The problemWhen it comes to Venezuelan post-secondary education is commonplace to experience confliction between the use of foreign methods of study, or strategies designed for a more educationally involved audience and which won’t match Venezuelan lacking educational standards.

The ironic point about such situation is that instead of leading every possible directive towards reconsidering the value of knowledge and worthy dose of effort it demands, faculty members will usually end up reducing any difficulty (read quality) in the program so that everyone is comfortable.

Added to this, there is the negatively practical way of thinking of Venezuelans in

terms of study, work, and self-accomplishment.

Our solutionWe believe necessary an educational approach that highlights the importance of widening the horizons of cultural understanding through educational strategies that lead us towards learning about other societies and what makes them successful. Among these strategies, we propose: debates, presentations, conversational clubs and the like, in order for positive comparison to take place among us all as students and systematically strengthen shortcomings of our attitude.

This approach shall emphasize the value of ethics, study habits, perseverance and assiduity in learning, respect for fellow humans, cooperation and lastly the thorough discussion regarding solutions for social issues.

The importance of our project

lies in the forming role

constituting the base for our

educational approach.

“We believe necessary an

approximation to other

cultures’ educational

backgrounds and

mentalities that allows

students to discuss and

compare in order to emulate

features that encourage

their academic improvement

and ultimately their self-

growth”

Personal importance

Given the intense language-learning

setting to which English major students

at U.C are exposed to on a daily basis it

is quite normal, as time goes by, to

neglect cultural aspects as we strive to

meet more demanding levels of

proficiency. This is, without a doubt, a

negative factor when it comes to

reinforcing our trans-cultural education

with understanding of culture itself.

Following to it, there is often confliction

between the foreign learning methods

and a Venezuelan-culture-adjusted

mentality regarding study habits,

sometimes even interfering with

appropriate language acquisition.

Besides that, the important role of

language teachers as cultural

intermediaries is totally disregarded or

what is more, prevented from due to

no knowledge on the area.

In response to that, for the sake of students’ self-growth and a change of mentality that acknowledges accomplishment as a priority, we put forward our project proposal.

Podcast highlights

What do you think of the

standards of education in the

U.S?

What do you think are people’s

attitudes towards studying in the

U.S?

What do you think the main

difference is between students in the

U.S and in Vnzla?

In this part we had Jillian Lopez, who is the U.S.A embassy’s designated teacher’s aid for the subject of: phonetics and phonology at U.C, give her opinion about education in the U.S and contrast certain aspects of the American culture with the Venezuelan culture respectively.

What do you think could be the

best solution for the problem

concerning us?

Do you think debates and

conversational clubs would be

effcient strategies to contribute

with the solution?

In this part we had an ESL expert, prof. Evelin Ojeda from the department of foreign languages at U.C give her opinion on potential solutions for the problem of our concern and add some interesting outlooks regarding Venezuelan ESL students…