This is my first journal entry

As I was reading the three reading selection for next class, I was captivated by the similarities and relationship between one and the other. The readings really complemented each other. Some of the ideas and concepts were the same, yet they were named in different manner.

The importance of listening in the learning environment had never been clearer to me than it is now. The way if was explained and highlighted in these readings made it seem even more important. I must confess that even though I am a teacher of English to Spanish speaking students, I have never had any formal training in the teaching methods of a second language. Therefore, I was surprised and satisfied to see that some of the suggestions and information given on the articles and book chapters were things that I do in class innately.

I must also confess that I learned my second language (English) at a very early stage in my life. And I believe that experience made it even easier for me to learn a Third (French) and a fourth (Italian) language. I believe the strategies I used in learning English I applied to learning these other two languages as a self- regulated learner. Yet, it is true that I had one of the best teachers of French anyone can have in Puerto Rico. And that I do use a lot of the techniques she used in class and that helped me learn French much faster in my own English classes is no secret. But, this is the first time I see all this in writing. All of this came to me from experience, not through formal training or studies.

I wondered about how English is taught in Puerto Rico and why is it that even though students take 12 years of English in school, when they get to college they still cannot hold a conversation in English. This is not all of the students of course, but a great majority. As I was discussing this issue with Martha before classes started I believed that the answer to this question was political, or even cultural. Puerto Rico is a territory of the US and the colonial mentality would make reject anything coming from the “oppressor” this including language. There has to be a will to learn a new language and not an imposition. In Puerto Rico, English is part of the school curriculum. Students do not have the opportunity to choose a second or foreign language in the public school system. English is a requisite from k-12. This is why I believed it was a matter of resistance.

While reading I remembered Martha’s comment on that maybe the answer to why students in PR do not learn as much English as they should after 12 years of schooling is that the methods used to teach are not the correct ones. As I read about the Bottom-up and Top-Down strategies mentioned by Richards and the comparisons of reading and listening strategies used in passive ways where student participation is limited or none, I began to understand what Martha was saying. And to “truly” understand why my French professor was so successful. There was a lot of interaction in the class and listening was developed for interactional and transactional purposes.

The Gibbons chapter also enlightened me. It was not a requirement but I’m glad I read it. The part where Gibbons talks about how sounds are interpreted and how some FL learners relate the sounds in the new language to sounds in their native language made it clear to me now why my Spanish teacher in elementary school would ask us to “sink” about a problem in order to solve it.

An old friend of the family suggested that I study and write a thesis on why Puerto Ricans who go to the US and are raised there shape their mouths differently when speaking that Island Puerto Ricans do. I thought this was absurd at the time. I was just started college and I was studying Literature not linguistics. Now it all makes sense to me and it seems like a possibility. There must be a logical explanation to all this.

I was talking to a fellow Puerto Rican student who is taking a class on Motivation an Engagement with me this semester and we were wondering or perhaps complaining about the fact that little is known about the research that is done regarding education in Puerto Rico. There is not a national conscience to make these studies public, if they have been done. Or perhaps they have not been done at all. It is a good question and a good start to motivate us to study, research and learn more about education in our Island.