found Political Self - Part II

2009-03-03T20:33:00.000-08:00

Last time I talked about my encounter with Paulo Freire and his critical pedagogy, but I did not exactly explained how it happened. Why would anybody like to know how I encountered Freire? You might ask. Well, I have a point -I promise... a cultural one.

As I said before, the first time I heard about Freire I was at Prof. Parson's class. I am pretty sure I looked Freire up on Wikipedia at the time, but I was still in the MA in TESOL and time for any other thing but studying seemed a luxury. Two years after that, my dear colleague Olga mentioned Freire again. We were talking about the inspiration we had gotten from Maria Cristina's presentations and her depiction of critical pedagogy (thought I did not know it was called that at the time). However, up to then, I had never read Freire.

That is until last winter, when I visited with some friends in Boston. Right there in snowy cold December Boston, miles away from the sunny Costa Rica and even farther away from exotic Brazil, is where I finally read Freire. I was just there talking about this amazing project my colleagues and I wanted to implement at my university, describing all the beautiful things we wanted to do, and explaining how we believed in encouraging students to help those who most need education when, suddenly, Margaret asked me: Do you know what liberation theology is? As a language learner, used to guessing the meaning of words from context, I thought: Of course I know... liberation theology is... well, the theology of liberation! So, I went ahead and said: I think I do. I am pretty sure I have probably heard about it but I am not very familiar with the words. So Margaret went straight to the bookshelves and pulled a little greenish book with a rare symbol on the cover: Introducing Liberation Theology by Leonardo and Clodovis Boff.

Immediately, she started telling me all about liberation theology. She knew so much and I just felt so lucky to be there. For a moment I wished I could just stay there forever and let her teach me all she knew, but of course, silly me, that would have taken years! I started reading the book that same day and could not put it down for the rest of my visit. However, Margaret also pulled several other books she had on the same topic and even ordered books for me! Not surprisingly, when I finished Introducing Liberation Theology instead of having a sense of "completion" I felt a need to know more. So, I quickly devoured the other books. Nonetheless, I still wondered: How can I use Liberation Theology in education? One of the books Margaret got for me that winter was just about that. It was the Paulo Freire and Ira Shor book I talked about in the last post!

So, here is my point -actually a "borrowed point", a point that was pointed out to me by someone else: I, the Central American educator, found the South American education hero in the United States. How ironic and how humbling! Yes. Sometimes people from other cultures know more about our history than we do. Yes. Sometimes people from other cultures give us tools that our own culture failed to provide. Yes. Sometimes "the other" is the one to encourage us to value our own. Even more surprising is the fact that I came to read Freire through theology. I would have never imagined theology as the path to becoming a liberatory educator. So, again, a humbling lesson: Multidisciplinarity, now more than ever, is a must. No field should be discounted from our list just because it seems unrelated to our field. However, if you do ignore or are unaware of certain subjects as roads to "enlightment" I hope you have a Margaret in your way!

Paulo Freire and My New Found Political Self

2009-02-22T16:12:00.000-08:00

picture from wikipedia.org

A couple of months ago...

It's 1:15 in the morning and I do not seem to be able to go to bed. All I can think of is Freire and his liberation pedagogy. Clearly the most noticeable effect of having met Maria Cristina Damianovic at the UCR English teaching convention is a lack of sleep! Since then, there is this energy in me, this motivation to be a true educator: a social reformer, a social change agent.

Yes. My encounter with Paulo Freire was sudden and awakening like that, but at the same time it was a long and quite familiar encounter. In the words of Ira Shor,

All your life you carry around unmet needs that you don't exactly understand. When
you reach a moment that meets that need, you say, where have you been all my life?
Finally, you can be revealed for the person you are but none of life's situations have yet
permitted this feeling.

A Pedagogy for Liberation

p. 24

I wish I would have listened to Prof. Parsons a couple of years ago when she recommended we read Freire. Somehow I forgot to do it... I am just lucky that apparently Freire found me.

But the most amazing discovery of all, a "great discovery" like Freire called it, was to come to the realization that "I am an agent with humility for the global task of transformation." I am an educator. I am a politician. I want to work for justice. I want to work for peace. I want to work for education. I want to work for freedom. I want to work for the right to express myself, for the right to be paid on time. I want to help. I want to volunteer. I want to give back. So, the first question in my mind: As an English teacher, what am I doing to make the world a better place?

-Nothing

What am I doing in my classroom to encourage my students to develop their leadership potential and to dream big and to help others?

-Nothing

What steps am I taking in class to share with and learn from my students how to be a responsible citizen of our world?

-Nothing

I was doing nothing to "illuminate" reality, to fight oppresive systems, to invite my students and myself to reflect about the world. The pedagogy I used was everything but critical. This was all it was: a good language class. In her article New Trends in Global Issues and Global Teaching, Kip Cates wrote in 1997,

The implication here is that we can't call our English teaching successful if our students,

however fluent, are ignorant of world problems, have no social conscience or use their

communication skills for international crime, exploitation, oppression or environmental

destruction.

I was teaching my students to read, write, speak and understand English... that was all. It was a pretty depressing sight. More so, since I believe that it is not the education that you get, but what you do with that education, what really matters.

However, the most strange thing of all was to find out that this personal and new experience in my life was neither personal nor new. There are thousands of educators out there who are concerned with social justice issues and critical pedagogy, who are concerned with empowering students. Organizations like Peace Jam and initiatives like google's 10^100 are a clear example of the amazing things our students can do. It is our job to spread the word so that those wondering how to have a critical classroom have the chance to find the answer to the question: Where have you been all my life?

I know I am finally able to say I am doing something in my classroom. Can you?

Becoming a Dreamkeeper

2009-02-14T17:44:00.000-08:00

Recently, I was lucky enough to read a chapter of the book The Dreamkeepers: Succesful teachers of African American Children by Gloria Ladson-Billings. In this chapter, “The Tree of Knowledge”, Ladson-Billings presents the reader with five culturally relevant conceptions of knowledge. Opening with the definition of dream, the author goes on to explore two controversial issues in education. On one hand, she addresses current educational emphasis on skills that represent basic levels of thinking, such as recall and recognition of facts; on the other hand, she tackles the constant dispute between the literary canon and history. Ladson-Billings exploration of knowledge as a basic level of thinking and her challenge to literary canons as “objective truth”, leads to a comparison of culturally relevant and assimilationist conceptions of knowledge. She explains that in culturally relevant teaching knowledge should 1) be continuously re-created, recycled, and shared, 2)be viewed critically, 3) be taught with passion, 4)help students develop necessary skills, and 5) expect excellence, but take student diversity and individual differences into account. The authors uses accounts of her own experience as a teacher and a student, as well as descriptions of various educators’ classroom experiences, to support the culturally relevant conceptions of knowledge. In the end, the author’s portrayal of culturally relevant teaching as an attempt “to help students understand and participate in knowledge-building” (p. 81) is clear.
Ladson-Billings raises two important questions: Why do we continue to teach and measure facts in our schools? And, whose facts are we teaching anyway? Having been a teacher in both the United States and Costa Rica I have realized that the issue of emphasizing “knowledge” over higher-order cognitive/learning skills might as well be universal. The practice of drilling students has lingered around longer than it ever should have. The idea that “facts” are devoid of culture and social connotations has too. To truly fulfill all students’ needs, socio-cultural, economic, and linguistic layers should be accounted for in any educational system. Learning a list of facts is not learning. Learning the list of facts the dominant culture thinks important is not learning either. Exploring how past or current circumstances shaped the facts, and how those facts relate to our communities and our lives, and how we can challenge them, that is learning. However, doing that kind of learning is not easy. Not do many teachers know how to do it themselves. Who can teach critically who does not think critically? Even if all teachers did, how would we be able to measure those wonderful critical thinking skills in a way that satisfied men and women’s fascination with numbers and objective –devoid of interpretation- tests. How would we be able to distribute our money if we cannot quantify success? If all teachers teach with a culturally relevant view of the literary canon, who is going to buy the textbooks and assessments that exist to secure the dominant perspective of the world in place? No one -probably. So, as I reflect on my stream of consciousness: It is really sad that it all comes down to the money and the status of a few; it is really depressing that current educational policies function like a business. It is also true, however, that as the title of the book suggests, it is the teachers' job to keep dreams alive. So, as of today, I proclaim myself a dreamkeeper.

Teach Pronunciation with Voki Avatars!!!!

2009-02-06T12:56:00.000-08:00

Last year, while creating email party invitations with Evite, I stumbled across Voki. Voki is a website that enables you to create your own speaking avatar! But what is an avatar anyway??? In very simple words, an avatar is like a virtual representation of yourself, though it might not always look like you. The word avatar originally comes from the Sanskrit avatārah which means "descent." Dictionaries like the Merrian-Webster online define it as

1: the incarnation of a Hindu deity (as Vishnu)
2 a: an incarnation in human form b: an embodiment (as of a concept or philosophy) often in a person
3: a variant phase or version of a continuing basic entity
4: an electronic image that represents and is manipulated by a computer user (as in a computer game)

Of course, the last definition is the one that best suits what I want to tell you about. There are currently many video games that require you to create avatars. However, what makes Voki different is that you can create an avatar and give it a voice. You can choose from several pre-recorded voices in all different accents you can imagine, or what is even better, you can record your own voice! So of course, I had the time of my life, not only designing the way my avatar would look like, but also recording the message I wanted it to say.

However, it was not until I attended the conference at Universidad de Costa Rica that it finally dawned on me: you can use avatars in the English language classroom! I can very well see my students making their own avatars and have fun using English to create a message. In fact, I found an article at The Edublogger site that explains very well how to get your own speaking avatar at Voki and on how to display it on your blog... and I highly recommend you to create your own before you have your students do so! You can check the article at

http://theedublogger.edublogs.org/2008/02/24/adding-a-voki-speaking-avatar-to-your-blog-sidebar/

If you just want to get started, you can just go to http://www.voki.com/ instead.

Anyway, you can now see and hear my Voki speaking avatar below on the left hand side. Believe or not, that is my voice!!!!

2008 Teaching Conventions and Wonderful Things- Part 2

2009-01-27T16:45:00.001-08:00

First International Conference of Modern Languages:
Multi-lingualism

The second big event taking place right at the end of 2008 was the First International Conference of Modern Languages at the Escuela de Lenguas Modernas in the Universidad de Costa Rica (UCR). In an academic, relaxed environment the covention's participants were able to enjoy sessions in a myriad of topics. It was some times hard to decide what presentation to attend since they were all fascinating.

To be honest, all the presentations were, in a way, eye opening experiences. From technology, to social justice, to special needs, every presentation I attended awoke my curiosity about the topic and a desire to be better. I do not know whether it was the time of the year, or the speakers' charisma, but through out the conference I was deeply moved and encouraged to be the best professional I can be. There were sessions in several languages, but being English my field of "expertise" and Spanish my native language, this post will be mainly about the presentations that were carried out in Spanish and English.

These are some of the conferences I attended and which I would totally recommend:

Karla Ramos (Global Kids)

“Enseñanza de lenguas a niños con necesidades especiales: caso de Síndrome de Down"

A great presentation, Karla explained the different characteristics of children with Down Syndrome and the best ways to teach them as she took us through the success story of one of the students at Global Kids. As teachers, parents and students realize the importance of being inclusive and teaching for ALL children, Karla's presentation was both inspiring and motivating, reminding us that learning is a wonderful journey and that ALL children should have access to it. Certainly, teachers all over the country would benefit from knowing more about the topic. As for me, I left the session wanting to know more.

Maria Cristina Damianovic (Pontifica Universidade Catolica de Sao Paulo)
"La Lectura como una actividad ciudadana por la proteccion de la vitalidad, la diversidad y belleza de la Tierra."

Attending Maria Cristina's presentation was one of the best things that happened to me this year. Writer and social justice agent, Maria Cristina charmed the audience with her special, attention-catching ways. Through annecdotes and real-life experiences, she moved me to catch up with that inner and eternal desire of mine to help the world be a better place. The "call" to be a better citizen of my country and of the world was hard to ignore. I have to admit I felt like crying several times; especially when realizing I had been asleep for so long...passive for so long. Taking action about those things that oppress us and oppress those around us, that is what I learned from this presentation.

(Ana Rojas, Nuria Villalobos, Maria Cristina Damianovic, Olga Chaves, Ana T. Solano)

Nuria Villalobos, Nandayure Valenzuela and Gustavo Alvarez (UNA)
"The Challenge approach: An innovative Teaching and Learning Pathway"

A team of professors from Universidad Nacional, Nuria, Gustavo and Nandayure shared with the audience their discoveries while teaching PROCAPRI (Programa de Capacitacion para maestros/as de Primaria). Their unique approach to training teachers by example and to challenge them out of their comfort zone was central to the presentation.

Karla Araya Araya (UCR)
"Un Analisis Discursivo sobre la perversidad construida a traves del Humor"

A deep, eye-opening analysis of the facts behind telling jokes, "Un Analisis Discursivo..." raised serious questions about the way Costa Ricans perceive people from Nicaragua. In a journey through a series of racist jokes, I could see my mind awakening to the subtle but very strong ways in which Nicaraguans are put down by Costa Rican humor. An exceptionally interesting topic, they way in which jokes can transmit and perpetuate stereotypes was truly alarming. In a country well-known by its democracy and peace, such permissive ways to hurt and alienate our own neighbors were pretty shocking... Indeed, this is an issue that should be explored further.

Lic. Marcia Silva Pereira
"TIC’s informáticos. El uso de las Tecnologías de la Información y Comunicación (TIC) en clase”

Extremely educational, TIC's (Tecnologias de la Informacion y Comunicacion), taught me more than I could have ever imagined about using technology in the classroom. A two session workshop, Ms. Silva did an outstanding job at exploring and letting the audience explore the different ways in which we can use movie-making software like Windows Movie Maker, a movie editing software that comes with most computers but that we rarely use, among others, in our classroom.

M.A. Olga Chaves, M.A. Nuria Villalobos (UNA)
“EFL learning experiences developed in communicative courses at Universidad Nacional”

Our students are often resourceful and creative, but it is up to us to incorporate elements in our teaching that encourage students to innovate. Ms. Villalbos and Ms. Chaves do just that by bringing into the language classroom tasks that require not only the use of the language but also the use of movie-making technology. They shared with the audience instances of role-plays videotaped and edited by students using Windows Movie Maker: a movie editing software that comes with most computers but that we rarely use. By the videos that were presented it was clear, though, that students were not only using the language, but that they were enjoying it.

MBA Patricia Escalante
"Web 2.0 y el aprendizaje de idiomas"

Technology is fascinating. Nothing was more clear than that at this presentation, where Ms. Escalante explained the differences between the Web, and the Web 2.0. Step by step, she explained how teaching professionals can used Web 2.0 for their and their students advantage.

Dr. Allen Quesada (UCR)
"Internacional Collaborative eLearning" Dr. Allen Quesada

Dr. Quesada did a great job at explaining and demonstrating how to work with an amazing technological resource not often used: SKYPE. Through a live session with another colleague, he showed very clearly the pros of including technology to do academic collaboration with scholars around the world. Creating partnerships with institutions abroad and ensuring student participation in those relationships was encouraged througout the session.

After learning so much from the presenters, I could not but feel lucky when my turn came to deliver my presentation: Raising Cultural Awareness and Creating Multicultural Materials in the Language Classroom. Hands down, the organizers at the First International Conference of Modern Languages did a great job selecting high-quality presenters.

(Ana T. Solano, Gustavo Alvarez, Ana Rojas, Nuria Villalobos, Jenny Pizarro, Eduardo Zamora, Olga Chaves)

2008 Teaching Conventions and Wonderful Things- Part 1

2009-01-23T07:52:00.000-08:00

Happy New Year!!!!

First of all, I have to apologize for having taken nearly 4 months off, but I am back! I would like to share so many things with you; so, let me start with by summarizing the 2008 end-of-the-year English teaching conferences.

Second Costa Rican Convention of Teachers of English

The 2nd Costa Rican Convention of Teachers of English: Dra. Isa Vicenszi-Gang at the Instituto Tecnologico de Cartago (TEC) was fast-paced and upbeat. The convention featured several key-note speakers from various countries and a crowd willing to learn more about teaching English. The sessions were graciously arranged around plenaries and round tables. The organizing committee did a great job at providing the participants with everything we needed; from badges, totes, pens, newspapers, and a very helpful booklet (including schedules and abstracts) to delicious pastries during the coffee break. Technology, of course, took center stage. Many of the sessions presented ideas on how to incorporate blogging, computer video-making tools, and virtual communities among others.

Since a picture is worth a thousand words, take a look at this...

Presenters in Action!

My colleague, Nuria Villalobos, and I gave a presentation about technology titled "Using Internet Resources to Improve ESL Students' Writing." We enjoyed sharing with all the participants; especially with Maria Marta Castro, a teacher at Instituto Educativo Moderno. Maria Marta shared with us her classroom blogs. We were really impressed!!!!

Nice Coincidence

We were so happy to run into Jane E. Hardy! We met her last year at CILAP, Universidad Nacional's (UNA) Congreso Internacional de Linguistica Aplicada.Her longitudinal study about the perceptions ESL/EFL teachers have of their professional preparation was truly interesting.

A Great Surprise

(Francisco Lozano, Ana Solano, Olga Chaves, Jorge Espinoza, Nuria Villalobos)

UNA professors and Francisco Lozano (far left), director of Heinle-Cengage Learning Latin America. Funny story: I attended Mr. Lozano's plenary: New Ways in Teaching English to Learners Living in a Globalized World. As I am sitting there thinking to myself how interesting and innovative his presentation is, he announces that he wants to show the audience a blog by a Costa Rican teacher. Well, let me tell you, the Costa Rican teacher was, of course, me! It was so surreal, but wonderful, to see kulturelingual in that big screen; and even more, to see an international speaker making reference to it!

Proud Alumni

As proud VIF (Visiting International Faculty) alumni, it was great to see VIF was present at the Second Convention too! So, I had to say hi to Kevin Smith, former VIF teacher and current VIF International Representative for Latin America. Kevin did two presentations, one titled Imagine the Possibilities-Teach in the US with the VIF Program and the other one titled Graphic Organizers: The Power Tool of Learning. I did not have the opportunity to attend Kevin's presentations, but I am sure they were amazing!

Closing Ceremony

(In this picture: Jorge Espinoza, Eduardo Zamora, Nuria Villalobos, Ana Solano, and Olga Chaves)

The end of a long week of learning and sharing was celebrated with a beautiful performance by a children's folk dance group: . We were all pretty impressed by their performance I must say. And at the end, a little well-deserved toast!

Congratulations to all the organizers of the

Second Convention of Teachers of English!

Textos Educativos' 9th Open House

2008-09-24T20:20:00.000-07:00

Last week I attended Textos Educativos’ 9th Open House at the Crown Plaza Hotel in San Jose. Although I have to be upfront and admit that I did not arrive until 1 p.m., I sure wish I had gotten there earlier.

More than creating an opportunity “to sell books,” Textos Educativos has always shown interest in helping the EFL teaching community in Costa Rica. Their Open House is known for being a balanced mixed of professional development sessions, good deals in books and teaching materials, and opportunities to mingle with other professionals in the field. On one hand it features outstanding presenters; on the other hand, it provides snacks and lunch to their participants as well as an exclusive breakfast to those VIP teachers or administrators.

As “the new girl in town” –even after a year of being back in Costa Rica- I was told about the activity by a colleague at Universidad Nacional. Last year, she attended the open house with her class, a group of 20 students majoring in English teaching; all her students loved the opportunity to 1)listen to and speak in English, 2)get updated in teaching methodology and materials, and 3)share with other students and teachers. No doubt, they were there again last week.

I could only attend one presentation: a workshop by Jair Felix from Heinle’s Cengage Learning. In a really fun, charming way Mr. Felix demonstrated several techniques and approaches to the use of videos. Even though I thought I already knew all there is to be known about using videos in the EFL classroom, Mr. Felix presented quite a few innovative techniques and good tips for approaching the use of videos in the classroom. For example, one activity Mr. Felix presented, which really caught my attention, was a pre-viewing activity: silent viewing. In this activity the teacher plays a video with the sound off while students work in pairs; one student is facing the back of the classroom while the other is facing the TV. Students then take turns describing to each other what they see. Immediately after the workshop, I used the technique with my students and they loved it. Not only did they have fun, they used their oral language skills in ways that allowed me to 1)more easily monitor their areas of improvement, 2)keep them in task longer, and 3)engage them in conversation.

After the workshop, I explored the different publishing companies’ stands and I did indeed buy a very interesting book (Of Beetles & Angels- A Boy’s Remarkable Story From a Refugee Camp to Harvard by Mawli Asgedom) for just 1.000 colones! While taking a look at all the different book titles I run into several people I had not seen in ages; and just when I thought it could not get better, I won a prize, The Big Book of Writing Models and its accompanying guide, at the wonderful drawing they always hold at the end of the open house.

Definitely this was an amazing opportunity to learn, get great deals and mingle. So, I will definitely be in the look out for next year’s open house!

Cool Stuff

2008-09-14T17:25:00.000-07:00

Check these links out. My b-friend emailed them to me. They are really nice and the second one is really kind of educational! Til next time!

Flags

English and its crazy spelling

Debunking Myths About Race

2008-08-30T16:45:00.000-07:00

Just sharing with you two fascinating websites to learn more about culture and racial prejudice. Take a look and ENJOY! Hope you debunk one or two myths today.

Race: The Power of an Illusion

Schoolracetalk.org

Getting Serious About Peace

2008-08-10T09:00:00.000-07:00

The more I know about language teaching and learning, the more I get involved in cultural matters. Maybe it has happened to you too: Suddenly, the calling to be a peace agent becomes stronger and stronger. So, on one of those days when I was surfing the net I run into the United States Institute of Peace website. As stated in their site,

The United States Institute of Peace is an independent, nonpartisan institution established and funded by Congress. Its goals are to help prevent and resolve violent international conflicts, promote post-conflict stability and development, and increase conflict management capacity, tools, and intellectual capital worldwide.The Institute does this by empowering others with knowledge, skills, and resources, as well as by directly engaging in peacebuilding efforts around the globe.

And empowering they do! The website has several resources for people interested in peacemaking and conflict resolution (e.g. teaching guides & grants). In fact, in their Education and Training Center they offer FREE online courses for which, upon completion, you can take a test and receive a certificate of course completion. You can either take the course online or download the course guide to your computer. So, if you want to know more about peace, here is your chance!

Get Ready for Professional Development in Costa Rica!

2008-08-09T08:36:00.000-07:00

English Teaching Professionals and language teaching professionals in general are getting ready for two very important events to be held in Costa Rica in December:

1. The Second Costa Rican Convention of Teachers of English “Dra. Isa Vincenzi- Gang” at the Instituto Tecnologico de Costa Rica, Cartago (Dec. 3rd, 4th, and 5th)

(contact imora@itcr.ac.cr / pcalvo@itcr.ac.cr / masolano@itcr.ac.cr )

2. The First International Conference of Modern Languages at Universidad de Costa Rica, San Jose (Dec 8th -11th).

Whether you would like to present or just attend the conferences, they are no doubt a great opportunity to connect to other language professionals from all over the world- and why not, the perfect excuse to visit Costa Rica! Hope to see some of you there!

Idioms Fun

2008-08-08T12:00:00.000-07:00

Looking for FREE resources to make learning idioms easy and fun??? Well, BBC's Learning English website, features the award-winning learning videos The Teacher in their Watch and Listen section. So far, three series (food idioms, animal idioms and body idioms) have been uploaded to the site, each one with several videos. Programmes as well as their scripts can be downloaded for free! Check The Teacher out at http://www.bbc.co.uk/worldservice/learningenglish/multimedia/the_teacher/index.shtml

About Being an NNS of English Teaching Pronunciation

2008-08-01T12:36:00.000-07:00

After posting my concerns about being a non-native speaker of English teaching pronunciation, I got several encouraging comments from colleagues and blog readers. Somehow, I managed to focus on that point -sometimes unachievable- of accent perfection without taking into account the wonderful things my accent brings to the table. Jeanne, a reader, pointed out that

One thing that non-native speakers have is the consciousness of some cultural or social things (for lack of a better word) that most native speakers take for granted. I really like it when I see non-native speakers teaching because when I sit in their classes, I learn a great deal about my culture and how it looks to others.

Also, professor Valenzuela, a dear colleague and coordinator of the M.A. in Second Languages and Cultures at Universidad Nacional shared the following with me,

When I went to West Chester University, a very wise man told me that accents are wonderful and that my Latin Amerincan accent showing through when I spoke English was a cultural plus and that it sounded beautiful because people could track your nationality through it; in other words, our native accents permeating our English production is not something to worry about. Now, accurate pronunciation is another story, and that we are all constantly working on to improve.

I never thought that, maybe, my drive to sound American could have more to do with my self-concept as a speaker of English and with being accepted into a group (the English speaking people) than with pronouncing words correctly. I realize then that if aiming at sounding American means in some way losing a little bit of my identity, I am perfectly fine with "just" having an accurate pronunciation.

The Challenge of Learning English

2008-07-23T18:08:00.000-07:00

Do you want to know how challenging learning English can be? Take a look at these clips taken from "The Pink Panther" -the movie- and from "Mind Your Language" -a British sitcom from the seventies-. I took both videos from youtube. If you scroll down below you can see the first one. The other one, I couldn't upload, but you can find it athttp://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ub_RazVrdl0. They are pretty hilarious! In fact, I used them in two of my classes. My students had a blast! They not only listened to the American and British English accent but also enjoyed the way language learning experiences like their own were portrayed in a funny way. There is no wonder humour is definitely a great way to learn!

Growing Butterflies: The Fun Things of Teaching ESOL

2008-05-26T19:53:00.000-07:00

As I reflect on my intercultural teaching experiences, I realize that in fact one picture is worth a thousand words. Here you have my first attempt at communicating in pictures some of the most funny and frustrating moments in the life of an ESOL teacher. Come to think of it, I am not that bad at drawing!
The teacher reading the note:
-Well... thanks. Some days I am not so sure about that!

Of Religious Icons and Toys

2008-05-25T14:42:00.001-07:00

One day while hanging out at my boyfriend's apartment, I noticed a little Jesus figure on top of his fridge. Wow- I thought- I had no idea he was so religious. When I mentioned how pretty the Jesus figure was and asked him who had given it to him he said: My step dad- and by the way, it's an action figure. Eyes wide open I replied: An action figure? Do you mean a toy? A toy indeed, the little Jesus could move his arms up and down, move his head from left to right, and roll endless hours of fun from one side of the room to the other with its little tiny but powerfull wheels! I could not believe my eyes! I eventually got used to the fact that some people saw nothing wrong with having a little toy with the image of Jesus -unlike most people in my country who would consider it, probably, a sin.

Still, life keeps on surprising me. A couple of weeks ago when I stayed with my boyfriend for about a week I run into a little can of Jesus bandaids!!! I had to take a picture of them and the little Jesus toy.

When I showed the pictures to my students, they had no words: just wide open mouths. Just the same, I cannot help but feel startled everytime I see something that challenges my view of life. However, experiences like these have taught me to lighten up and approach differences with curiosity and not with prejudice.

Langualicious: Professional Development with Andy Curtis

2008-05-19T18:23:00.000-07:00

Not so long ago, as a senior student in the English teaching major, I read a book called Pursuing Professional Development: The Self as Source. I was blown away. As a very self-reflective person, -I have had a personal diary for about twenty years- I was delighted to see the concept of scientist-meets-historian-meets artist self-exploration journaling brought to education. Not only that, I was ecstatic that Kathleen Bailey, David Nunan and Andy Curtis, the authors of the book, had acknowledged that inner need of teachers to transmit and turn into words and sentences those amazing, somewhat overwhelming, but very rich insights about teaching and learning. Turning those thoughts into ink, or characters on a computer screen, had been a refuge for many teachers for many years; Bailey, Nunan and Curtis gave a face and personality to the issue of professional development: our own! On top of that, they enriched their own ideas on self-awereness with stories from other teachers' personal experiences. They brought to light the fact that keeping a teaching journal was a tool to document the fascinating personal and unique adventure of teaching and at the same token a tool to become better teachers. In a student-centered world, Bailey, Nunan, and Curtis brought back some needed attention to the active role of the teacher as a learner. Yes. Teachers are learners too! I knew we were! I remember thinking with happiness. Needless to say, Pursuing Professional Development was the first book title in my graduation portfolio annotated bibliography. Little did I know that after so many years I will actually have the chance to meet Dr. Andy Curtis!!!

It all happened by chance. The Instituto Tecnologico de Costa Rica (TEC) organized a pre-congress activity for their Second Costa Rican Convention of Teachers of English: Dra. Isa Vicenzi-Gang to be held December 3,4 and 5, 2008. One of my coworkers had registered for the activity but realized she could not attend. So, I took her place. What a great surprise was to find out Dr. Andy Curtis was the international speaker featured for that afternoon. His two-session presentation was flawless. Charismatic, elocuent, and with a great sense of humor, Dr. Curtis addressed a room full of mostly Spanish speaking teachers in guess what, Spanish! The somewhat controversial debate of whether good language teaching professionals, as Dr. Curtis prefers to refer to teachers, are born or made kept the audience busy during the first session (especially the interesting and new idea -at least new to me- of a relationship between DNA and good language teaching professionals). Essential and desirable characteristics of good teaching were analyzed... and boy do I have some work to do! The second session, on a more familiar topic: professional development, prompted all of us to examine our teaching practices. From the Chaos Theory to EQ (Emotinal Intelligence), to humor and teaching, listening to Dr. Curtis was definitely an afternoon well spent!!! Not to mention I got a free wonderful dictionary!!!

After having attended this conference, I have one more research topic in my head: Do succesful teaching skills resemble sucessful parenting skills? Has anybody out there explored Cristina Igoa's thought that succesful teachers are basically educational parents? Dr. Curtis also proposed a research topic idea: What are the cultural implications of humor (in the classroom)?
In the mean time, I will stick to my own research idea: blogging as a way to reflect on my Kulture-lingual teaching and learning experiences!

About Social Networking Online

2008-05-18T20:08:00.000-07:00

My boyfriend and I found this kind of interesting. Check it out. Not only is it amazing to see the reach that social utilities have, but also how most of them are owned by Americans!

Réseaux sociaux : des audiences différentes selon les continents
LEMONDE.FR 14.01.08

Te Amo Tons: Dating in America

2008-05-18T18:49:00.000-07:00

Before exploring the topic of dating in America, there are some basic differences between a woman's life in the United States and a woman's life in, let's say, Costa Rica that I have to discuss. Of course, not all Costa Ricans are or think like this; for example, moi. But yes, things tend to go this way.
A woman in Costa Rica, to quote my friend M. who was actually referring to her own country of origin, is like a little princess:
- There is always a person in the gas station who pumps in gas, checks tires, and cleans your windshield for you.
- Men show they love you by doing pretty much everything for you; that includes but is not limited to: drive you around, pick you up after class or work, even if they have to drive through the whole country and back, pay your bills for you, and take care of your family and drive them around too, among others.
On the other hand, the always existing and chovinistic double standard implies that:
- An all-over-you, super-caring, sugar-talking, jealous and often controlling boyfriend is a natural, desirable thing.
- Men can drive you around. You can drive yourself around. But you must never drive your boyfriend around or drive to his place to see him.
Also:
-When you date a guy in Costa Rica, he meets your parents, friends, and neighbors almost immediately. Just in case you didnt know, yes, in Costa Rica you almost always live with your parents until you get married.
-If a guy tells you he loves you, and how much, by the second date, he has taken too long. Hello, we are talking about Latin Lovers here.
So, there is no surprise SHOCKING is a small adjective to describe the quite interesting feeling you first have when you start dating in America. I am in fact anything but a dating expert; however, I happened to fall in love with this wonderful American guy and so my interkulturelingual dating experience started! We have gone through ups and downs -sometimes it seems like more ups than downs- but in the end the message is always clear: dating a person from another culture might take twice the trouble but, believe me, it is worth as much. Still, during the frustrating times there were not many people around that I could ask for advice: is it culture or is it just me? So that is what this section is for. I want to share with all those out there who have gone or will go through the same or similar experiences as me. Wait for the next post and you will get to know everything about how love happened!