About me

Hello everybody!

 Let me introduce myself. My name is Daniel and I’m 21 years old. I’m from a small town but currently I'm studying Primary teacher at the University of Valencia. “Who am I?” is a question we all ask us at some time in our lives. Who I am, is what I think, what I feel and what I do.  I have a story behind. My Family, Friends, Society, Culture, Education, all my relationships to the world contribute to me. I am how I understand my relationships to the world, how my relationship is constructed across space and time and how I understand possibilities for future. In the next lines I will try to give an accurate narration of those events, which, I believe, may have influenced my profile as it is nowadays.

I have little doubt that my family and my life experiences have most definitely conditioned who I am and what I am dedicating my life to teaching. I’m the spitting image of my father because I care about people and want to help in any way I can. I know that when I make a mistake or I’m frustrated my mother’s still my biggest fan, and I know I'll be alright. She makes me smile when I'm down and offers me unconditional love. Thanks to my family  I am respectful, kind, positive, patient, accessible, enthusiastic and caring.

 My passion for literature began when I was young, thanks to the stories I listened to before going to bed. Today, I love reading because it is something I have loved for years.  I have others hobbies as leisure activities.  I love running because everyone can do it and there are no barriers to entry. I also have a love for team sport. I’m member of a team and I need my entire team because each person is integral part of the group. In my spare time, I enjoy playing saxophone and piano. I'm a musician.The first thing that comes to my mind when I think of why I’m passionate about music is: music is relaxing to me. Music is other essential part of my development, and even help in still a sense of confidence.

Language biography

When I look back to my past, my memories of childhood reveal some situations which illustrate aspects related to the acquisition of my mother tongue, and my first contacts to learn foreign languages. I was born in a small town where the language is characterized by a local accent and I have lived there all my life. My father and mother’s first language is Valencian but they are also able to speak Spanish. However, my mother tongue is Valencian, which is the main language that we use in our family.

My first contact with the English language came through my mother; I must have been about 5 years old. My mother, who had learnt English in her youth, made an attempt to teach it to my brother and me using a Disney’s tape she had at hand. I particularly remember my mother trying to make us repeat some words.

I started learning English at the age of six. I went to public school of my town where my EFL teacher followed a textbook which had nothing in common with my live or interests at that age. I began with the numbers; alphabet, colours and simple sentences in English. She always focused on the same exercises marked by the book that were very predictable. We learned with some of them but in my opinion, they were not enough. I would have liked that the teacher had included some original activities because we needed to learn the foreign language through different ways.

During Secondary Education I was taught by different English teachers. They had a solid knowledge of the language and they were extremely accurate in their corrections. However, making use of news methodologies was not one of their strengths. The classes consisted of reading the story in the corresponding unit of the textbook, and doing the corresponding grammar exercises. A few years later there was another teacher whose positive influence still lingers. This teacher taught me Practical English for two years.  He was understanding, a good ear, motivating and warm.  He always had loads of interesting activities for us.This is what first attracted me to learning English.

At university, I have a great variety of teachers with their corresponding teaching styles. They prepare interesting materials, make us do oral presentations and reinforce our work with positive comments. They insert activities that require the students to infer the rules themselves from a context or examples given. They look for task we can prepare ourselves related to the unit of study. They give the sort of reflective lessons that make want to learn more and more about learning and teaching English.

There are others experiences that have moulded me into the person I am today. I can trace back was the strong emotional impact I felt on the first occasion I visited England through family holidays. I remember clearly how excited I was. It was an amazing adventure and an enriching experience, a forced immersion which offered me the possibility of learning English and which opened my eyes to a different culture from the one I had experienced until then. I have other memory of my first visit to England as a twelve year old: the language barrier. I remember when I went to buy bread, I asked for bread , but they didn’t understand me, however when my father who had never learn English in his youth  made a  gesture like he was  eating  bread ,they understood him. Oh yes, bread! I learned that whatever helps comprehension is important for communicating meanings and messages.

I returned to England others summers and I made friends with local people and participated in their social activities, which helped me gain a deep insight into their traditions. Sometimes I felt frustrated at not being able understand jokes, TV programs and some words when they spoke fast during the conservation. However, travelling showed me that there are other people out there and help me to understand that we are all citizens of one world with very diverse backgrounds, opportunities and histories.

Other memories in relation to learning of English languages include my extracurricular lessons in a private language academy to improve my English where the teaching/learning was based on the oral skill. So I passed FCE (First Certificate in English) two years ago.  I don’t speak with fluency and accuracy that I would like it. I agree that it's hard to speak fluently, but just I think, it will come after years of work, patience and lot of practice. Luckily, I can access plenty of helpful free online resources. For example, the online edition of newspapers can help me improve reading and writing skills.  I often took twenty minutes to listen to BBC news every day. Besides reading novels, I also watched a large number of English dramas and films. I think that if I have a more advanced knowledge of the language I can have real conversations with my Erasmus classmates from other countries, which can be very interesting and will add a new dimension to my life and my learning. I can make new friends or even find my soul mate.  I will keep learning English, because it’s my dream.

My interest is not limited to English language: I completed a French enrichment course in school official of languages of Valencia. I was able to learn many aspects of the French language quickly because I was able to draw parallels between Spanish, French and Valencian.

Reflection on the ideal teaching strategies

In my opinion there are so many different ways how to teach/learn English so that everyone can find his/her own way. To be a teacher requires making decisions about content, material, methodologies, learning goals and assessment. I must decide who I want to be as a teacher, what I care about and what I value.  My identity determines how I will conduct myself in the classroom, how I group my students, how I will present the curriculum, how I will ask questions and assign tasks, and how I will assess.  From my experience I can analyse my present and try to improve my performance in the classroom.

In relation to my personal attitude towards content, my premise is to try to be a good ear at all times. Nowadays, I am surprised by the high interest of EFL teachers who encourage students to celebrate Halloween in schools. I do not see anything wrong in talking about different world views of people around the world. But when we learn another language we do not need to take the identity of the other.

My identity as a teacher is grounded in the idea that students learn better when they can work together in groups. I understand that students aren’t a blank slate; each one comes to the classroom with a different set of skills and experiences to enrich the learning experience. Collective work can activate and build background knowledge. 

 I believe one of the main components of being an effective language teacher is to give students a motivating learning environment. I need to surprise them and help them to express curiosity for attending the English class. Motivating students sounds easy but it is complicated because internet and TV have already anticipated much of the information supposed I have to discover to them. They need discover anything new. I need to begin the lessons in a different way every day because the surprise factor is crucial to keep their motivation and adrenalin level up. I can include some original activities as games, team competition or performing that make them revise and consolidate vocabulary and structures. Activities as theatre and music are a good way of getting away from the class monotony. 

 It is also an important job for a teacher to create an environment in which they feel welcome to express their own opinions and their own ideas. I need offer learners the chance to improve their own identities as learners capable of being creative in the classroom, through challenging and interesting experiences. I will seek to include the students’ preferences in my future lessons. I will create learning activities based on topics that are relevant to their lives, culture or interest as for example teaching with events in the news, discussion activities to perform in pairs or groups providing real models as a starting point.

The materials presented in a class should be a mixture of vocabulary input and little grammar rules. I can present the materials in different ways: flashcards, books, photographs, video, film, or pod casts. The quantity and type of practice of each should fit the level of course, the age of students and the kind of class. It is important provide them with situations that enable them to participate and to teach cooperative skills to produce language that expresses and allows understanding difference and diversity.

My dream for my students is the same dream I have had for myself for the past ten years: the ability to laugh. The ability to laugh represents an overall understanding of language and of its people. I believe that today, who teach English can contribute to the education of individuals as citizens of the world and celebrate diversity.