From Carolina Torrejon:
In the field of English Language Teaching, TESOL is one of the biggest and most important conferences organized. This year, the convention was held in Atlanta, where more than 900 sessions took place and 6.000 attendees had the chance to enjoy the upcoming advances on research when discussing about Second Language Learning.
One of the presentations that caught my attention, was the one held by Michael Bowen and Erik Seversen which discussed the different aspects and elements of effective teaching through motivation and emotion. In a world like the one we are living today, it seems crucial to address students’ learning from a new perspective, where the emotional processes are considered to achieve meaningful and more powerful knowledge. The talk “Motivation, emotion, and Meaning: Affective engagement for Effective Teaching” helped us navigate from the core concepts of social-affective domains and its relation to learning and the achievement of motivation in our students. Different ideas on how to accomplish this were given, thorough the use of different psychological motivation principles embodied in the tasks. It seemed relevant to comprehend how fundamental it is to address motivation inside the classroom, and what the impact of a well-thought curriculum based on these pillars, is.
Having learned about this topic and many more during the convention, will for sure enhance my teaching practices and open my eyes to a new perspective in teaching. The students of the future, deserve teachers and instructors who are prepared enough to challenge them, encourage them and walk beside them in this amazing, but never easy journey.
I really enjoyed the experience of attending TESOL 2019 for the first time. I had a blast networking with teachers from all over the world, sharing teaching ideas and discussing potential future implications of new research in our own practices. Being part of this huge community, inspired me to present next year in Denver, where I will be talking about my future research in the field of Second Language Learning and the use of technologies.