PROFESSOR JOSMAR LIAS
As a language teacher I believe in the importance of the cultural exchange. Humans need to get in contact among them. There is always the possibility of learning something new from others. These interactions allow us to learn and share knowledge, convictions and experience every day. What I expect to teach is the interest for learning. A passionate student not only learns, but also teaches wherever he/she performs daily. Enhancing curiosity for the language is, in my opinion, the core goal for the teacher.
If our students are capable of digging into the language, looking for associations, similarities and differences among sentences, half of the goal is coped. I consider myself a guide that allows the students to look forward to solve problems and answer questions. Teachers enhance curiosity through interesting classes where the student is the starring and the center of its content.
The generation we are teaching nowadays is facing a big revolution, the information revolution. The students of today have the knowledge of everything in their hands thanks to internet. Hence, students must be encouraged to be dynamic and proactive before the information they manage on a daily basis. Today, not only the teachers have the knowledge of a subject but also the students do. That means that the teaching methods, strategies and techniques are critical for the acquisition and comprehension of the contents studied in all the academic situations.
MY TEACHING BACKGROUND
When we study Education at the University, majoring in language teaching, we receive information about the characteristics of the language as well as the cultures where the language is spoken. Moreover, we are also taught of the teaching methods to teach it appropriately to students of all ages and stages, from beginners to advanced level.
Besides the basis learned during the career, teachers are always willing to create different alternatives and ways to help the students to acquire the language properly. In my particular case, I created three books of English for preschool since I think those are the most demanding students of the educational system. Capturing the attention of children from two to six years old is a real challenge for any teacher. The books I wrote were developed giving the teachers recommendations based on my experience teaching to preschoolers in which I have applied a combination of the most common methods, the most modern and also, with the newest approaches used to the effective teaching of languages.
WORK EXPERIENCE
My first teaching experience was in 1998 at a language academy called Mitchell International Institute. I had the opportunity to teach to teenagers and adults from beginners to intermediate level by that time. I continued teaching English and Spanish at language academies until 2001 when I began to teach English at private and public schools. From that year until 2008, I began to teach English to children from six to twelve years old. In 2006, I began to teach English and Castellano for teenagers at a high school called Padre Dehon. By that year, I also began to teach at the University, teaching English and Spanish reading comprehension to Engineering students. I combined that job with coordination and managing responsibilities at private schools where I was promoted, first, as an academic coordinator and then as a principal at a private high school called Manuel Gual. I learned a lot about all the activities a school's principal is in charge of, and the experience was very rewarding. Then in 2012, I continued teaching to children at Alfabeto de Colores Preschool and Araguaney Private School. I taught English for children from two to eight years old. In 2016, I decided to work online with my own students, Venezuelan and also Spanish students.
MY TEACHING CONVICTIONS
A language learner has an ultimate goal: speaking that language, when we find a language student, we have to realize that the reasoning and comprehension of grammar rules is the platform that will allow the students to create many sentences following the examples given. . What matters for a learner is the real experience, that allows us to memorize expressions automatically.
When somebody wants to learn a language, that person will have an interest that allows him/her to look for situations such as listening to music, watching movies or videos on the target language, things that will propel the learner to a level of need for learning that will become the impulse to learn fast and effectively.
Internet connection plays an important role in the teaching of languages nowadays. Through internet, the looks for a real experience with the language, using all the tools that the World Wide Web gives along with the Apps available for all.
