SANTO DOMINGO. –The Association of English Teachers of the Dominican Republic (DR-Tesol), Juan Valdez, demanded that Congress approve the Law of English as a Second Language, submitted by the overseas deputy Servia Iris Familia more than a year ago and which has already was reviewed by the Permanent Commission on Education.
When interviewed during the eighth Annual International Convention of DR-TESOL, Valdez stated that this Law will guarantee that the 2.3 million children who receive education in public schools finish their schooling being totally bilingual.
“The country is at a privileged moment, with thousands of English teachers in public schools who have been trained and educated for more than 10 years to ensure that, with permanent English classes from fourth grade to sixth grade, public sector students achieve bilingualism at school,” he said.
In addition, he pointed out that through the Teacher Training Strategy for the English area there are 500 public schools, 300 thousand students and more than a thousand English teachers participating in this project to make the country the first bilingual republic in America.
In the activity held in a hotel in the capital, Valdez stressed that never before in Dominican public education have the poor had the opportunity to achieve bilingualism at school. “Now we have the most prepared teachers we have ever had in history,” he said, while lamenting that for more than 60 years the subject of English has been in the academic curriculum, however, in all that time no student has graduated from the school being bilingual.
“They do not learn only through instruction, children receive encouragement, they receive the means and resources for learning, they have software, an app where their digital books and their practices are loaded with what they can, outside of school, perpetuate their learning through music, television, games and applications that we have in the program. Now children in this country have digital books as well as physical books relevant to the actual level of communicative competence they have in the English language,” she detailed.
On her side, the Deputy Minister of Education for Technical and Pedagogical Affairs, Ligia Pérez, said both Minister Roberto Fulcar, of Education, and Luis Abinader, President of the Republic, have decided to give a boost to the teaching of English as a second language, reinforce it from school and with other projects such as “English for a better life” that is promoted for students who finish their school stage.
While Timothy Brown, Acting Counselor for Public Affairs, for the Embassy of the United States of America, in the Dominican Republic, said that the Embassy is aware that the English language is very important for the future of the Dominican economy. “We will work in all the institutions that aim to bring English to everyone, without distinction.
About the Eighth Convention
With the theme “United for a bilingual Dominican Republic”, RD-TESOL held its Eighth Annual International Convention, with the participation of more than a thousand professors of that language, who set their position on the current state of affairs in the area of foreign languages in public education in the country.
Local and foreign specialists from the United States, Puerto Rico, Cuba, Colombia, Panama and Mexico were invited to discuss the issue throughout the day that took place in a hotel in the capital.
Juan Valdez, president of “DR-Tesol”, indicated that the authorities of the Ministry of Education and the teachers’ unions were summoned to the event: the Dominican Association of Teachers (ADP) and the National Association of Professionals and Technicians of the Education of Dominican Republic (ANPROTED), affiliated with Education International America.
The activity was attended by Rafael Bello, Director of Professional Development and Continuing Education of the National Institute for Education and Training of Teachers (Inafocam), Gelson Navarro, and the deputy director of the same entity, Dr. Francisco Ramírez.
Among those present were also Eduardo Hidalgo, president of the ADP, Professor Sixto Gabín, member of the national executive committee of that guild. The overseas deputy in New York, for the PRM, the teacher Servia Iris Familia, proponent of the English as a Second Language Law, before Congress, the person in charge of the area of foreign languages, for the General Directorate of Curriculum of the Ministry of Education , Ligia Henríquez, and Professor Etanislao Castillo, president of ANPROTED.
