Teaching English in Mexico: An insight of this marvellous job. Have you ever wondered which is the most spoken language in the world? You could say that Chinese because of its population, but actually it is English. With 1,132 millions of speakers (Berlitz, 2022). English is considered the most important language. In fact, English is a lingua franca, which means that is the language that everyone can use in order to communicate even if they are not from the same country. Having a second language it will be always important, meanwhile learning specifically English provides a lot of opportunities to students in Mexico. Learning English it could help us to get a job abroad or even in Mexico. The majority of today jobs requires certain level of English, such as science, health, hotel, tourism (Academia Europea, n.d.). And the one that we are going to focus on, teaching. In this life nothing is easy, it is obvious that nothing will be so simple, students may have different aspects that can interfere with their learning, however, there are some strategies that I will cover that can help to develop a good English class. Importance of teaching English in Mexico. Nowadays English is spoken by everyone, it is a beautiful language that a lot of countries practice in order to communicate with different people across the continents. In Mexico, because of its connection with USA and Canada, English is widely spoken, because of that, many jobs requires having a minimum of English level, that is the reason why is important to teach English in Mexico, it not only provides an opportunity to communicate with our neighbours from USA, but also having a better opportunities for studying abroad and eventually look out for a job (Bravo et al., 2015). That is why teaching is a whole duty that must be accomplished in order to make students, Mexican students in this case, an incredible English learners. However, not everything is easy. Difficulties in teaching English (individual differences). Teaching a language is a hard duty, anything can and will interfere with the process of learning, concepts like the location of the person who wants to learn the language, the approach with the individual to the language, the attitude, etc. All of this are called individual differences.
What are the individual differences? It is self explanatory, these are the many different aspects of each person, related to the personality of the learner, the intelligence, the learning styles, even the teachers and their approach with the students (Martinez, 2015). That does not means that the teachers need to be focusing only on certain students, they need to make the path clear for them, each student is different and all of them have different ways to learn and that is the challenge for the teacher, trying to find a way so everyone can learn without excluding students during the process. Teaching strategies Not everything needs to be negative, even though it looks like the difficulties of teaching a language are very overwhelming there is always a solution. The teaching strategies are the methods that the teacher design for the students in order to learn, these strategies can be combined with the individual differences, developing activities in which all students can learn no matter their conditions, thus can be games so your students develop their creativity and wake up that competitive spirit that everyone has, drills so they improve their speaking, debates so they can change ideas between classmates, brainstorming for promoting critical thinking, independent study so they can learn at their own rate, and many more (Al-Banna & Abdul, 2014). It is up to the teacher and the necessities of their students, choosing the correct teaching strategy will always help the process of learning and make the classroom a safe place for their pupils or students. To sum up this essay, English teaching is such a noble cause because the English learners can have an opportunity for studying and applying for a job abroad because the number of employments that requires English is huge and increases day by day. Is not easy, many students have different individual aspects that affects their learning, is up to the teacher trying to help them to develop certain skills and work with their individual differences, also teacher can develop strategies to help them improve their learning, such as games, drills, debates, etc. Teaching and learning English is so important and very helpful for everyone, specially in Mexico. References Al-Banna, J. B., & Abdul, M. S. (2014) Teaching strategies. Researchgate. https://www.researchgate.net/publication/327433965_TEACHING_STRATEGIES
Berlitz, (2022). The most spoken languages in the world. Berlitz corporation. https://www.berlitz.com/blog/most-spoken-languages-world Bravo, M., Calderon, D. E., Guzmán, L. J., Heredia, B., O’Donoghue, J. L., Pérez, F., SzéKely, M., Rubio, D., Ruiz, F., & Velázquez, P. (2015). Sorry. El aprendizaje del inglés en México (1st ed.). Mexicanos primero visión 2030. Chavez-Zambano, M. X., Saltos-Dueñas C. M., & Salvos-Vivas, M. A. (2017). La importancia del aprendizaje y conocimiento del idioma inglés en la enseñanza superior. Dominio de las Ciencias, 3, 762-768. https://doi.org/10.23857 Martínez, N. R. (2015). Las diferencias individuales y el aprendizaje. REDICCES. Academia Europea, (2019). 6 Trabajos que requieren que sepas inglés. Academia Europea Blog de Idiomas. https://academiaeuropea.com/blog/6-profesiones-querequieren-ingles/