Introduction

In my college career I have taken four semesters of learning another language, Spanish.
In those semesters I’ve learned first-hand what has worked for me—as a learner, and what has
not been as effective. I feel this is crucial as an ESL teacher; to understand and know what it is
like to be in your students’ shoes. My chosen teaching and learning context are mainly through
literature for Korean students. But, through trial and error I’ve learned to create more fun and
interactive ways to teach students English and not just focus on the words on a page but the
culture as well.
If I’m honest, I will say this was tough on me at first. I over-thought everything and
creating materials for only a 15-minute time span made me nervous. But as I made lesson after
lesson, I realized one thing: You will never know if it [the lesson] is effective until you’ve taught
it. What works for one class may not work for another, but this is where, as a teaching
professional, I learned to be more flexible. While I created these lessons, I had Korean culture
and students in mind. I wanted to create things that show English is fun and that the American
culture is interesting. But, not only did I include my American culture but my Hispanic culture as
well. My family is Panamanian, meaning we eat some weird food, have weird traditions, and
listen to some weird music. As I discussed these ideas with my peers, they found it interesting
and made comments that I should explore that more in my lessons and I did.
My favorite quote from our book, Crossing Cultures in the Language Classroom is,
“Language reflects worldviews, the thought processes, and the lifestyle of its people; each
culture places its own individual imprint on a language” (Wintergerst 29). I’m not saying this is
the only important part I found in the book, but I found it an integral part when it came to make
my lessons. I asked myself what am I reflecting about the American culture? What thought
processes am I revealing? Is the lifestyle I’m showing a correct one? I’d reflect on this quote in
order to get me out of whatever rut I was in.
Then, I’d place myself in the shoes of an English learner, just last semester I was a
Spanish learner, and I’d ask myself would I want to do this lesson as a student. If the answer
came back yes, I knew I did great; if the answer came back no, I still thought I did good.
Learning is never an easy process it’s a rough road with bumps, potholes, and confusion along
the way. The best I want to do as a teacher is help ease students with the learning process and try
to make it interesting along the way. When I am in a position where I can receive feedback from
students, I will be sure to take their comments only as ways to improve my teaching become a
better teaching professional.
I enjoy using literature and poetry not only because that’s my chosen area of expertise,
but I find it an easy way to introduce and expand vocabulary and grammar [especially with
poetry]. As a Spanish learner when my professors used Pablo Neruda (Spanish poet), I found
myself building my Spanish lexicon faster than a list of vocabulary words. I found this successful
because the words being used weren’t ones that I had seen for the past three years, the repetition
of the months and of household items began to be boring and I found that I had no use for them
when someone walks up to me asking for directions. Through comprehension of a text I was able
to see when it was and was not appropriate to use certain endings and whether they were formal
or informal. These are the types of textual based lessons I’d like to teach someday, and I can only
hope my students enjoy it.
The most important thing for the set of lessons I created, at least in my opinion, was that I
was creating a foundation of skills and knowledge they can use for the rest of their life. They can
look at another cultures poetry and see what it reveals about their beliefs, they can view a video
or a movie and notice the norms and values its displaying, and that they can think critically of
work not only in their native language but in a whole new language.