Towards_a_Bilingual_Country

TOWARDS A BILINGUAL COUNTRY GRADE SEMINAR YICELA POLANIA CASTRO SURCOLOMBIANA UNIVERSITY TOWARDS A BILINGUAL COUNTRY In my opinion, language is certainly the most essential quality human beings have inherited. It is the only way to communicate, and it is fascinating how we can convert our thoughts into words. Since language lets us express our feelings, I think learning a second language gives us valuable life skills, as well as, a wider vision of today’s world. Since language is our most important, if not the only, means of communication, I think it actually brings people together. Whenever we use language, we are expressing our intelligence through words. I also think mastering a second language gives us priceless life abilities. I think it is an advantage to know a second language because it gives people access to a larger pool of information, and thus a wider area to seek employment and cultural enrichment. Therefore, I think it also gives the chance to have a more extensive vision of the world. Not only we gain a better understanding of who we are, but we also have a broader access to other cultures. Thus, we can notice how important is to speak a second language in our case we are going to focus in learning English as a second language. As it is known English is one of the official and dominant languages around the world as Jose Felipe Pardo says in Interlanguages Magazine (Revista Interlenguajes) “it is the international relation language (Es el idioma de las relaciones internacionales”. And Colombia as many other countries is trying to adopt English language in order to become a bilingual country. As it was set before there are many reasons to learn a second language but there are many factors that make the process of teaching and learning be a success or not. In our country Colombia teachers have to face many things when they are teaching English; first of all, in public school, especially, groups are really big about 40-45 students, so it is really hard for teachers give feedback, focus on students problems, even know all students names. Ana Clara Sanchez Solarte and Gabriel Vicente Obando Guerrero talk about al those problems in their article (p. 189, 190, 191). Another problem to face is teachers do not know speak English or teachers do not know to teach, most of the time it is not teacher’s fault because Government make people teach not only English but others subjects even they know or not. Another big problem is most of teachers are giving their English classes in Spanish, so students are not exposed to the second language in a continuo way becoming in non sense classes. Also institutions and at the same time teachers do not have the material necessary to develop their classes and as it is known in our environment it is necessary to have good tools in order to motivate students to learn English. And the last but no the least problem is the number of hours to teach English, I consider it is too little time to learn English and any other language. It is like a utopia to believe Colombian students are going to speak English with two or three hours per week. I want to highlight the good things are been carried out nowadays, as bilingualism programs, I consider people working there have set out important goals through developing interesting activities that are more adjusted to Colombian needs so it is necessary all English teachers if is possible get involved in those activities if they really want their students become bilingual people. As teacher Lilia Stella Bernal Bilingualism Program Director pointed out.