Ricardo F. Michue-Bendezu

Profile

I did my primary and secondary studies in Lima, Peru.
Then a year of pre-university course in Barcelona, Spain. Then I studied Humanities in Philosophy and Psychology at the Autonomous University of Bellaterra in Barcelona, Spain.
I obtained a Magister (Mg.) degree by doing a Postgraduate course in Education at the School of Education at the University of Leeds.

I started my career at the Instituto Cervantes in Manila, Philippines, teaching Spanish as a foreign language. In 1995 I moved to Leeds, UK, and started working at the Instituto Cervantes in Leeds and in evening schools teaching Spanish to adults. In 1996 I started working at the University of Leeds Language Centre.

Responsibilities

• Design, teach and assess spanish LfAll modules
• Modules for Spanish and Quechua following closely the CEFR
• Modules from A1 to B2/C1 levels 20 & 10 credits

Research interests

How do we learn and remember, and what factors can influence our learning? How apply the various theories that help us understand cognitive and social development?. As a result of all these years of teaching, the answer to these questions might be found on the evolution of our society. From a restricted informative environment in the 70s, 80s to a society of fear, caused by the technology that facilites or gives room to both sides of the same story and as a consequence, confuse people who are not well informed and with limited critical thinking.

I started investigating the effect of peer feedback in opposition of tutor feedback with preliminary results that confirmed studies done previously, that is more beneficial the first one (peer feedack or formative feedback) for learning. But students still need a proper feedback from the tutor.

Qualifications

• Degree in Psychology
• Mg. in Education

Professional memberships

• Teachers of Spanish Asociations

Student education

All language modules I teach for Spanish at the Language center follow closely the mapping of learning outcomes onto the CEFR. Teaching in this context, which covered most of CEFR levels for Spanish (A1 to B2/C1) was very progressively intensive (from 8 hours at the beginning to currently 16 hours contact hours teaching).

I use digital text books and magazines and online resources and create support materials in accordance with the framework, and I created formative and summative assessments tests in line with its milestones.

I always look for a professional network for projects that contribute to enhance the teaching and learning success. Regarding Spanish language, few studies I found about pre-hispanic languages and their encounter with the european language and culture from a linguistic and geographical viewpoints.