Autobiography: Why English Pedagogy? by Montserrat Hormachea

Autobiography: Why English Pedagogy? 

   As a child, I was born and raised in Valparaíso, a well-known city by tourists and navigates since it is one of the main seaports of Chile. I´ve lived, studied and worked in this city for several years because, for me, it is a place that brings you the privilege of living different experiences, due to its multicultural environment.

 During my childhood, I used to play and run along the old streets and squares of Valparaíso. These places were where I got my first approaches to the English language, hence I always tried to talk to foreigns, but they couldn't understand what I was saying... Now I can tell why; it was because the only words that I knew in english were " Cat" and "Dog". After that, I begged my mom to teach me some other words so I learned numbers, colors, animals and letters.

  My second approaches to the language were when I was studying in a public primary school, where I learned a few things, but when I was at the secondary, my mom decided to pay for a private school, where English lessons were in an advanced level, therefore I had to study a lot to reach the standards levels.

  It was during the last two years before going to university, that I realized that I wanted to study English and all started when I met Miss Alvarado. She was a really good teacher and I've always admired her for that. She used to teach us English by playing plays, creating songs or by other dynamic strategies so as I never got bored in her classes.

 Me and Miss Alvarado started to share some hobbies and one of them was reading. As a result of that, she always recommended me books until one day, when she lent me Harry Potter's original english version. I had already read the spanish version, but she suggested to try it in English. When I did it, it just blew my mind. Thanks to that, I got a different perspective about translation hence it is very difficult to keep the original sense of something when you translate it to another language. After that important event, I came to the conclusion of studying translation at Universidad de Playa Ancha.

   In the year 2014 I started the English Translation and Interpretation program and I was very excited about all related to English, but I definitely realized that I didn't want to be in front of a desk getting immersed on books or scientific articles all my life, because I liked reading but just for joy, not for something that I could get paid for. Nevertheless, I didn't want to give up on English so I talked to Miss Alvarado and she invited me on a missionary trip to the south of Chile, so I accepted her invitation.

  During our stay in Temuco, I had to assist Miss Alvarado in her lessons that were about biblical stories. In many times I had to imitate animal sounds, play with the kids and explain them the morals from the stories and by doing that, I felt glad, thankful and delighted for the experience that I shared with those wonderful kids. Thanks to that special moment is that today I'm studying the two things that I enjoy the most: English and Teaching.

A learner's personal insvestment in what she/he is learning is crucial for success

A learner's personal investment in what she/he is learning is crucial for success

Investment

According to Professor B. Norton, “the construct of investment signals the socially and historically constructed relationship of learners to the target language and their sometimes ambivalent desire to learn and practice it” (Norton, 2013). Consequently, it can be said that Investment is related to how the relationship between an L2 learner and the target language has been constructed by experiences that are linked to his/her story and his/her perception of the target language. Therefore, when talking about an “ambivalent desire”, it refers to the interest that an L2 learner shows for learning, understanding and practicing the target language because it can be something desirable or undesirable. Thereby, English learners can react in different ways at the moment of learning, an element that can affect English language acquisition inside and outside the classroom.

Agency as a component of Learner’s Investment 

As it has been already mentioned, there are personal experiences that can affect learners' decision for learning English because of how they have been taught. Through these experiences, students can show High agency or Low agency.

Agency refers to the perspective in which “knowledge is seen as “constructed” through a process of taking actions in one’s environment and making adjustments to existing knowledge structures based on the outcome of those actions. The implication is that the most transformative learning experiences will be those that are directed by the learner’s own endeavors and curiosities.” (Lindgren & McDaniel, 2012) Or in other words, “Another way of thinking of learner agency is when learners have “the power to act” – when learning involves activity and initiative on the part of the learner themselves, and not just the teacher, curriculum, and/or resources, etc” (Pllc.fi.ncsu.edu, 2019). Consequently, the Agency is understood as the initiative that a student demonstrates at the moment of learning a new language, in this case, English. 

This term also helps to discriminate positive experiences from negative experiences, since the first one is related to High agency and to the fact that initiative comes from the learner, while the second one corresponds to Low agency and to the fact that initiative is not seen as something that comes from the student, but as something that has been imposed by someone else.

The following chart represents better this idea: 

It can be better understood in the following interview:

The participant is a translator who has been taught by handouts and books focused on grammar, which means that his teachers’ methodology was focused on form instead of meaning: 

¿Las clases se enfocaban más en el aspecto gramatical o en un aprendizaje significativo? Es decir ¿ estaban enfocadas en las necesidades de aprendizajes del alumno ( cómo aprendían) o en los aspectos gramaticales propios del inglés? 

“Las clases estaban más enfocadas al aspecto gramatical, de hecho aplicábamos bastante memoria. Además eran bien parecidas a las clases que dan en la universidad. No se ocupaba nada dinámico que yo recuerde”. 

These words reflect that there were not essential efforts for providing a positive experience at the moment of teaching, which means that this participant’s experience was an example of Low agency. Therefore it is possible to say that his teachers were not interested in student’s need, as a consequence the way this participant was taught was imposed: 

¿ Cómo eran tus profesores? 

“Mis profesores no eran muy empáticos la verdad; eran muy fríos. De hecho, se parecían bastante a los profesores que tuve en la universidad. Eran tan cuadrados, que no había forma de lograr que pudieran explicar más profundamente, por lo que uno se veía prácticamente obligado a aprender en el momento. Se hacía necesario entender de una la materia. Al final los profesores no eran los que se adaptaban a las necesidades de aprendizaje de los alumnos, sino que uno mismo era el que se adaptaba a la metodología de enseñanza del profesor”. 

Despite this situation, the participant claims that it was not something negative for him, because he was able to adapt himself to the circumstances and learn from that, which helped him to get used to being constantly exposed to the use of English. 

¿ En algún momento estudiaste inglés por tu cuenta o por motivación propia ?

“Lo que hacía por mi cuenta es que estaba tan acostumbrado ya al inglés (debido a que el inglés de mi colegio era bastante exigente), que mis actividades giraban en torno al inglés. De un momento a otro ya leía todo en inglés, veía videos en inglés, jugaba juegos en inglés… Y eso al final, se dio por sí solo, no fue algo que haya buscado por motivación. Se dio como consecuencia de la necesidad que se creó a un ritmo de inglés más exigente... Aún así, hoy en día mi diario vivir se da en torno al inglés. Si tengo que leer algo, lo hago en inglés; si busco información, busco en páginas extranjeras de fuentes más confiables y así tambien eso me ha ayudado a tener un mejor manejo del inglés en mi trabajo como traductor". 

These last words denote High agency since this participant took advantage of something that could have been a disadvantageous position for his L2 acquisition. Nonetheless, thanks to this later High Agency, is that nowadays his investment on the L2 has improved as well as his English acquisition as a Translator.