Eliana Lpez Lpez

Elizabeth Hurtado Sierra

Content Area Conditions and Nature II/ 2017

Faculty of Education Pontifical Bolivarian University

RESPONSE PODCAST

THE CONTRAST OF TEACHING FROM TWO EDUCATIONAL INSTITUTIONS

Response Podcast Updating the Guidelines and the Standards in Light of the new
Documents: Some Suggestions for the Colombian Ministry of Education

INTRODUCTION

The intention of this response podcast is to consider the policies of Colombian Education and
explain the importance of teaching English in different ways that allows for the development
of Communicative Competence. Colombians must develop these competencies to be able to
enter and compete in global fields and thus teachers must provide quality education. The legal
frameworks of Colombian education offer and propose ways of learning such as what, why
and how to teach English to be a significant experience that enhances students' knowledge
inside and outside the classroom and, to be an opportunity to improve the quality of life of
human beings.

Therefore, in order to verify the implementation in practice with respect to the two
Educational Institutions, next we will present a text through a comparative exercise between
the theory of the basic standards of English proficiency and the practices carried out in both
classes, which consists of two schools that vary in place, circumstance and context. One is a
public school in a rural area of Antioquia, and the other is a private school in the city of
Medellin.

In addition, we will be verify if there exits common ground and contrast between the
interviews that were done with the teachers of both schools, and interviews with other people
in the faculty of education of the Universidad Pontificia Bolivariana. We asked them about
whether they think it is possible to implement the standards and guidelines in schools, and
then how to apply the basic standards of competence in classes while still creating a
meaningful classroom environment. We created two proposals and completed a
microteaching to show alternatives to the standards and guidelines while still teaching
competencies.

The intention of this response podcast is to consider updating the guidelines and the
standards in the light of other authors suggestions to make some suggestions for the
Colombian Ministry of Education. This podcast is developed in order of arguments for
different techniques and then our suggestions for the MEN. They are based on an
autonomous curriculum designed by some teachers, the design of tasks in the classroom,
what should be the role of the teacher, and technology as a resource inside of classroom
because of its importance in the implementation of teaching English and some possible ideas
to improve the teaching of foreign language in our context.

The observation classes underpins a critical reflection about how the English language
education at a private institution located in Medellin city and at a rural area of Antioquia.
They are both conducting the standards proposed by Colombian Ministry of Education. To
reflect upon this, it is necessary to take into consideration some aspects such as the classes:
activities, resources and assessment techniques the teachers used in the lesson planning. The
context of the private school class was sixth grade, made up of 23 students and the public
school class was tenth grade, made up of 33 students.

Thus, the experience a town begins in understanding the environment and the context where
the students live; for example, in this municipality there is only one high school and
therefore, students sometimes have to walk for hours to reach the school since there is no
provided transportation for those who live far away. On the other hand, in Medelln, students
have private or public transportation, or their families have means to transport them, so
students have more possibilities to move from home to Institution.

The observation class was based on different grades with the objective of analyzing all
possible aspects reflected in class, from the curricular guidelines, to the basic standards and
the guide that the MEN provides about learning English. In the case of the public school, it
does not have the necessary resources to organize a full class since it does not have guides
books for teachers or students, and the school does not have specific a computer room for the
English area, so the teacher uses photocopies when available. The evaluations are based on
Pruebas Saber.

The teacher in the private school showed evidence of her English competence, in her class
she uses English and Spanish, just to make sure the students understand, and she is very clear
in the instruction. According to Larsen - Freeman (2000) Chapter 10 As with content- based
instruction, a task- based approach aim to provide learners with a natural context for language
use. As learners work to complete a task they have abundant opportunity to interact p.5. In
her classroom, she used a guide text, purchased by the family of the student. Taking control
of the activity she first mentioned the page to present the activity, and then lead a writing
activity about personal facts, guiding her students step by step and giving feedback in the
moment about unknown words or pronunciation. In the observation, the teacher mentioned
that group was divided because there are students with basic level and intermediate level,
meaning that there are two teachers. One teaches a basic level A1, which according to the
Common European Framework Basic level A1 consists of:

Can understand sentences and frequently used expressions related to areas of most
immediate relevance (e.g. very basic personal and family information, shopping, local
geography, employment). Can communicate in simple and routine tasks requiring a
simple and direct exchange of information on familiar and routine matters. Can
describe in simple terms aspects of his/her background immediate environment and
matters in areas of immediate need p. 24

The other group is intermediate and they have a good pronunciation, communicative
competence is a focus of the class because students express their personal lives, interests and
dreams. In B1 according to Common European Framework, a student should be able to:

Can understand the main points of clear standard input on familiar matters regularly
encountered in work, school, leisure, etc. Can deal with most situations likely to arise
whilst travelling in an area where the language is spoken. Can produce simple
connected text on topics which are familiar or of personal interest. Can describe
experiences and events, dreams, hopes and ambitions and briefly give reasons and
explanations for opinions and plans. P.24.
Of the above, in the school context according to the MEN (2006), It is intended that students
upon leaving the school system, achieve a level of proficiency in English B1 (Pre
intermediate). However, although the ideal of the Ministry of Education is that students
achieve the level B1, there are many circumstances where the student does not advance and
prove their abilities by passing the exam. This is due to lack of motivation, resources, and
technologies. This is why we observed classes, and interviewed teachers to get to know more
about the work of these teacher and the opportunities for microteaching to allow to schools to
reach the proposals and requirements of the MEN.

Thus, one of the considerations found within educational institutions was technology. The
guidelines propose technological transformations where the impact on knowledge acquisition
is considerable. For example, in the school we visited in the municipality, teachers said in
their interviews, and we were also able to observe this, a lack of technology. The institution
has no internet and the only computer room is for the technology class. Therefore, the teacher
adds that despite the difficulties, she looks for alternatives to develop the classes.

However, in our observation of the class in the municipality, motivation was a main theme
with respect to actually wanting to learn a second language. Therefore, as teachers in training
should implement the thoughts indicated by Liddicoat and Scarino (2013) when considering
the concept of language from the culture as a relation to an intercultural environment.
Meaning they should highlight to students the possibility of learning a new language from the
perspective of knowing new roots and contexts where they can exchange knowledge, to
knowing new places and the idea of improving the quality of life of human beings.

These kind of activities during the degree are important because it is necessary that we, pre-
service teachers, be knowledgeable in a real world context so that we can be prepared and
conscious about the preparation of guidelines and standards. They are significant elements to
take into account while planning a class. Through these guidelines and all these aspects
teachers construct their own curricular plan that fosters a holistic communicative competence
and goes beyond being critical.

Students need well prepared teachers with methods that make the English learning process
more interesting and strategies to improve their linguistic competence. This includes many
aspects; grammar, vocabulary, pronunciation, spelling, reading, listening and writing. The
English language process takes time to learn and students need an accompaniment and
instruction that involves students in the process according to his abilities. Larsen, Freeman,
D (2000).

Teaching methods implemented by teachers should foster an interest in English. As far as the
classes we observed, the teacher from municipality, as well as a teacher in the Educational
Institution of Medelln, used the Natural Method as a means of learning for the students.
Krashen and Terrel (1983) say that the natural approach is designed to develop basic personal
communication skills. The communicative competences, defined as listening, writing,
speaking and reading are bases for class work, however in the speaking competence, many
students do not feel confident to achieve the correct competence for grade and level indicated
by the Guide 22.

In the case of the activity developed by the students in private school, is important to analyze
the linguistic competence involved. In this situation, using catchy phrases to activate skills in
students has a long preparation process. They have to think of the play roles and understand
the words to talk. This shows greater competence.

These kind of exercises would improve the learning process of the language. As pre-service
teachers, the Common European Framework is important to keep in mind because it is a
guideline that provides which competences students should be developing according to their
level. There are some specifics areas to strengthen and others to keep at a certain level, we
must use teaching strategies in the classroom to strengthen or maintain certain areas at a
specific level. We must also keep interest in assimilating new knowledge and improving their
communicative language competences.

The communicative activity of users/learners is affected not only by their knowledge

understanding and skills, but also by selfhood factors connected with their individual
personalities, characterized by the attitudes, motivations, values, beliefs, cognitive
styles and personality types which contribute to their personal identity. These include:
attitudes, motivations, values, beliefs, cognitive styles personality factors [] (2009,
 p.105).

In the microteaching class done at the private school we practiced role plays which works
depending on the students abilities. According to Larsen-Freeman, D. Chapter 11, teachers
have always known that their students have different strengths. In the language teaching field,
some of the differences among students have been attributed to students having different
learning or cognitive styles. p 169. Role plays are better to implement in classrooms where
the students which are not shy, because each student possesses different abilities. Gardner has
theorized that there are seven: logical/mathematical, visual/spatial, body/ kinesthetic,
musical/rhythmic, interpersonal, intrapersonal, verbal/linguistic.

In other words, teachers need to be more creative to present activities and try to capture the
attention of all students, they need to be aware and be a critical observer in students learning
process. In relation to helping to close the gap between classroom realities and linguistic
policies, English classes in schools should be more realistic, meaning they must give students
the opportunity to take the control of real situation and feel empowered by their language
usage. In the microteaching implemented the students were very engaged in the task, they
enjoyed it and the most importantly they learned new words to use in real contexts. They
were able to complete the objects that we as pre service teachers had set for them.

The teacher has a social responsibility, considering that they are seen as proficient, and able
to answer to the expectations inside the culture. Their academic formation is important
because they are responsible for their own learning process to teach others. A pre service
teacher should recognize that society put all of these expectations on their role for a quality
education, and that is why his expertise in English is a complement and a part of who they
are. They are key element in society because working on their own ideas, proposals and
knowledge can contribute to society and projects within this country.

The academic training that a teacher receives has strengthened in the educational programs in
Colombia as well as in public and private education through the Plan Nacional de
Bilingismo PNB (2004,2019). The Ministry of National Education has been working on
politics that endorse different strategies that seek how to improve the communicative
competence and specific skill development in English as a foreign language in both public
and private schools. The country needs to work more on policies to guarantee foreign
language competence in Colombia because it is necessary that teachers know how to manage
a classroom and know about pedagogy and didactics and content knowledge. In spite of the
guidelines and framework declared by the MEN, the current languages policies are not
enough. Teachers are active agents and they can transform the reality in their practices by
critically empowering the students. Teachers can teach beyond standards and guidelines to
make the best learning process for their students, and teachers need to take initiatives to
focus on how to propose new ways of teaching. The purpose would be for the teacher to be
more autonomous, according to (Usma,J 2007,p.251) [...] Studies explores teacher
perceptions of their own autonomy within the context of school reform, this second group
actually scrutinizes the way teachers exercise their professional autonomy in order to
interpret, construct, and implement the curriculum and attain educational goals in different
educational context.

Curriculum is a teaching plan that takes care of real needs and constructs a learning plan for
the education of the students. It plans, answers and gathers important aspects to carry out on
an Institutional educative project. In the curriculum, the important aspects are objectives,
competences, structured content, theory, practical, methodologies, strategies, evaluation, and
styles of learning essential for students learning. Each one is important because they integrate
into the criterias for teaching, they should be used differently based on different context and
social needs. In private and public contexts, it is important that teachers be creative and
contribute with their own ideas if resources are not enough to confront properly the
challenges in their classroom.

Some suggestions for Ministry of Education are; integrate into the syllabus more efficient
learning answers according to the situation of the student, make more realistic the learning of
English practicing by active methodology, integrate all the abilities, motivate through real
comprehension(not only memorization), and implement different activities with the students
so they are able to understand and be conscious about what is learning a foreign language.
According to (Nunan, 1989) in chapter 2, in the designing tasks for the communicative
classroom, he claims that the implications for a task design are it is important to consider
which the focus is at the moment of teaching, what are the major issues? And what are
purpose, the intention and the goals of the activities in the lesson plan. [] The needs for
carrying out real- world communicative tasks beyond the classroom(1989,p.38) Teachers
need more preparation in order to carry out an interactive learning that creates real learning.
What is the role of the teacher? How do children acquire knowledge? How is second
language developed? Guidelines and standards are orientations that propose to ensure the
quality of education. They are an orientation that teachers have to keep in mind at the
moment of teaching, especially in what elements they should integrate into communicative
competence and how students are able to connect these guidelines with their social life.
According to Cadzen (2011) quoting Chomsky to construct and create context through
language, because author mention that is possible to learn through the cultural aspects p.
367.

Based on the previous questions and in the suggestions for The Ministry of Education,
teachers need to be critical because teaching English is not a technical issue; it is not only
teaching information because it is about going beyond and exploring everything. Teaching
languages is also teaching a culture to a student, and making them conscious of the
appropriate use of the language.

Teachers should be able to design resources for their students. Technology promotes
creativity so incorporating technology to learn a second language means having a wide range
of support during the activities. This allows students to create their own learning experiences,
and it facilitates the learning of English language so that they students can perform better.
One possible suggestion is implementing technology to support the learning process because
it is a useful tool to complement the learning experience in students. Designing activities that
use technology allows teachers to keep in mind interests, audience and how the teacher can
make the class better. For this reason, the modernization of the education system is necessary
to foster an English language. According to Kern (2000).

While each type of technology has its own specific advantages, it is worth listing
some of the general benefits of using it in English for specific purposes. Some
benefits of technology in language learning are the same for English for specific
purposes learners as for general English learners. For example, finding native
speakers as learning or communication partners or reading or watching the news in
the target language for those who do not have easy access to these locally. In lessons,
teacher can bring the outside world into the classroom, provide authentic contexts in
which English is used, expose students to different varieties and accents of English,
and give students listening practice. p .92-93.

On the other hand, schools should guarantee a holistic education that reinforces skills in
students. One idea to strengthen this is to take into account the Basic Learning Rights
because they focus on the important aspects to develop linguistic competence. Each grade has
their own objective and possible activity, but teachers have to be very critical and give the
correct orientation because there are not required activities. They are a support to design
planning and the Ministry of Education should work on strategies that involve teachers.
Colombian education has to be conscious of the context, guidelines, and standards of basic
learning rights and provide each other to improve the learning process of all students.

Los DBA son un complemento para la construccin y actualizacin de propuestas

curriculares, pues, comprenden algunos elementos fundamentales del desarrollo de la
competencia comunicativa en ingls. Por otra parte, no pretenden reemplazar el
currculo existente ya que ste se entiende desde una dimensin ms amplia y
compleja como el conjunto de criterios, planes de estudio, programas, metodologas
y procesos que contribuyen a la formacin integral y a la construccin de la identidad
nacional, regional y local incluyendo los recursos humanos, acadmicos y fsicos para
poner en prctica las polticas y llevar a cabo el PEI. (Artculo 76 Ley General de
Educacin, Ley 115 de 1994) p.7

A suggestion to propose to The Ministry of Education is to endorse the reading and writing
projects because students need to strengthen their abilities. These skills are interconnected
and are useful. Schools need to work more on these aspects for their students because they
need to enjoy this process. Reading and writing develop in students the capacity of critical
thinking about social issues, understanding and constructing other meanings of the world, and
they are important aspects that school should seek to improve. According to (Pincas, 1982)

Writing is an integral part of everyday life [] the first step in teaching writing is
therefore to select and demonstrate relevant varities. English newspapers, o
magazines, imported products with English writing on the package, instructions,
brochures from travel agents, banks or government delegations - all these can be
brought into the classroom to add a touch of reality to uses of English p.28

CONCLUSION
The Ministry of National Education needs to keep in mind context and strengthen the
objectives based on good preparation so that a teacher can meet the demands of the country.
The constant reflection in the practice makes possible the learning process of the students,
and because this is the major goal, the Ministry of Education should support teachers in
projects that they want to complete.

To sum up, the exercises as pre teachers as well as the interviews and observations showed us
that there could exist differences between theories we learn in class and the reality of teaching
in a Colombian classroom. It is very important that teachers in training have different
experiences from diverse contexts where they must also think of all the possibilities and
potential changes they will have to make to theory in order to successfully teach in different
schools or English centers .

In regards to the municipality schools interview, it is necessary to report that teachers will
find many obstacles to their teaching. This means that teachers need to find strategies and
resources to overcome these obstacles so that their students can learn and they can improve
the education system in Colombia.

The new guidelines set by the MEN are the responsibility of future teachers. The obstacles
encountered within the classroom are gaps to strengthen and are not be the excuse for poor
educational quality; therefore, the teacher must strengthen and find the right resources for
good learning such as the idea of generating in students motivation, a necessary justification
for learning a second language.

The educators and pre-service teachers in Colombia must be well prepared to improve the
country's education quality and respond to the country's developmental necessities. Educators
should be prepared in foreign languages to help the students; this is the most important
proposal for The Ministry of Education because through this, the quality of education could
change.

Having said that, it is necessary to understand the necessary considerations to generate

interest in the classes, so that it is not only the teacher's responsibility, but rather the
responsibility of the students to understand why learning a second language is important.
Brown (2012) says:

People give many reasons for studying English, including global and local reasons.
Traditionally, global reasons focus on the usefulness of English, arguing of
 communicating globally, the internationalism, the gaining entry into higher education
and the primary language for accessing global information. (p. 149)

Colombia needs education, the problem in the country is the teachers lack of preparation. In
order to be successful we must demand professionals to be capable and educated. An
educator who does not have enough preparation and English knowledge is going to have a
negative effect on his student. Our final suggestion is to work on the quality of training for
teachers by giving them resources and good conditions to dignify the profession, and
investing in Colombian education because the benefits are not for children, but also for the
country as a whole.

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Visin de la Educacin 2019

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