My name is Gisela Restivo and I'm 32 years old. I am married and I have two lovely children.  I am from Bahia Blanca, but I've been living in Comodoro Rivadavia, Chubut since 2004.

Although I was in the third year of University studying to be a lawyer, as soon as I arrived to the city, I started teaching English in a public Secondary School. From the very beginning of that first experience, I knew that I did not want to be a lawyer and I would love to be a teacher, instead.

I took some time to decide and I started a teaching training course here in Comodoro Rivadavia, but I could not finish it.  It was in 2012 that I learnt about the possibility of studying at Lenguas Vivas Institute and I started my training there as soon as I could.

When I started to teach English as a foreign language, I was only 21 years old and I taught instinctively. I used some old books I had at home and I followed my own teachers, those who taught me when I was a child, teaching grammar only. Therefore, I must confess that I did not use English as the language of the class and that I did not give priority to communication.

However, when I started this course, I realized that I would like to change my teaching approach. 

Nowadays, I am totally in favour of the Communicative Approach. Favouring this approach is a decision that must be taken every single day when I develop my lesson plans and it must be maintained when I go the class.

My main teaching goal is that my students can communicate in real situations. Therefore, following Pearse and Davies, I decided to establish English as the language of the class. All the activities and indications are given in English and I encourage my students to speak in English, too.

Favouring this approach does not mean that I do not teach grammar. On the contrary, grammar is for me as important as any other aspect of learning a second language. However, I do not follow the traditional way of teaching it.

In his article “Teaching Grammar in Context”, David Nunan explains the importance of teaching grammar in context and he says: “If learners are not given opportunities to explore grammar in context, it will be difficult for them to see how and why alternative forms exist to express different communicative meanings”

Following Nunan’s idea is that I do not expect students to internalize rules through isolated examples and posterior drilling. Contrarily, I plan each of the lessons providing a meaningful context in which students can discover, for example, the use of present perfect and the corresponding structures.

I recognize the importance of selecting appropriate materials to work in class. As Tomlinson Brian (2011) explains, materials should achieve impact, they should help learners to feel at ease and develop their confidence. As a consequence, the author explains, materials should be varied, attractively presented and the topic should be of the students’ interest among other characteristics.

Although much has been discussed about the use of course books, I do use them. However, I always try to make the necessary adaptations. Many times, I change the way in which the material is presented, I add or omit activities. As suggested by Pearse and Davies, using a course book provides a lot of advantages, but if we use the book just as one tool more and we plan our classes carefully, we can change the proposed activities into lively ones, adapt them to students’ needs and interests and avoid a mechanical and bored schedule of a class.

Besides, I recognize the importance of using authentic materials in the classroom.  Therefore, I try to provide students with extra materials as much as possible. For this purpose, I could discover what a useful tool, ICTs could be. I try to include them every time I can. There are many resources such as videos, songs, newspapers or online radios which provide students with authentic language and help them to develop their skills.

I know that there are lots of thing to learn, but I must recognize that during these years, I have learnt many things and I feel that I have improved myself a lot.