UNIVERSIDAD LATINOAMERICANA

TEACHING ENGLISH THROUGH A LIVING STRATEGY IN AULA

I. INTRODUCTION

In the present essay I will develop the experience that I lived in the teaching practice in
which I tackled contents of textual linguistics "The noun" of which its oral - written use was
recognized and the importance that it has in everyday life. I also contrasted the content
with the English language and how I achieved that the students understood the similarities
of English, the differences of one language and another. The big challenge we had was to
apply it and develop dialogues practicing what we learned in class through dramatizations,
dialogues, discussion strategies.

The approach of teaching based on challenges proposes that the students feel from their
own reality the content that will be advanced and from that they can understand how it
materializes in their daily life and apply it, for this the student must be cognitively involved,
sensory, emotionally.

The conjunction of these elements will make possible an integral and significant learning.
The teacher must also motivate them not only to be mere recipients, but also to be
participants in their learning, based on research, interviews, questionnaires and other
instruments that serve as a collection of knowledge arising from their context.

The big challenge that I proposed is that gradually my students develop the skills of a new
language "Reading, writing, listening and speaking" and that it is more convenient starting
from the root of our language, contextualizing it and making contrast so that they can
understand it.

For this, students must understand what the noun is, their grammatical accidents. In the
course of the application of the approach different difficulties were presented which did not
stop the achievement of the proposed challenges, on the contrary they served to
strengthen some loose ends, so we learned from our mistakes, and later I will mention the
negative and positive aspects with the that I can stop Bolivian education is undergoing a
transformation that emphasizes a process that unites the school with the community,
therefore, involves the participation of all members, particularly the parents with whom we
work in the development of socialization workshops on the MESCP.

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The work carried out demanded as a systematization group the implementation of

strategies and activities that motivated participation, reflection and analysis. Thus, the
work of education not only remains in the classroom, but also participates in the whole
context.

II. DEVELOPMENT

2.1. CONTEXTUALIZATION OF THE PLACE

For a better understanding I will contextualize my Educational Unit in which I developed

the educational strategy based on Challenges. The School "Castro Zambrana Soria" It has
the initial, primary and secondary levels. It is located in the town of Santiváñez, belonging
to the province Capinota, being the largest canton of the province. It can be easily reached
from the city of Cochabamba, since it is only 35 minutes away by bus. From Cercado, it is
located to the southwest of the city, it can be accessed either by the Pan-American
Highway that crosses Pucara, Villa Israel, until intercepting with the highway to
Santiváñez,

Being a Rural Education Unit I can indicate that around it there are corn plantations, a
couple of lagoons and another fairly close community located just 2 kilometers from my
educational establishment called "La Pampa".

By observing the place and reviewing the RUDES of the students (registration form) it was
possible to identify that a large percentage of families in the area had to migrate to
different countries such as Spain, Argentina or Brazil. Those who remain in the community
are of low economic resources (low social class); a small minority possesses better
economic income (social class average), dedicating itself to activities such as commerce
and agriculture. Then the population is heterogeneous, although there is still a good
number of families, who were the ones who settled and created this area due to the
relocation of miners and migrants from other departments or provinces.

It has all the basic services except for residential gas, which has not yet reached the
community, public transport is fluid and you can reach the area from different parts of the
city, the streets are paved or paved if necessary and other land, those near the agricultural
area, in the place lighting is deficient, the sector has recreational areas, poly functional
courts and receive the support of a police module in terms of security.

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In terms of infrastructure, the Educational Unit "Castor Zambrana Soria" is decentralized,

with the initial and primary level being one kilometer and a half away. Both depend on the
same administration. The furniture and toilets are suitable for students, and it is equipped
with a poly functional courts with sheds, recreational games and an audiovisual room.
However, the Educational Unit lacks drinking water and to correct it each student, at the
suggestion of the address, must carry a two-liter water bottle.

It is important to clarify that 65% of parents are not from the neighborhood, they live in the
surroundings, in other neighborhoods more deprived and / or far from Pucara and the
surroundings to the road to Santivañez. The majority of the families are of scarce
resources, barely supplies them to cover their basic needs, nevertheless the Educational
Unit provides an integral formation to the children of the mentioned families.

Most parents are engaged in urban public transport, informal business activities in the
various markets of the city of Cochabamba, and domestic work in homes; that is, that the
fathers and mothers of the students are retail traders, small farmers, drivers and
carpenters and / or housewives.

Although the population is the product of migration to different countries and other
departments or provinces, in the Educational Unit the students are Spanish speaking in
60% and 40% bilingual Quechua-Spanish speakers, these are the original inhabitants who
were in the area and immigrants from the provinces.

The economic activity of the zone is the agriculture, the work in the factories of the
industrial park or in the chicken farms, commerce in minimum scale (they are
intermediaries of products, in their majority imported),, small companies that offer radiotaxi
service. There is also productive economic activity (with added value) such as bakeries,
pastry shops, restaurants. There is also a small number of businesses as a result of
completed university studies such as dental clinics, veterinary clinics.

2.2. APPLICATION OF THE CHALLENGE-BASED APPROACH FROM TEXTUAL

LINGUISTICS FROM THE "SUBSTANTIVE" SUBJECT

The approach proposes that the teacher should acquire the role of directing the learning of
the students, should not monopolize the entire educational process, on the contrary it must
involve the students in their own learning. It was so motivated by reading a couple of texts

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one in Spanish (Little Red Riding Hood - version of the wolf) and another (Pete the cat -
Big Lunch) in each of them images were pasted as the texts were read, once the readings
were finished with the help of the data display, the students were shown a video of the
same text read in English. (See annexes 1 and 2)

This with the desire that students can feel through the visual and auditory senses the
content of the text for better understanding. They were also asked to identify names,
objects, places that were mentioned in the readings and the video shown, in order to
contrast it in the development of the content.

The challenge that students proposed was that they understand the importance of the
noun in their daily lives, whether in oral texts or written in both languages, Spanish and
English. In turn, they develop and expand their vocabulary when conducting dialogues in
the English language.

It is necessary for students to know the scientific part of the contents they know for a better
understanding and rationale. This is how I developed the content, taking care that the
students understand that the Noun ... "It is the word that designates beings, objects and
ideas, initiating existence, whether in its physical, moral or intellectual form.

The substantive can mean any kind of reality (beings, things, actions, events, qualities)
and, therefore, does not correspond to a way of being of the reality signified, but to a
particular way of thinking and representing it. For this ability of the noun to name or name
things has also been called name, noun or, simply noun "... (Conchi Sarmiento Vázquez)

2.2.1. SUBSTANTIVE CLASSIFICATION SCHEME

CONCRETS; They are those that designate beings or objects that have a real existence;
Within the concrete ones it is possible to distinguish:

Common; those that suit all individuals of the same class. Among those that are:

I.- Generics; those that are of a certain number of common qualities, that distinguish them
from others. Among those that are:

Individuals; referred to an individual of any kind

Collectives; referred to a group or group of individuals of the same species

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II.- of Matter; those that do not indicate a certain obeto, but the substance, are neither form
nor extension, which possesses the qualities signified by the name.

Own; those that designate an individual or be determined in the generic group to which
they belong.

ABSTRACTS; they are those that indicate permanent qualities (nouns of quality) or
phenomena. That is to say; transient or accidental qualities (nouns of phenomenon) that
are abstracted or mentally separated from the beings or objects where we observe them.
Within this group may also include the numeral nouns, and multiples, partitive or collective
and broken.

2.2.2. SUBSTANTIVE GENDER

In Spanish there are, strictly speaking, only two genders: masculine (which corresponds to
males and male animals) and feminine (to females or female animals). In nouns there is
no neutral gender; This genre appears, however, in the substantiation of adjectives and in
certain pronominal forms, very characteristic.

The other nouns that do not designate animated beings possess grammatically some of
the two genders. In our language, the genre is fundamentally etymological.

Gender by significance

The most general rules for knowing the gender of nouns by their significance can be
reduced to these:

They are masculine:

1. The names of men and their own trades, as well as those of male animals.

2. The names of winds, rivers, months, mountains, volcanoes, days of the week, numbers
and musical notes.

They are feminine:

1. The names of women and their own trades, as well as those of female animals.

2. The names of arts, sciences, virtues, islands and letters of the alphabet (except as
masculine: law, drawing, engraving).

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In the names of nations, cities and towns there are frequent vacillations, either by following
the natural gender or that of another word (noun or adjective) that enters the phrase;
France is a beautiful nation or France is a beautiful country.

Gender on termination

Special cases

Many names of people have the same form for masculine and feminine, differing their
gender only by the article: the witness, the witness. The Royal Academy still maintains the
traditional designation of nouns of the common or common gender genre. We believe, with
Rafael Seco, that the designation of invariable nouns is clearer and more appropriate.

The language is subject to a constant evolution that produces differences, not only
phonetic, but morphological, etc., in the words. The nouns, until recently considered
ambiguous, are today a group destined to disappear, since the use is fixing its definitive
gender, masculine or feminine. This does not mean that there are no neologisms that are
wavered in their generic meaning and may be ambiguous nouns in the future.

The designation of unigéneres has been given to nouns that do not vary by reason of their
gender: king, vulture, etc .; and from bigneres to those with double gender, according to
the meaning (capital, capital).

2.2.3. NUMBER OF THE SUBSTANTIVE

It is the different form that the noun adopts to express if it refers to an object or more than
one. In our language there are two numbers: singular and plural.

The singular has no ending or special ending, since it can end in any of the vowels, or in
the consonants d, j, l, n, r, s, t, y, z. The masculine plural offers in our language the
particularity of understanding the two genders: the parents = the father + the mother.

Formation of the plural

It can be formed in three ways:

1º.- Adding a s, if the singular ends in an unstressed vowel (or in accented, sometimes).

2º.- Adding the syllable is, if the singular ends in a consonant or in an accented vowel that
is not e

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3º.- The plural is equal to the singular when it ends in s (thesis).

2.2.4. DEVELOPMENT OF THE SUBSTANTIVE FROM THE ENGLISH LANGUAGE

At the same time the content is developed, contrasts, similarities and differences of our
Spanish with English are made, sentences are analyzed, words are broken down to
understand their grammatical accidents. Emphasis is also placed on correct pronunciation
when exchanging and presenting ideas.

In this way it is noted the particularities of the noun from the English language, having the
following: Grammatical accidents.

 person: kid, woman, professor, Alex, Noel

 Place: house, workplace, city, desert, Europe

Thing: chair, car, orange, coins, movies, love, cat, parrot

2.2.4.1. TERMINATION OF A SUBSTANTIVE IN ENGLISH.

There are some suffixes that clearly show that a certain English word is a noun. For
example:

 -ity> insanity

 -ment> disappointment

 -ness> sadness

 -ation> separation

 -hood> adulthood

But this does not apply specifically to all the endings of all nouns. For example, the noun
"handful" ends in -ful, but the adjective "careful" also ends with the same suffix.

2.2.4.2. PLACE IN PRAYER

We can usually recognize a noun by the position in which it is found within a sentence.
The nouns usually come after a determinant (in English determiner, it is a word that can be
a, an, the, this, my and such).

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 a tragedy

 an orange

 the nurse

 this sentence

 my car

 such insanity

Nouns sometimes come after one or more adjectives.

 a surprising tragedy

 a delicious orange

 the tall, Armenian nurse

 this difficult sentence

 my black and white car

 such immense insanity

2.2.4.3. FUNCTION IN PRAYER

Nouns have certain roles (or functions) in a sentence. For example:

 Subject of the verb: Firefighters work hard.

 object of the verb: She likes tea.

 subject and object of the verb: Masters have servants.

But the subject or object of a sentence is not always a noun. It can be a pronoun or a
phrase. For example, in the English sentence "My mom likes coffee" [Translation: "My
mother likes coffee"], the noun is "mom" but the subject is "my mom".

How are countable and countless nouns?

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Accounting nouns are easy to recognize. They are those that represent things that we can
count on. For example: "cat" [cat]. We can count cats. This is how there can be one, two,
three or more cats. Here are more countable nouns:

 parrot, animal, woman, kid

 can, box, gallon

 pound, quarter, dollar

 cup, spoon, knife

 couch, chair, bag

The countable nouns can be both singular and plural.

 My cat is eating.

 My cats are hungry.

We can use the indefinite article a / an with accounting nouns:

 A cat is an animal.

When a countable noun is singular, we must use a word in English like a / the / my / this
along with it:

 She wants an umbrella. (No She wants umbrella.)

 Where is my friend? (no Where is friend?)

When a countable noun is plural, we can use it as it is, alone.

 I like umbrellas.

 Friends can fight.

We can use the words some and any with countable nouns:

 She's got some pens.

 Have you got any umbrellas?

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We can use the words a few and many with countable nouns:

 She's got a few pens.

 I have not got many umbrellas.

The noun in English "People" [people, or persons] is an accountant. "People" is the plural
of "person" [person]. We can count people without any difficulty:

 There is one person in the room.

 There are four people in the room.

Countless nouns represent substances, concepts, and other things that we can not divide
into separate elements. We can not "count them". For example, we can not count milk
("milk" in English). We can count in English "bottles of milk" or "litres of milk", but we can
not count "milk" itself. Here are other countless nouns:

 literature, love, sadness

 trust, information

 clothing, luggage

 bacon, sugar, water

 internet, power

 cash, currency

We can use some and any with countless nouns:

 I've got some bacon.

 Have you got any sugar?

We can use a little and a lot with countless nouns:

 I've got a little cash.

 I have not got much bacon.

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How are possessive nouns?

When we want to show that one belongs to someone or something, in English we usually
add 's to a noun in singular and an apostrophe (') to a noun in plural. For example:

 the girl's doll (of a girl)

 the girls' doll (of two or more girls)

It is important to note that the number of dolls does not matter. The structure is influenced
by the possessor and not the possessed one.

 the girl next door's are (the son of the girl next door)

 the King of Sweden's cats (the cats of the King of Sweden)

Although we can use of to show possession, it is more usual to use the possessive ones.
The following sentences in English have the same meaning, but number two is more usual
and seems more natural:

1. the girlfriend of my uncle

2. my uncle's girlfriend

We immediately use 's possessives when we refer to the subject's name:

 This is Alex's house.

 Where is Flora's cellphone?

 Who took Noah's car?

 I like Louise's face.

2.3. ADVANTAGES OF THE CHALLENGE-BASED APPROACH FROM THE LIVING

PERSPECTIVE

From my point of view, this new approach has many advantages in the teaching-learning
process, since it makes the student actively participate in the construction of their
knowledge. In the specific case and starting from the theme, I placed the students'
challenge to recognize the nouns in the texts and identify the particularities of the same, as

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well as to expand their vocabulary and understand the similarities and differences between
the noun in Spanish and English. .

On the other hand that the students elaborate oral and written texts using the nouns in
their works or dialogues. Which can be achieved, because this approach has a wide scope
and achieves a comprehensive educational learning.

This is how I will explain how the students managed to meet the challenge that was
placed on them. I will explain the application of the strategy through the stages of
experimentation proposed by David Kolb.

2.3.1. CONCRETE EXPERIMENTATION.

We know that it implies the sensory and emotional commitment of the student. This was
achieved at the time students heard the readings and saw the video, the impact of
introducing two languages and that with the help of images and audios it is easy to
understand, awakens in them the curiosity to know more, at the same time he proposes to
expand his vocabulary, to develop the vocalization of the words he speaks.

To achieve this, a series of simple texts, stories, dialogues, catalogs are presented, which
students see and interpret the meaning. (See Annex 3).

2.3.2. REFLECTIVE EXPERIMENTATION.

We understand that it refers to seeing, listening and discussing the experience. The
students share with each other and with the teacher their doubts, what they are
understanding and what they do not. In this way, with errors and successes, they
understand and surpass what they set out to achieve.

For this it is very important that everyone participates, that they be listened to in what they
want to share, this way it is possible to expand what one knows, listening and learning
from others

There are spaces in which students are asked to discuss topics of interest, but trying as
much as possible to apply the advanced in class. (See Annex 4).

2.3.3. ABSTRACT EXPERIMENTATION.

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It is the phase of deep reflection that integrates theories and concepts in the learning
process. It is this moment in which students realize the usefulness of the advanced subject
in their daily lives. In this the importance of the noun to express a complete idea, the
variations it has and the meaning assigned to them.

For example, he understands that it is not the same to say MOUSE or MICE because the
first names in the singular and the second does not do so in the plural, but is collectivizing
it. And these are the details that make a league interesting.

In order to consolidate this stage of experimentation, students are asked to individually

develop, through a brief exposition in the form of feedback, a specific point of the topic
addressed. They develop and exemplify it through examples. (See annex 5).

2.3.4. ACTIVE EXPERIMENTATION.

Phase of doing, where the experience is tested in a specific context. At this point the
students began to know and master the content, which indicates that the challenge has
been achieved and they are entrusted that they are the ones who propagate in their
immediate context what they learned, so they indicate or teach their siblings , to other
classmates, their parents, etc.

To achieve this, they are encouraged to dramatize using what they have learned, as well
as to generate dialogue in which they share what they have learned. (See annex 6).

2.4 RESULTS OF THE APPROACH AND ITS APPLICATION.

The results of the teaching based on challenges, have a direct impact on the students, on
the parents because they have generated attitude change, reflection, participation and
dialogues. This process was consolidated through the strategies developed in class,
obtaining the following results:

 Awareness in students about the importance of the noun at the moment of expressing
their ideas, whether orally or in writing.

 Acquisition and consolidation of knowledge related to the advancement of contents in

both languages and their functionality when sharing their ideas.

 Improvement in the level of relationship between colleagues, since they need to

participate to clear their doubts and make known what they are understanding.

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 Approaching the community with the school.

 Promotion of research to meet the challenge you want to achieve, whether using
technological or other means.

 Extension of vocabulary, improvement in the pronunciation of the English language.

 Knowledge of concerns and interests that exist in the students in their eagerness to
understand the developed tima, from activities carried out.

 Promoting the revaluation and recovery of own knowledge and others, to achieve what
was proposed.

III. CONCLUSIONS

From the experiences lived in the implementation of the Focus based on Challenges to
students of the Educational Unit "Castor Zambrana Soria". It meant a rewarding
experience for me, because it allowed me to interact directly and horizontally with my
students and the rest of the Educational Community, that is, I perceived the concerns,
interests and needs of the students when understanding a new thematic content, to
achieve an integral formation in them.

By way of conclusion I can mention the following points:

- This work modality commits the students to get involved with the content of the subject
prior motivation.

- The use of dialogue strategies makes it possible for students to participate in order to
achieve the challenge that they set out to achieve.

- This experience requires the teacher to have a horizontal dialogical relationship with their
students, demands that the teacher is at the same time an expert to be able to guide the
students, specifically to be able to develop a new language in the students. develop by
making it seem that, however abstract and technical it may seem, it is simple and
interesting.

- The problems to which we responded from the socializations were more than one since
we made them understand that the contents taught to their children, start from reality, the
importance of recovering knowledge and ancestral knowledge, this as a form of integration

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between school and society. They also assimilated that in order to improve the country's
structural problems, it is important to start by changing oneself and thereby contribute to
the process of overcoming the aforementioned problems.

- It helps to have materials with which the student can interact with the senses, which
means that the teacher has to be creative when choosing material, as this will promote
commitment in the students. horizontal and open to reciprocal learning since they
contributed with knowledge that emanated from their experiences making socializations
more meaningful.

BIBLIOGRAPHY AND SOURCES

 Ministry of Education Law 070 Avelino Sinani and Elizardo Perez. La Paz - Bolivia,
2010.
 Ministry of Education (2015). The new education in Bolivia "The Productive Socio-
Community Educational Model". Notebooks for the socialization of the MESCP.
PROFOCOM equipment. La Paz, Bolivia.
 Conchi Sarmiento Vázquez, Functions of the noun.
https://www.hemeroteca.com/trabajos13/funsust/funsust.shtml.
 Tecnológico de Monterrey (2015a). Learning based on challenges. Educational
Model of the Tecnológico de Monterrey. Nuevo León Mexico

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