Writing skills are an important part of communication because good writing skills allow you to communicate your message with clarity and ease to a far larger audience than through face-to-face or telephone conversations. Writing is one of those skills that deeply require students to be motivated and able to practice and practice every day because writing skills need to be taught, they cannot be learnt unconsciously or by immersion like speech.

Nowadays, writing becomes easier because of many useful resources that we can take advantage of like word-processing programs. First, a word processor is an electronic device or a computer application software that performs word processing which means the composition, editing, formatting and sometimes printing of any sort of written material. So, word-processing programs are a very useful tool that helps teachers to develop writing skills in their students because no other technology resource has produced a big impact on education as word processing.

Word processing programs offer high diversity; that's why they are very useful for teachers. Furthermore, teachers can use them to propose instruction or activities that help students to develop writing skills. Because of its importance as assistance to teaching and learning, word-processing programs are known worldwide and they have become the most famous software in education. But before using these kinds of programs, we should check some requirements to know if these programs would be suitable for us; like the availability of software and hardware, the knowledge about how to use the equipment and the students' willingness and knowledge about how to use the equipment.

Do you think technologies (e.g., videos, computers, etc.) should play a central or a peripheral role in second language teaching and learning? Why?

Technology has become a very useful tool and an important component of education because we use it in many ways for instance, we can show a video to our students, we can play an audio, we can use e-books (instead of physical books), we can use blogs or online groups to develop topics, and so on; so that technologies should play a central role in teaching.

Technology has changed the paradigm of education because thanks to technology, education has gone from passive and reactive to interactive and aggressive. Students learn best when they are engaged and through the use of technology, students can become active participants as opposed to passive ones where they simply receive instructions or information.

Lately, the access to technologies is unlimited, we can use computers, tablets or even smartphones to have internet access and a large number of applications (like translators, dictionaries, recorders, applications to watch videos and to listen to podcast, etc.) that are very useful for teachers and students to improve their teaching and learning and as technology advances, it will be used to produce even more benefits.

Furthermore, we could use technology as a great advantage to make our teaching easier and more significant for our students, and also make our students get involved and participate actively in the acquisition of their knowledge. Technology used in the classroom helps students adsorb the material. For example, since some people are visual learners, projection screens linked to computers can allow students to see their notes instead of simply listening to a teacher deliver a lecture.

What do you think is the role of research in improving our understanding of teaching?

Research in teaching should be understood to mean digging deep into knowledge or existing issues so as to have enough knowledge and clear understanding of the subject area. In essence, research helps teachers to interrogate aspects of their teaching practices and evaluate their students learning processes with a greater understanding of its relevance to their teaching.

Research plays a very important role and it influence teaching in many ways. In fact, teachers are always learning, finding out things, analyzing information, adapting their behavior according to information received, looking to improve and adapting to modern demands and all of this constitutes research. Teacher research also gives teachers the opportunity to develop new and different relationships with both colleagues and students.
Teachers should look at research as a way to develop new understanding about teaching, learning, and educational administration. This new knowledge has significance because it will lead to the improvement of educational practice. Research in education is crucial because teachers can improve their practice by taking the time to conduct research and should be encouraged to do so. 

What experience do you have of learning a second or foreign language? How would you characterize the teacher's teaching method? How effective did you find it?

Learning a foreign language is a wonderful and challenging experience for almost everybody because it introduces you to a new world.

My English learning experience started when I had my first English class when I was in 6th grade, since that moment I started to like English and I became passionate about learning a new language then I started to get involved with the English world, I owe that beautiful experience to the first English teacher I had because she was a great teacher. She used features from the Audio-lingual method, the grammar translation methos and the suggestopedia, I clearly remember that she always played some music when we did an activity.
That's why I have always felt excited and motivated to learn a second language and I want to improve my language skills and also I want to learn some others languages like French, German, Italian, Portuguese,  and so on.

Also for the teachers that are teaching a foreign language it is a challenging situation because they have to adapt their teaching style to the way of learning of their students. Some of the teachers that I have had used a specific method like the direct method, the audio-lingual method, the total physical response method, and so forth. But some others have created their own way of teaching through selecting specific features from the different methods.

  

The main purpose of the teachers is to make their students learn, so through using one of this methods or by choosing features of them to create a unique way of teaching, they reach that purpose. Sometimes their method is effective and sometimes not, but when the method is not effective the teacher has to switch to the method that better suits the needs of the students, for example if the teacher is using the Audio-lingual method and he or she realizes that it is not suitable for the students, the teacher should change that method to another method that works better for the students.

Now that I'm doing my teaching practicum I know that I'm not tied to an specific method and I am able to choose some features from different methods that fit the most with my students in order to create my own teaching style.

Summarizing, learning a foreign language is one of the most wonderful experiences that I have lived and it is because the teachers that I have had have used an effective method that really have worked for me.