Articulating
Your Teaching Philosophy:
First
Draft of Many
Please
list ONLY 3 ideas per question. I know
you have more. The point of this
activity is to make you CHOOSE. E-mail
this to me before class on Monday.
1. In your opinion, what are the three
MOST important guiding principles for any teacher—language or otherwise?
a.
A classroom should be tailored to the learner – learner’s needs should come
first.
b.
A teacher needs to take what she knows from theory and put it into practice
creatively.
c.
Patience and compassion are vital in the role of a teacher, they set the tone
of the class.
2. In your opinion what are the three MOST
important guiding principles that you will follow specifically as a second/foreign language teacher?
a.
When I fail to plan, I plan to fail. As a post-method teacher, I cannot simply
use template activities. I must think through the how and why of the lesson and
what my learners will gain from it.
b.
Every learner is different. When I fail to plan, I fail to take into
consideration that all learners are not like me and tend to fall back to my
default learning style, which is also my default teaching style.
c.
As a language teacher, I am also a lifelong learner of a language. Although my
learners may see me as an expert, I am far from it and will never stop learning
and encouraging my learners to learn outside of class.
3. In your opinion, what distinguishes a
person who has acquired communicative competence in a second/foreign language
from one who has not?
a.
A person who has acquired communicative competence feels confident in his or
her ability to carry out every day conversational tasks in the L2 60% of the
time.
b.
A person who has acquired communicative competence in L2 can interact with
service providers and understand what is said and someone can understand them
75% of the time. They usually tend to have a greater quality of life in the
country that L2 is spoken, and enjoy themselves more.
c.
Such a person usually has acquired enough vocabulary to be able to be creative
with language and communicate the same idea multiple ways in multiple settings.
4. If someone told you that they wanted to
learn a second/foreign language and asked your advice on the best way to do it,
what advice would give them and why?
a.
First, take note of your background. If you do not have any knowledge of the
language, it will help tremendously to take a class in a formal setting. This
will help establish basic guidelines and rules of the grammar of the language.
b.
Second, if you are not doing so already, READ. Vocabulary acquisition is the
heart of language. If you do not have the words, you cannot communicate. Simple
as that. Once you have picked up basic sentence structure, READ daily in L2 and
learn as many words as you can.
c.
Don’t be afraid to speak. Most native speakers of their L1 don’t speak
perfectly. Keep this fact in mind as you practice your L2. You will not get
better at a language if you don’t use it daily in everyday conversation. SPEAK.
Don’t be shy.
5. In your opinion, how should language
teachers interact with their students and why?
a.
Be prepared daily, but be flexible. Answer students’ questions regularly. Be
attentive to breakdowns in comprehension and be prepared to fix them. This
requires a teacher to be extremely knowledgeable about comprehensible input at
all levels of the process. Learners of a language are extremely scared when
they start the process. It is important to calm those fears but also push
leaners a little beyond what they can comfortably do so they improve slowly and
gain more confidence.
b.
Don’t be so rigid in your beliefs on different culture that you alienate
students’ motivation for being in class. Be open to learning about other
cultures and languages. This will help your students see that you have
experience being a learner as well and make it easier to empathize and to
create a compassionate community that is willing to learn from each other.
c.
Be non-judgmental in your words and chose your words carefully. Just because
you may like the way things are done in one country or culture doesn’t mean
it’s the correct way. You will have a better chance at creating a cohesive
learning community if you ask open-ended questions with no bias attached. Wait
and listen (and expect) learners to educate you about what is important to
them.
6. In your opinion, what are the most
important aspects of creating a classroom environment conducive to learning and
why?
a.
Listen more than you talk. Your learners are there to practice speaking their
L2 and take risks with language. They can only do this when you as the teacher
are not talking. This requires the teacher to choose her words carefully enough
to be understood and then know when to stop talking and let learners practice
and play with language.
b.
Remember that you are teaching language over content. When you keep this in
mind, it will make it easier to recognize that there is really no one “right”
answer to a discussion question and it will make it easier for you not to “jump
into” a conversation and dominate the talking time in class. Let your learners
make mistakes with language and try to fix it themselves before you jump to
correct.
c.
Set guidelines for appropriate discussions and stick to them. Be stricter at
the beginning than you would normally be. You can always be nice at the end of
class and not get walked over.
7. For each of the skills/topics listed,
what is ONE idea that you find very important to keep in mind when teaching
that skill/topic?
Listening: Many listening activities assess more
than listening if they assess listening at all. Listening is one of the hardest
skills to assess by itself. Be mindful when selecting listening tasks to assure
that 90% of the content is listening and not writing or vocabulary.
Speaking: Make sure you as the teacher are
letting the learner speak more than you. They are, after all, here to practice
their L2. You are already fluent in it, and therefore don’t need the
practice.
Grammar: Differentiate
between spoken and written grammar and make sure you are teaching the one that
your learner finds most important. Remember that most L1 speakers are not
perfect in either. When assessing grammar make sure you only focus on what the
learner has already learned. Be selective with what you do in a red pen.
Writing: Writing is
documenting the process of thinking. And it’s difficult. It’s difficult to do
in an L1 and doubly difficult to do in an L2. Be compassionate about a
learner’s writing and respect the process of thinking while providing ideas
along the way. In the words of the great Anne Lamott, “Perfectionism is the
voice of the oppression…embrace the sh#&%y first draft.” Remember how hard
it is to get your own thoughts down on paper before tearing your learner’s
thoughts to shreds.
Reading: Reading is
thinking too. If you are not thinking when you are reading, you are doing it
wrong. When I teach reading, I teach learners how to stop every so often,
monitor comprehension, and vocalize their thoughts on what they have read so
far.
Vocabulary: Beyond a
doubt, this is the most important aspect of learning a language, L1 or
otherwise. A learner that does not have words cannot communicate. Reading is
the most effective way to build vocabulary. In any language.
Strategies: Strategies
are imbedded in every aspect of learning a language, and a teacher who does not
teach strategies has only taught half of the process. Without strategies,
learners do not have what they need to learn outside of your classroom.
8. What is your opinion on each of the
following topics? Write 1-2 sentences,
no more.
Use of L1 in an EFL Class: In absolute beginning classes, some L1
is necessary to clarify vocabulary. After that, it becomes somewhat of a crutch
to learning an L2 and should be kept to as little as possible for
comprehension.
Grammar Feedback on Writing Assignments: The teacher should only comment on one
or two types of grammatical errors at a time and this should be purposeful so
as not to become overwhelming to the learner. The grammatical comments given
should follow suit with what was learned during that week in class.
9. List THREE things you will do to ensure
that you continue to grow and improve as a teacher once you are in the field:
a.
Continue to observe and volunteer in as many experienced teacher’s classrooms
as possible. I feel like this is the best way to take away good teaching
practices and hone my craft.
b.
Reflect daily on my own teaching practice, in writing. The act of journaling is
not only therapeutic, but very useful in determining my own thoughts and where
I could have improved on the day’s lesson.
c.
Continue to be a lifelong learner of language. Ask questions of students, and
research constantly. Never stop learning.
10. What are questions you still have about
teaching that we have not addressed?
List as many questions as you wish, but list at least ONE.
What
does the recent research say about L1 use in an L2 learning environment? I feel
like we haven’t really covered a lot of this in class and is a definite
interest of mine.
