A brief CV

Dr. M. Luisa García Bermejo has been a Tenured  Professor at the School of Education, Universidad Complutense de Madrid (UCM) for more than three decades. She was Head of the Department of “Didáctica de la Lengua y la Literatura (Español, Francés e Inglés)” from 2013 to 2017. She holds a PhD in English (UCM), an MA and M.Ed. in TESOL from Teachers College, Columbia University and an MA in Spanish from the University of Delaware. She has taught English and Spanish, Didactics and the Teaching of Literature. Her research focuses on SLA, ICT and language and literature teaching, and teaching English to young learners.

Crafting puppets for storytelling

Within the techniques for teaching English as an additional language, there is a significant absence at all educational levels of strategies to develop students’ oral communication skills. Normally, it is reading and writing that occupy a leading role in educational programs.

After a quick reflection on the importance of teaching students to listen and speak to construct meaning, the grammar of languages, social competences and also reading and writing, the presentation goes on to describe a multimodal project on the creation of stories and puppets carried out with teaching students. The talk will end with a reflection on the findings of this pedagogical experience that indicate that these multimodal techniques are effective not only to boost the oral skills of students, but also to promote creativity, literacy and social skills.