Interview with the chief of the Linguistic Department

Interview made to professor Juana Sagaray, Chief of the Linguistic Department.

Prof. Juana Sagaray

Main Office

Entrance of the Linguistic Department (pic nº1)

Entrance of the Linguistic Department (pic nº2)

Advanced English II Students

AE.II Students (Front Door)

AE.II Students with Prof. Juana Sagaray (pic nº1)

AE.II Students with Prof. Juana Sagaray (pic nº2)

1.    AE.II Students: Could you give us a Brief overview of the department?

Prof. Juana Sagaray: This is the linguistic department and it concerns to two main fields here in our university and they are the foreign language and the native language that are taught here in the pedagogico de Maturin. And it has to do with the functions of these two programs; the head of the department has to make sure that everything is functioning the way it should functions, you know that the program deals with the students, but the department deals with things such as the subjects that are offered, the presence of the professors in the AUFINS, their punctuality and responsibility etc.

2.     AE.II Students: Which are the most important activities the department manages?

Prof. Juana Sagaray: Let’s say the academic activities, each one of the subjects you take depends on an area of knowledge, in English for example we have literature and culture this is an area of knowledge, then we have to organize each one of those areas, let’s say from English one two, three four and  linguistics all those subjects depends on different areas so we have to organize them and decide a ‘head’ for each one of those areas of knowledge, and take care of course that they are functioning the way we hope they should functions.  Bottom line we have to organize the academic part, what the professors do, the activities they design, evaluation plans and everything according to the rules established by the university.

3.      

      AE.II Students: What is the vision of this department?

Prof. Juana Sagaray: Well I would say that it is not written anywhere but the vision is to organize the academic process and also those processes which have to do with the administration of the program and dates and all those activities about registration, so, I think the aim of the department is to make sure that all this things are done the way it is supposed to be done, so if you realize if this functions the way it should, well, things here should be better, but as you know there are always problems such as the payments of the teachers, and somehow this affects the functioning of the whole.

4.      AE.II Students: It is easy to manage native and foreign language in only one department?

Prof. Juana Sagaray: It is very complicated I have to say, because each one of them is a world, they are very different, if you ask my personal opinion, I would say that they should be separated into two different departments because they are too different, for example, in the English area we teach English as a second language but in the native one we do not teach Spanish as a second language but as a native one, so they are very different, their program and curriculum are also unlike.

Right now for example we are preparing an event, a congress and it is difficult to agree on many things, English and Native teachers want to bring different lecturers and as you know, there is no money for that, so yes is difficult to manage these two worlds.

5.      AE.II Students: Do you know who founded this program?

Prof. Juana Sagaray: Well I can tell you things about the chief of the department when I was studying here about 20 years ago (Laughs) but, I don’t have information about, who was the actual founder of the department itself, I think it started at the same moment the university started to function here in Maturin.

6.     

      AE.II Students: Expectation for the future, goals for the upcoming years…

Prof. Juana Sagaray: Well I think we have to prepare activities that unites somehow the two specialties, I think we have to work together with the students, because the students are the soul of the university so my vision is to create activities in which the students and professors share experiences and grow academically I think this is very important, and If this can be done in this next semester, well, that would be great, It is challenging but it is something that at least for me as the chief of the department, is important.

Advanced English II students Want to say thank you to Professor Juana Sagaray for her time and her responses in the interview, hoping that all of her expectations for the future come true.