Online Teaching

English teacher

Centro Colombo Americano, Colombia

Jul 1997 - Jul 2008

Basic, intermediate, advanced courses

English teacher and tutor.

MA in teaching

Universidad de La Salle, Colombia

Feb 2005 - Nov 2007

BA in philology and languages

Universidad Nacional de Colombia, Colombia

Feb 1993 - Oct 1997

This paper argues the importance of action research and critical reflection in the study of affective factors and language learning strategies in foreign language teaching. The starting point is a description of what affective factors and language learning strategies are and why Colombian EFL teachers should address these issues. Critical reflection and action research are, then, presented as rigorous and systematic activities that teachers could engage in to help their students deal with the emotional difficulties of social interaction and language learning, to open their own work to inspection and, more importantly, to construct valid accounts of their educational practices. Finally, action research is proposed as a powerful means for developing teacher and learner autonomy.

El objetivo de este artículo es hacer una aproximación al concepto e investigación de inteligencia desde una perspectiva amplia, que permita deshacer, o al menos cuestionar, visiones sesgadas y opiniones simplistas. Este acercamiento busca lograr una comprensión holista de la capacidad inteligente del ser humano que incite a las instituciones educativas no sólo a trasmitir e instruir ideas, conocimientos o doctrinas sistemática y eficientemente, sino a facilitar la potenciación, el desarrollo y la aplicación de las diferentes capacidades del estudiante. Para ello, en primera instancia, se plantea la relación entre inteligencia, éxito escolar y éxito en la vida cotidiana para luego resignificar el concepto de inteligencia, no como una capacidad única, sino como una serie de capacidades o habilidades distintas que remiten a diferentes componentes y modos de la actividad inteligente. En segunda instancia, se hace un breve recuento de algunos planteamientos de teorías recientes sobre inteligencia para avalar la pertinencia del concepto propuesto. Por último, se presenta un bosquejo de ciertos principios que la enseñanza y la investigación deberían asumir para desarrollar y utilizar exitosamente, en y fuera del contexto educativo, todas y cada una de las habilidades de los estudiantes.

EFL teachers in general and Colombian EFL teachers in particular should address both the sociocultural pressure for adults to learn or improve their language skills and the inappropriate beliefs, attitudes, anxieties, and motivations they tend to have by engaging in critical reflections to provide their students with appropriate activities to face up to the emotional difficulties of social interaction and language learning, but more importantly, to open their own work to inspection and to construct valid accounts of their educational practices. Action research (AR) and reflective teacher-learning on socioaffective language learning strategies appear to be powerful means for developing both teacher autonomy and learner autonomy. Teacher autonomy is developed because new methodological and pedagogical opportunities are opened up for teachers to develop an appropriate expertise of their own. Learner autonomy is also developed because students can become aware of and identify their strategies, needs and goals as learners in order to reconsider and refashion approaches and procedures for optimal language learning. A particular action research study examined these issues by focusing explicitly on affective factors and socioaffective language learning strategies among learners in a monolingual EFL classroom at the Centro Colombo Americano in Bogota, Colombia. The results of the study suggested that explicit strategy instruction in socioaffective language learning strategies is helpful in heightening learner awareness of the importance of paying attention to their own feelings and social relationships as part of their learning process. The results also showed that when teachers reflect on their practical pedagogical know-how, it becomes rich personal pedagogical knowledge.

This reflective paper looks at the need for us, English teachers, to consider the theories, processes, perceptions, values, interests and purposes we hold in order to understand why and how we can do research and produce knowledge from our teaching practices. Action Research (AR) is proposed not just as a tool to systematically observe and investigate issues or problems we confront in our classes but more importantly as a way to understand knowledge and research as a transformational event that deals with different interests in human experience and that ultimately can enable us to explore and share our common humanity. It highlights and exemplifies Whitehead's (1993) Action Planning as organizing principles and methodology for our action reflection process.

The disconnection between what counts as social research (SR) and what serves society's needs and interests results in a way of theorizing which, while useful, does not integrate theory and practice; a form of social theory that is not embodied in real lives and does not help non-academic people understand their contexts and practices. This disconnection in SR demands a new epistemology, a new way of knowing and doing research that can meet the everyday needs of people living real-life situations. A dialectical paradigm, researching and knowing from experience through intellectual study, can enable people to rethink theory as a practical discipline oriented towards social renewal. Within this perspective, action research (AR) can align academic research and teaching to social needs because it creates a space for collaborative reflection, the mutual contrast and integration of many kinds of knowledge systems, and the shared design of both the goals and the actions aimed at achieving them. Social researchers and language educators could use AR and collaboration to develop legitimate knowledge, promote social change and solve problems while creating a space for joint reflection and dynamic interaction in language classrooms.