ERIC ED616983: English Language Teaching in Costa Rica: Reflections on Emergent Challenges

2021·3.7 MB·English

by  ERIC

English Language Teaching in Costa Rica
ii

English Language Teaching in Costa Rica:
Reflections on Emergent Challenges
Editedby
JuanPabloZúñigaVargas
Jesús IránBarrantes León
Divisiónde Educología
UniversidadNacional,Costa Rica
2021
iv

Divisiónde Educología de la UniversidadNacional,Costa Rica,2021
This workis licensedunder a
Creative CommonsAttribution­NonCommercial­NoDerivatives 4.0International License.
How tocite?
Zúñiga, J. P., & Barrantes, J. I. (2021). English language teaching in Costa Rica:
Reflections on emergent challenges. División de Educología de la Universidad
Nacional,Costa Rica.http://hdl.handle.net/11056/21301
428.0071
E58e Englishlanguage teachinginCosta Rica: reflections onemergent
challenges/ editedbyJuanPabloZúñigaVargas,Jesús Irán
Barrantes León.­­ 1.ed.­­ Heredia,Costa Rica : Universidad
Nacional.CIDE.Divisiónde Educología,2021.
1recursoenlínea (xv,143páginas) : archivode texto,PDF.
ISBN 9789968852708
1.ENSEÑANZADE IDIOMAS.2.INGLÉS.3.COSTARICA.I.
ZúñigaVargas,JuanPablo,editor.II.Barrantes León,Jesús Irán,editor.
DivisióndeEducología
CentrodeInvestigaciónyDocenciaenEducación
UniversidadNacional,CostaRica
https://www.cide­educologia.una.ac.cr/
vi

Foreword
Teachers everywhere are always faced with new challenges as they engage in their
pedagogical praxis; it is not easy to cater for students' needs (whether special or not) and
bring about new ideas to teach and arouse students' interest and desire to learn, especially
when one's job does not end at the workplace and continues at home. These are but a few of
the hurdles teachers around the globe have to surmount. Indeed, teaching is a profession that
is all toooftenmisunderstood,underestimated,andharshlycriticized.
Teaching English as a Foreign Language (TEFL) in a country such as Costa Rica is
no different. Indeed, foreign language teaching poses additional difficulties when
considering that pedagogy is an act of communication, and in the teaching of English,
language is both the means and the end of instruction. In this regard, the English language
curriculum in Costa Rica is far from perfect, so it is not uncommon for English teachers here
tohave tostart from scratcheachtime that theyteacha new language course.
Moreover, most English teachers in Costa Rica are native speakers of Spanish, which
causes them to be discriminated against because they are considered inferior when compared
with people coming from North America or Great Britain. This treatment is mostly
unjustified as public universities in Costa Rica have sound English language programs with
strong pedagogical components to train good teachers. Also, a little too often, native
speakers who do not have any kind of pedagogical preparation are hired to be teachers by
certain language academies, which can be rather counterproductive; the fact that, in theory,
everyone knows their native language well is no guarantee that they can teach it
successfully.Ateacher is muchmore thana container of information.
As a further matter, the year 2020 brought new challenges for (English) teachers all
over the world; a pandemic was able to turn our lives upside down, which had to be adapted
to fit into what was called "a new reality." Thus, teachers everywhere had to reinvent
themselves, learn, relearn, and unlearn to teach in an education modality that they were not
expecting. This condition exposed different limitations that had remained unnoticed up to
this time in Costa Rica (and in other parts of the world). For example, students coming from
low­income families had little or no access to the Internet, computers, and/or mobile
devices; in this regard, remote learning made us even more unequal, and (English) teachers
had to come up with alternative ways for students to continue their educational process.This
requiredcritical reflectionandactionas the reader will be able tosee inthe followingpages.
This book comprises a collection of essays written by students from the Master's
Program in Education with an Emphasis on English Learning from Universidad Nacional,
Costa Rica as part of their graduation project. In each of the manuscripts contained here, a
Costa Rican English teacher reflects on and systematizes some of the challenges found in his
or her professional practice along with possible solutions or recommendations. It is
expected, therefore, that the information contained in this book may be of help to other
Englishteachers aroundthe worldfacingsimilar challenges.
JuanPabloZúñigaVargas
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