Mediation of the Language Learning and Teaching Process through The Voice of Guanacaste

Mediation of the Language Learning and Teaching Process through The Voice of Guanacaste

By Dr. Gilberto Hernández Quirós

gilberto.hernandez.quiros@una.cr

In the language learning and teaching process, it is vital to have direct exposure to authentic and meaningful material which should ideally enable language learners to acquire and fully comprehend both oral and written speech production.

As a university professor at UNA Nicoya, I have happily come across The Voice of Guanacaste and realized how useful it is for my students in the English as a foreign language teaching major and English courses in general to read articles, enrich lexicon and foster open discussion and analysis to strengthen conversational skills in English.

The fact that contents in articles as well as in advertisements in this valuable newspaper are quite focused and contextualized to our immediate environment and reality, do facilitate reading comprehension, and thereby, trigger and boost the need to express ourselves and have a say on the topics, stories and articles published.  The Voice of Guanacaste has undoubtedly become an effective tool for students to learn faster and in a more realistic and memorable way.

Among the activities carried out to mediate language and learning employing The Voice of Guanacaste, are full engagement in individual as well as in group tasks such as writing summaries, rendering recorded audios, having debates and round table discussions to name a few.  Even games and videos have been inspired by contents in the Voice of Guanacaste.

A key element in reinforcing and consolidating language skills is definitely identifying with the content of articles and reacting to them as supposed to being exposed to readings that do not cause much sense of belonging or identification and end up in losing interest or not even reading an article entirely.

I truly wish to thank the Board of Directors, editors, graphic designers, journalists, managers and administrators as well as advertisers for providing citizens with this wonderful source of information in a bilingual version on a monthly basis.  I likewise urge teachers of English to utilize and support great endeavors and professionals as the ones at The Voice of Guanacaste.  Kudos!