Podcast (=

Hi there! This is my Podcast. It is my recorded opinion about the Article "Intercultural Training with Films" by Christine Roell from the English Teaching Forum.

Prezi Presentation on Intercultural Training with Films

This presentation has been created with the purpose of summarizing the main ideas presented in the article Intercultural Training with Films by Christine Roell from English Teaching Forum site.

The link to access this is:

http://prezi.com/kor8u_kx9228/intercultural-training-with-films/

Experiencing Intercultural Learning with Films by Lic. Sandra Mongomery for the Master’s Program in TEFL, ULATINA 2011

In the article Intercultural Training with Films by Christine Roell from the English Teaching Forum site, the author emphasizes the importance of using films to facilitate students’ understanding of cultural topics.

Roell’s gives some reasons for using films and watching movies in the classroom; for example, the fact that these two resources catch the students’ attention easily by combining entertainment and learning in an interesting way. She also cites that:

“Learning about stereotypes, ethnocentrism, discrimination, and acculturation in the abstract can be flat and uninspiring. But if we experience intercultural contact with our eyes and ears, we begin to understand it” (Summerfield 1993, 1).

I do consider this citation to be very relevant because as English instructors we might devote a lot of time explaining orally about intercultural communication; nevertheless, students learn more when they actually see and hear what we are trying to teach them. In other words, when they watch a film or movie, they experience through their senses the different situations portrayed, and this enables their comprehension.

Another important aspect that Roell points out is the different activities that can be done when using films in the classroom. This refers to pre-viewing, while-viewing, and post-viewing activities which are fundamental in order to achieve the objectives that we, teachers, have established. Because there must be an educational purpose when giving students a film or movie, and our challenge is to use it in an effective way so intercultural understanding can really take place.

10 Inspiring Steve Jobs' Quotes

This video contains 10 Inspiring Steve Jobs' Quotes that I would like to share. Innovation was one of Job's main concerns, and it must be the concern for English instructors all around if we really want to make some kind of difference in the teaching-learning process.

What does it mean to innovate in TEFL?

In the web site Wikipedia, Innovation, according to the dictionary of the Real Spanish Academy, is the creation or modification of a product, and its introduction into a market.To innovate comes from the Latin Innovare, which means the act or effect to innovate, become new or renovate, introducing a novelty. http://es.wikipedia.org/wiki/Innovaci%C3%B3n
 

Nowadays, English instructors face a big challenge: How to innovate in their way of teaching? However, it is not only how to teach in a creative way, but also to understand that today’s students are very different from the ones teachers used to have before. They are definitely more involved in technology, which means they are accustomed to receive and deal with information in a faster way.  It is mandatory that in TEFL, teachers work as facilitators that let students construct their own learning. To innovate does not only mean that we have to create a totally new way of teaching. It also means that we would have to be willing to analyze the teaching process in which we are immersed in order to make the adjustments that are necessary. So, as English teachers, if we really want to see improvements in our students' learning process, the only way we have is the way through innovation, and we must start going in this direction NOW.