teaching philosophy
purpose
Words were my mother’s flesh and blood. She would start the day by turning on the news and reading the newspaper posts, she would forget what she was doing as she fell deeper and deeper into a book, and she would schedule all of our times so that she could be in time for all of today’s movie screenings. But this was all taken from her when she moved to the United States, and suddenly found herself deaf and dumb to all forms of speech or text. To this day, my mother jokes that she will never become fluent in English.
While I am proficient in both my mother’s tongue and English, it was only after many self-study attempts in a third language that I began to believe that language was a skill, not a gift. It took me fifteen years to realize that the way I was learning Spanish in school was not the fastest or best way to learn a foreign language. My goal as a language teacher is to let language learners explore as many ways to learn a language as possible and help them find what will work best for each of them. But what motivates me to teach is to see others gain confidence in and respect for their abilities. For my mother, language was her life; while maybe less so for others, language is an inseparable part of our lives. It is my greatest hope that language will open up new possibilities for all language learners and that I could serve any part to turn that hope into reality.
style
My first prospective students were immigrants who either had no choice but to come here or who have given up their home in search of a better future. Learning English was a matter of survival. Using the communicative approach, I will ground my lessons on real life examples which my students can directly apply in their daily lives, such as a lesson plan on how to apply to a job. The communicative approach, founded during the globalization of labor, realizes both the urgency and complexity of language learning through high interest topics and activities. I will encourage my students to bring their own real life examples to class and appreciate for themselves the fruits of their hard work, especially for those who are facing the shortest amount of time but the greatest amount of urgency in learning English.
In addition, I believe that the comprehension approach will be most useful in helping my students gain confidence in their English. The comprehension approach most closely mimics what my students are confronted with everyday, but with language scaffolding. Within the safe walls of the classroom, the students will get to practice scenes from their encounters, such as checking out at the shopping counter. Such practices not only encourage the students to communicate no matter how deficient they believe themselves to be, but also empowers the students to be resourceful in communicating and getting things done despite the language barrier. As many psychologists are cited to have claimed as high as ninety-seven percent of all communications as nonverbal, the comprehension approach demonstrates how small a part language barrier plays in what it is that my students want to accomplish.
Technique
When the students come in, they will most likely have come in after a hard day’s work or after a frustrating day of miscommunication in school. Warm-ups determine how ready and willing the students are to learn, so I always make sure to take at least five minutes to ask about their day with the students. By allowing the students the opportunity to let out at least one thing on their minds that they are carrying with them in class, I ensure that I have the student’s full and undivided attention in class. Warm talk also allows me to pick out what will be of interest to my students to keep my students’ attention throughout the lesson. Teacher talk and positive reinforcement will also be playing an important role in helping the students open up and fully engage in the whole process rather than another addition of stress to their day. I try to utilize as many a variety of language learning strategies as possible to support my students to try and find what learning strategy works best for them. During guided practice, I always make sure to write down the keywords and phrases on the board for the visual learners. I will also make sure to prepare handouts with pictures and diagrams that the students can directly take notes on for the kinesthetic learners. While elaborating, I try to incorporate as many physical and nonverbal cues so that the students can follow along even if they cannot understand the language yet.
The learning process will also be made to be as engaging as possible by trying to structure activities that closely mimic what they might have encountered or are encountering outside of class, such as learning how to use the command form while giving and receiving directions to their favorite destinations. While the lesson objectives will be following the Cognitive Approach to ensure proper scaffolding of the student’s language development, the guided practice will mostly be enactments of scenarios which the students could draw from their own experience or apply directly after class. This allows the guided practice to not just be an instruction but a part of themselves. I personally found that sticking to the 80/20 rule allowed for a more accurate assessment of or instructor in my progress. Thus, assessment of student progress will mostly consist of improvisational performance of the scenarios as close to the contexts in which they will be used in real life. The improvisational performance will be given immediate audience feedback by peers. I will usually not present my evaluations of the performance until after the students got to say a say first to allow the students to self-correct themselves and use each other as resources for support. It will also allow me to assess the student’s collective progress and pinpoint which aspects I may need to go over.
To allow for as much room for practice during class, I will assign grammar exercises as independent practice for homework. The grammar exercises will be checked and returned to the students for review and clarification of what we had practiced in class. I will also assign reading and writing exercises as homework as they can be practiced independently outside of class. The reading and writing exercises will prompt students to demonstrate their correct comprehension of the meaning implied within the grammatical structure taught in class. The reading and writing assignments will culminate to a research essay, in which the students will demonstrate and appreciate their mastery of all the vocabulary and grammar taught and practiced in class. I have also found such assessments not just useful for self-reflection but also in my daily life, such as when applying to colleges that require essays or jobs with a strong writing and reading component.