The Teacher and Teaching

Something that I really found interesting is that when we speak of people teaching a subject such as math or chemistry we are separating the knowledge or content from the activity or teaching according to Donald Freeman.


This really caught my attention, because I never thought teaching in that way. We can view the activity of teaching as merely experience and not knowledge! But it is Knowledge, that we obtain through our professional preparation, from our personal learning on how to handle a group of students in the classroom. In our day-by-day.


But now we can talk about what involves to be a Teacher. And for Hansen involves these six meanings:


A job, vocation, work, a career, an occupation and a profession.


I think it is a job because derived of this activity we get a sustenance. Involves vocation because we need to have an attitude of service and a sense of personal fulfillment. Involves a career because we have to study and to invest time as a teacher. Is an occupation because we work as a teacher and we have the activity of teaching. And finally is a profession because we study in order to be a certified teacher and we know how to teach; and is too a profession because of our social contribution to the school we work on.


What can we say about teaching?


The aim of teaching is to create the conditions that allow the students to learn in a short time if possible. But we must to be aware that teaching does not automatically lead to learning; we can find obstacles that we have to take in consideration and to decide whether we need to go deep in the lesson or if we need to give extra activities to the students in order to make clear a concept or part of speech.

Approaches to teaching, only one method for everybody?

During the decades 70's and 80's the way they teached was shifted to teaching and learning processes because in the past the art of teaching was focused on only small parts of the complex set of elements that compound teaching and learning.


In this time, the term method was replaced by the term pedagogy. And the teaching theory was viewed as something that is built by individual teachers, and includes not only the theory but the practice too in the classroom. Because that it is what it means pedagogy: the science of teaching.


But, what is a Method, an Approach and a Technique?


According to the definitions of Douglas Brown:


Method: is an overall plan for systematic presentation of language based on a selected approach.


Approach: is a set of assumptions dealing with the nature of language, learning, and teaching.


Technique: specific classroom activities consistent with the method, and therefore in harmony with an approach as well.


According to the definitions quoted above, we can acknowledge now that we can take one of the vast methods existing in the world, but not always a method fits our own reality in the classroom, because the age, the gender, the cultural background and the needs of our students it is what dictate the method we have to use, the approach to catch their attention and the techniques we must to use in order to reach our goal: that the student really learns what he has to.

What is teaching, learning, language, etc.?

English in the world: why is it important?

It is important, because it might be, the only language that truly links the whole world together. The other languages could be important too but because of their local values and culture.

Reasons of why is important to learn English:

1. Travel: you can communicate with others.
2. Same country: e.g. in India there are people of various cultures living there together, under the circumstances, English can be the only link to communicate each one of them.
3. Education/Studies: people who go to another country to study they can only have English as a means of study.

Why is important to learn English in México?

-  Nowadays in México exists the need to train professionals in teaching English, in order to contribute to the development of the students, to be prepared for the globalized world and be able to communicate with other people in the world. (school, workplace, suppliers, business)

-  Because of the closeness with North America, the students and professionals need to learn English in order to find and to keep a job that can allow them a better life, which means: purchasing power, creditworthiness; a better life for their families in one word.

What is Language?

 - A system for communication. Written languages use symbols to build words. The entire set of words is the language's vocabulary. The ways in which words can be meaningful combined is defined by the languages syntax and grammar. The actual meaning of words and combinations of words is defined by the languages semantics.

What is Communication?

•  Communication is the sharing of ideas and information.
•   While many people think of communication primarily in oral or written form, communication is much more than that.

Communication also is:

• The act of transmitting
• A giving or exchanging of information, signals, or messages by talking, gestures or writing.
• A means of communicating; a system for sending and receiving messages, as by telephone, telegraph, radio, etc.
• A passage or way for getting from one place to another.
• The art of expressing ideas, either in speech or writing.
• The science of transmitting information in symbols as: signs, phonetic symbols, sign language, hieroglyphics, etc.

What is Teaching?

• The interaction of a student and a teacher over a subject
• Programmed instruction involving sequences of controlled steps in which a student has to learn thoroughly the material covered in one step before proceeding to the next.
• Is to transmit a set of knowledge, know how's; that are programmed by levels and that the teacher is directly responsible of it.

What is Learning?

• The acquisition of knowledge or a skill, through education.
• We know that learning occurs when people take newfound information and incorporate it into their lives.

Conclusion

• Regarding the importance of English, language, and communication; teaching plays a very important role.
• Can be there teaching without a subject? Definitely not, there must be a subject to dialogue and that is when communication takes place.
• Learning English is a long and slow process, therefore Mexico is in need of excellent and dedicated teachers to help with the process.
• English is the universal language, that goes beyond boundaries and cultures.