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Oleo de José Tola
From: LUIS HUERTA
Date: 4/30/99
Time: 12:39:08 PM
Remote Name: 130.68.51.60
Hi everyone, I guess I am going to be the first one to write about my learning experience(s) in this Current Theories of Second Language Acquisition. First of all, I would like to thank you all for being the best classmates I have ever had. Let me tell you that I really enjoyed working with all of you guys. Let me tell you a short digression, as Dr. Wei always says, I did not register for this class, so I was not going to take it. The class that I registered for was cancelled thus, I had no choice. Why do I mention this? Well, just to let you know that I really enjoyed this class a lot for many reasons. Those reasons are:a) Dr. Sotillo's way of teaching, I think it was excellent;b)my classmates were always very enthusiastic; c) the subject-matter was very interesting, and last but not least d) I feel like I am more motivating to keep working even much harder than I did in this class.
Well, after this short digression, let me go straight to the point. I have been a teacher for about 10 years in Mexico, that does not mean that I am very old, o.k.? and my philosophy of teaching is to go to the classroom and forget about all the problems and things that I can have in my head. Before I enter the room I always say to myself: "Alright, Luis teach this class as if it were the first and last class that you are going to teach." And you know something? It has work for me. I always entered the room with a very huge smile on my face, students look at me and they get the message. The message is, of course, that I am ready to work. As a teacher, I have always felt that students are intelligent enough to get the information they need to pass the class. So, I do not focus my attention on the subject matter but on the motivation the students may need to get that information. Remember all these theories of SLA?, the affective filter, the input hypothesis. I am pretty sure that motivation is the key to succeed in every endevour we could be engaged in. That is the way I felt in this class. I really felt motivated to work as a group. I think all the elements were there, an excellent learning environment, excellent profesor,(very enthusiastic and always there to help us), of course my classmates,and so on. When I was assigned to work with Assumpta I really felt very happy. First, because I had not had the opportunity to work with her, and second, because her ideas were very brilliant. Thus, the oral presentation went o.k.(That's what I think) I wish I had had the opportunity to work with most of my classmates but this is sort of impossible because of the time constraint. Let me tell you that when I teach group work really helps me a lot in motivating my students. I do believe that students feel more motivated and they are 100% more creative. Teaching is much easier this way. On the other hand, let me tell you that I am a very shy person and I think I need more time to work by myself. I think, I really need to think about things before letting them out. Thus, I really need to work alone. To sum up, I have said that I like working the two way either in group or alone. I would also say that I felt that this class was a combination of both. And finally, I would very much thank you all for being very helpful. In the end, as Vygotsky says: "learning is an endless process," and I am pretty sure that I will continue learning from all of you along the way. Thanks. Luis