Teaching is my passion and no matter how difficult the context surrounding the teaching and learning process is, I believe it can happen. In 2011, I accepted the challenge to initiate the Spanish Program at the University of The Gambia; I knew I was confronting the most difficult task of my academic career. Starting a language program in a context characterized by the lack of human, infrastructure and material resources helped me realize that the most important element of the teaching and learning process is the students; without them we are nothing.
At the University of The Gambia, I had to approach the teaching and learning process from a different perspective than I had previously done in other institutions with human resources, modern infrastructures and contemporary teaching tools. At the University of The Gambia I was the sole party responsible for the creation of the courses for the Spanish Program. I designed the curriculum, coursework and assessment tools. I created an e-learning platform and classroom material for two courses: SPA101 and SPA102. Completing this challenge made me grow as an educator and as a researcher, and broadened my teaching interests to curriculum design for language teaching, methodologies in language teaching/learning and new technologies in teaching and learning foreign language.
This opportunity gave me the chance to review and combine all the strategies and knowledge that I previously learnt, to create a methodology adapted to the context of The University of The Gambia. I developed a student-centered methodology that involved a combination of teaching approaches strongly backed up by the use of new technologies. Despite the lack of administrative and infrastructure support students were exposed to an authentic learning environment and abundant meaningful input thanks to the daily use of information and communication technologies.
The success of the new methodology invites to implement it in any academic institution, because it adapts to the specific needs and resources of the institution, always relying on the use of new technologies as the vehicle to expose the learners to significant and realistic input, input that involves real written and spoken samples of the language being learnt and that will built the right strategies to develop positive writing and speaking skills.
After teaching a wide variety of Spanish as a second language courses including: Beginners/Intermediate/Advanced Spanish, Heritage Spanish, Hispanic Culture, Spanish for Business, Spanish for Tourism and Seminars for Foreign Language Teachers, internationally, in different academic institutions, I have realized that being a language lecturer enables my students to travel without leaving the classroom. Learning a foreign language implies learning the culture that surrounds the language being learnt. Spanish is a language spoken by around 500 million speakers, according to the latest Cervantes´ Institute Report Español: una lengua viva[1] and it is spoken in 21 countries. Consequently, students learning Spanish exposed to my teaching methodology have the chance to virtually visit all these countries.
To make this possible, I implement teaching strategies that promote a comfortable and active learning environment, using group dynamics techniques that encourage high interaction among students, making them active learners and builders of their knowledge. Learning is a process full of questions. In my sessions, I motivate my students to ask questions that are answered by the whole group; I am a facilitator and observer in the classroom that seeks to guide them during the path for successful learning of a foreign language. Constant feedback and positive reinforcement are tools that help my students to self-assess their progress.
Teaching and learning are indivisible. As a lecturer, I continue learning everyday from my students and from professional development seminars that teach me new tools, strategies, skills to improve my teaching abilities and that broad my teaching and research interests.
[1]Español: una lengua viva. Informe 2016. Accesible hhttp://www.cervantes.es/imagenes/File/prensa/EspanolLenguaViva16.pdf
At the University of The Gambia, I had to approach the teaching and learning process from a different perspective than I had previously done in other institutions with human resources, modern infrastructures and contemporary teaching tools. At the University of The Gambia I was the sole party responsible for the creation of the courses for the Spanish Program. I designed the curriculum, coursework and assessment tools. I created an e-learning platform and classroom material for two courses: SPA101 and SPA102. Completing this challenge made me grow as an educator and as a researcher, and broadened my teaching interests to curriculum design for language teaching, methodologies in language teaching/learning and new technologies in teaching and learning foreign language.
This opportunity gave me the chance to review and combine all the strategies and knowledge that I previously learnt, to create a methodology adapted to the context of The University of The Gambia. I developed a student-centered methodology that involved a combination of teaching approaches strongly backed up by the use of new technologies. Despite the lack of administrative and infrastructure support students were exposed to an authentic learning environment and abundant meaningful input thanks to the daily use of information and communication technologies.
The success of the new methodology invites to implement it in any academic institution, because it adapts to the specific needs and resources of the institution, always relying on the use of new technologies as the vehicle to expose the learners to significant and realistic input, input that involves real written and spoken samples of the language being learnt and that will built the right strategies to develop positive writing and speaking skills.
After teaching a wide variety of Spanish as a second language courses including: Beginners/Intermediate/Advanced Spanish, Heritage Spanish, Hispanic Culture, Spanish for Business, Spanish for Tourism and Seminars for Foreign Language Teachers, internationally, in different academic institutions, I have realized that being a language lecturer enables my students to travel without leaving the classroom. Learning a foreign language implies learning the culture that surrounds the language being learnt. Spanish is a language spoken by around 500 million speakers, according to the latest Cervantes´ Institute Report Español: una lengua viva[1] and it is spoken in 21 countries. Consequently, students learning Spanish exposed to my teaching methodology have the chance to virtually visit all these countries.
To make this possible, I implement teaching strategies that promote a comfortable and active learning environment, using group dynamics techniques that encourage high interaction among students, making them active learners and builders of their knowledge. Learning is a process full of questions. In my sessions, I motivate my students to ask questions that are answered by the whole group; I am a facilitator and observer in the classroom that seeks to guide them during the path for successful learning of a foreign language. Constant feedback and positive reinforcement are tools that help my students to self-assess their progress.
Teaching and learning are indivisible. As a lecturer, I continue learning everyday from my students and from professional development seminars that teach me new tools, strategies, skills to improve my teaching abilities and that broad my teaching and research interests.
[1]Español: una lengua viva. Informe 2016. Accesible hhttp://www.cervantes.es/imagenes/File/prensa/EspanolLenguaViva16.pdf
