In his narration Cooper talks about the challenges he faced while trying to teach English at the University of Puerto Rico in Mayagüez. He realized that his students came with a really bad English language background because of the faulty English taught by the school system. I can definitely relate to what Cooper meant when he talked about the
English learning system not working well. “The emphasis is on learning to speak
the language by imitating the native speaker model. Quite obviously, if the teacher
cannot speak the language, then the system cannot work”. (Cooper 73) I grew up
in private school but my high school years were done in a public school. During
high school my English teachers knew very little to no English. I felt
desperate whenever I heard or saw something misspelled because I did not want
to correct them in front of the other students. By the time I was able to
confront them it was too late, the wrong thing had already been taught even
though we had good textbooks and learning materials.
http://journey-identity.blogspot.com/2014_02_01_archive.html
Good reflection. Is very sad how teachers are not prepare to do theirs jobs, like the part when you confront the teachers because that's a true student. Like your quote because is wrong to teach a language using the native language.
ReplyDeleteDo you think that all schools in Puerto Rico teach bad English?
ReplyDeleteI like your reflection, and your point of view.
I also relate to what Cooper said. I had teachers that teaches English wrong and I wasn't brave enough to correct them.
I would like to hear more about your experience in a private school compared to the public school, and know how did you learned English.
Nasherine Flores