teaching philosopy
Passion, Community, Empowerment
PASSION
As a non-native English speaker, I started this journey as a learner of the language myself. I started at a very early age. I remember vividly walking out of an English classroom wearing on my arms twelve glittery stickers that my teacher rewarded me as trophies from that class. I remain grateful for how proud they made me feel and how much enthusiasm and passion they embedded in me which supported me in my later language learning. It is this passion that has been guiding my way on down this never-ending journey.
Going through the change of role from a language learner to a teacher, I realize the importance of intrinsic motivation. It can be simply loving languages like I do; it can be needing a language skill for better job opportunities; it can be anything that drives the learner throughout the learning process. Motivation can be extremely important for adult learners, for they are at the point of their lives where goals and objectives are taken into account behind every decision. As teachers, it is crucial to stress the importance of intrinsic motivation to our students. The first thing we can do is to provide an encouraging and supportive learning environment to make students feel welcome and relaxed in the classroom. In the meantime, I believe we are obligated to not only address the needs and goals of our learners, but also tailor our teaching accordingly. For example, teaching formal email formatting can be extremely practical for learners applying for jobs or schools and create motivation for learning.
COMMUNITY
Technology facilitates language teaching and learning both inside and outside of the classroom. It is a handy tool in the classroom through which we can provide instructions, explain language focus, and present authentic input in the form of audio or video. However, learning in the classroom is by no means enough for language learning which, to a great extent, requires practice and use, especially for EFL learners. Technology also provides a variety of platforms where we form a community that extends beyond the classroom. From my teaching experience, I like to use such platforms where students can post reflections around a specific topic and comment on each other’s thoughts. I find students to enjoy this form of communication. For example, I encourage my students to use Edmodo. As a firm believer of communicative language teaching, I think this helps them build a sense of community and a genuine need for communication in the target language in real-life scenarios, through which learners are able to develop language proficiency outside the classroom.
On top of this, learners need access to ample authentic input. Technology allows this for every learner. Whether it is reading news, listening to podcasts or browsing social media, students receive not only input of authentic language, but also the culture embodied in the target language. Most importantly, as they actively participate in these activities, students get to better perceive themselves as part of the community where the target language is used for communication and start building their second language identity as part of the community.
EMPOWERMENT
To me, a student-centered classroom not only means maximized student production. It also means a way of teaching that empowers students to influence the teacher’s decisions on style of instructions. Language teaching should be sensitive to students’ needs. As much as we have learned about the effectiveness of implicit language teaching, I still believe that an appropriate amount of explicit language teaching will only improve the learning process, especially for adult learners, for the following two reasons.
First, adults are equipped with the ability to understand and apply abstract grammatical rules. Second, learning a new language can sometimes be intimidating for learners. It is understandable that they want to rely on explicit rules that make them feel more comfortable and confident constructing their interlanguage. Therefore, in my opinion, teachers should combine implicit teaching with explicit, especially when it is students’ need that calls for it.
I am a firm believer that students should be empowered in knowing themselves. With appropriate guiding, given ample opportunities to self-reflect and self-evaluate, students can get better hold of their own learning progress. Helping students monitor their own progress of learning can provide solutions for them to tackle certain problems they may have encountered. Through evaluating their own performance, students also realize what they have accomplished during each class and hence gain a sense of achievement. This process of metacognition raising not only helps students figure out what they need in order to keep making progress but also offers insight for us as teachers into how to incorporate students’ needs into class contents and best address their goals and expectations. This will be an ongoing process that will always be a critical part of my teaching.
MOVING FORWARD
As both a learner and a teacher of the English language, my desire to improve my language skills and teaching skills will be here to stay. Within the classroom, I insist on forming a welcoming community for students and providing them with a relaxing yet engaging learning environment, where they can build confidence and motivation in their language learning and extend their community to outside the classroom. My classes will always prioritize students’ needs, and I will keep on inquiring about why and how my students want to learn. I will continue tailoring my teaching accordingly, in order to deliver more effective classes in my future career.