Take away the heart of the flax bush And where will the bellbird sing?

Let me ask you, What is the most important thing in this world? It is people, it is people, it is people

This traditional Maori saying partly reflects the learning I have been acquiring throughout this module Teaching Foundations. As a first reflection I would like to say that I notice a great change taking place regarding the teaching of English as a Second Language, as we move into a postmethod era in which teachers are encouraged to exercise their critical thinking skills, analyzing the underlying theories behind the course books being used(Richards,1990). This due to the evident need in our current society to have among its working members, people who have a good operational level of English to cope with, among others working situations thus stimulating our countrys economy (SEP,2011). It is needless to say that education is the key that opens the door to a wide range of opportunities; therefore as teachers we face the continual challenge of having a sound foundation to sustain our practice, making it effective, giving virtual results. My classroom practice has been enriched through the addition of new conceptual knowledge to the existing knowledge base. This has aid the broaden of scope when it comes to dealing with other factors and issues apart from the cognitive ones, which I ..being a more Transmission perspective oriented teacher(Bratt) would sometimes overlook. As I mention before, the fostering of a more critical view of the materials I am asked to use, has helped me analyze the reasons behind my actions. It has become part of my philosophy to balance the integration of methods and techniques that would cater to the research-based principles for language teaching and learning (Brown,2000). The development of Browns learning principles As research continues to be carried out on SLA, its findings and discoveries provide the reasons for the evolution in this field. Changes in methods and techniques are evident and they have change according to the need of learners. Even though the subject matter is complex, and some aspects still remain unclear (Brown,2000), the twelve principles for SLA provide a trustworthy framework and foundation for our teaching practice. It was very interesting to see these principles taking place in a practical setting, that is, the ELT classroom. As far as the cognitive domain, the best way to increase automaticity, especially with adult learners, since for children, this does not represent much of a challenge as it does for adults, would be to provide opportunities for meaningful learning, I believe one way in which we can do this is by helping our students pay attention on the function of the language, instead of trying to translate isolated words. Role-playing activities have proven to be helpful for my learners. Coming

up with relevant topics, situations they can relate to, and that can be carried out outside the classroom is of paramount importance. This aiming at being a source of intrinsic motivation resulting from the feeling of achievement and the anticipation of reward. With content so easily at reach, the development of strategies becomes part of the teachers responsibilities, since due to ITs we are not the main source of content anymore. I find it very rewarding when my students see me not only as their teacher but as a guide and as someone who can provide them with tips, and strategies they can use as they become competent speakers of English. Being a more content oriented teacher has caused me to face the challenge of working with the affective domain in SLA in a more efficient way. In adult classes I could easily see examples of students language ego, when they would show reluctance in the development of some activities, I assume because of the insecurity and anxiety that results from being asked to speak in a language that is not their first language. In order to help my student feel more at ease, one of the things I do, is to accept whatever language they give me, as I elicit from then in introductory activities and avoid using the word no, when correction needs to be made. This technique among others has helped my students feel more confident to take risks and cope with situations that are fairly similar to the ones that they might face when traveling to countries where the target language is spoken. Since we are working with a language that is not our own, the interference of our mother tongue is hard to avoid, sometimes this can be used to our advantage, considering we have a universal grammar (Chomsky) and the extent to which students comprehend a language and extend their lexical and grammatical resources will impact the acquisition of a second language. Going back to the Maori saying, the integration of this knowledge base in my teaching practice has as its core motives the fact that we are working with people and having a positive impact on others lives is one of the things that I set before me as a guiding principle.

References:
Beattie, James. "Of Universal Grammar". Section II, The Theory of Language (1788). Rpt in Dissertations Moral and Critical (1783, 1986.)

Brown, D. (2007). Teaching by Principles: An Interactive Approach to Language Pedagogy. Retrieved from http://www.slideshare.net/igotamnesia/teaching-by-principles-brown Hadfield,C.,HadfieldJ.(2008).Introduction to teaching English. Oxford, NY: Oxford University Press. Pratt, D. D. (Forthcoming).Good teaching: one size fits all? In An Up-date on Teaching Theory, Jovita Ross-Gordon (Ed.), San Francisco: Jossey-Bass, Publishers.

Richards,J.C.,Nunan,D.(1990).Second Language Teacher Education. Cambridge,UK:CUP. Secretaria de Educacin Pblica. (2011). Programa Nacional de Ingls en Educacin Bsica. Fundamentos Curriculares. Retrieved June 6,2013, from : http://www.pnieb.net/documentos/2012/Fundamentos%20Curriculares/FUNDAMENTOS%20web.pdf