Greetings kind reader, I would like to star by telling you that this essay is an exercise of memory,

observation and reflection for this curse has been such; mostly reflection for we can learn and
memorize theories, activities, educational models and so on; however is through observation that
we can set this things on course, in the path of teaching we must learn and paraphrasing Jean
Piaget: we learn through observation in fact he meant through the senses and our interaction
to the world. So we learn theories, observe our surrounding environment, then its from study
and contemplation that the knowledge acquired comes in play to improve the learning-teaching
process.
And for what is this important would you ferly ask. Well in my humble opinion today is more
important than ever before that teachers become aware of that dominion of the academic
content is not the only request for being an excellent teacher, but theres more beyond that.
First, as an introduction I would like to talk to you about the highlights of the course my
highlights of course -. As the name of it specifics: we start by centering our attention on
teenagers. Second on the students characteristics, then on the theories review during the
course that will helps us getting through this amazing enterprise that is teaching on the fourth
period of the basic education in Mexico.
Smell like teen spirit.
During the lifetime human body experience a various amount of changes, growing old it is part of
the human life. But the changes during the late ages of childhood and early ages of adulthood
are may be more important than any other change that is because they set ready the individual
for what will come for the rest of his life. During childhood, kids depend on adults for everything,
they are getting ready for becoming adults of their own, never the less the process to maturity
will still take a serious amount of years. Reaching for maturity requires changes that start within
the core of human body, deep inside endocrine system, running through the nervous system
straight to the brain thus affecting the individual not only biologically but also psychologically.
On the first side, about the age of nine years old on girls and eleven years old on kids starts the
production of hormones that will set the course of this journey of changes. For girls changes
begin with enlarging of the hips, growing of the breast, hair growth on the pubic area and
appearance of the menarche. Since the female body develops earlier for reasons still undisclosed
by scientists during this stage girls will appear to be taller than boy, thus becoming more
conscious of their bodies as well as more mature psychologically speaking. For boys the
beginning will be the appearance of hair in the pubic area, enlarging of muscle around the torso,
thicken of the voice and first ejaculation. For both, girls and boy alike, the appearance of acne
and increase on the sweat production is fairly normal though intensity may vary from one subject
to other (DELVAL, 1996).
On the psychological side there is an increase on the self-awareness, teenagers are determinate
to become adults for that they challenge authority, they reach for limits on social agenda, they
disclosure taboos and become extremely selfish. This means not that teenagers are our enemies,
but for the contraire: teenagers are may be more authentic humans that adult or child, this is my
opinion only, but think about it: Every stage on the vital cycle poses characteristic problem as
well as new opportunities for insertion on the world. On our times, adolescence constitutes a
period of life in which more than any other individual interests meets the social agenda within an
interaction appreciated through the individual interests and the available goals (KRAUSKOPF,
1996).
It is during this stage on human develop that students on the fourth period of basic education in
Mexico are meant to learn english. And we, as teachers, are meant to teach them.
Does he look like a student?
A main concern for this course was to learn the characteristics of the second language learners
as well as their dimensions of learning styles. For reaching so we study the Second Language
Acquisition work by Jenny Kuo, Ph.D. First by understanding the Theoretical approaches to
explaining the second language learning for which we analyze Behaviorism, Innatism and
interactionism.
Behaviourist theory explained learning in terms of: imitation, practice, reinforcement (or
feedback on success), habit formation. Much of the early research within behaviourist theory was
done with laboratory animals, but the learning process was hypothesized to be the same for
humans.
The rejection of behaviourism as an explanation for first language acquisition was partly
triggered by Chomsky's critique of it. Chomsky argued that innate knowledge of the principles of
UG allows all children to acquire the language of their environment during a critical period of
their development. Chomsky did not make specific claims about the implications of his theory for
SLA. However, Lydia White (2003a) and other linguists have argued that UG offers the best
perspective from which to understand SLA. Others argue that, although UG is a good framework
for understanding first language acquisition, it is not a good explanation for SLA, especially by
learners who have passed the critical period.
In the original (LONG, 1983) formulation of the Interaction Hypothesis, Long inferred that
modified interaction is necessary for language acquisition, summarizing the relationship as
follows: 1) Interactional modification makes input comprehensible; 2) Comprehensible input
promotes acquisition; 3) Therefore, interactional modification promotes acquisition.
On the other hand, we have Krashens five hypothesis, which on my personal experience have a
great impact on current