My Teaching Philosophy...
Having taught English as Foreign Language (EFL) in large classrooms abroad, I believe it is especially important to maintain learner-centered pedagogy by providing a natural and comfortable setting that will enhance learners’ willingness to communicate. Since one of the primary purposes of language learning is to communicate with others, my goal as a language teacher is to provide the optimal learning environment for language learners to gain communicative competence through the Communicative Language Teaching approach (CLT). I find task-based group work with a communicative purpose to be an effective way to provide opportunities for authentic and meaningful communication that will increase learners’ autonomy and intrinsic motivation; therefore, group work is a an essential component of my learner-centered classroom.
Learner-centered instruction in my language classroom incorporates the principles of cooperative learning and interactive learning to meet individual student’s learning needs, goals, and styles. Cooperative learning aims to foster learner autonomy by having learners working together in pairs or groups to help one another achieve a common goal provided by a task. Interactive learning focuses on meaningful learning through the process of negotiation of meaning based on give-and-take conversations and the use of authentic and spontaneous language that reflects real-world communication. In my learner-centered classroom, my role as the language teacher is that of a guide and facilitator. My ongoing challenge is to resist the traditional model of dispensing knowledge because it places the students in a passive role. Learners need to be engaged and motivated, and it is my responsibility to provide the learning environment and resources for them to succeed.
I believe technology is a tool that enhances any classroom in the 21st century, and it has become an essential part of my language teaching. In addition to the enormous amount of language learning resources available on the internet, many Web 2.0 programs developed in recent years have focused on meeting the needs of teachers and learners in the classroom. Technology allows language teachers to maximize classroom time by “flipping the classroom” efficiently. I am always ready to utilize the authentic input readily available to learners through technology as opportunities for language learning. I use a class website as the main platform to provide course information and assignments for my students as well as the place for online discussion and learners’ portfolio. This is especially useful for formative assessment, which provides a holistic view of my students’ language learning progress when combined with appropriate summative assessment.
As a lifelong learner, I value the importance of the reflective teaching process that includes self-evaluation as well as peer critique and supervisor feedback. Every lesson that is implemented, either according to lesson plan or not, provides learning opportunities that, when attended to with deliberation and humility, will make me grow as a teacher and as a human being. I learn as much from my students and peers as I do from my professors and supervisors. At the end of the day, if I can make a difference with just one student, and help that student achieve his or her full potential both as a language learner and as a global citizen, then it makes all the hard work worthwhile. This is why I became a mid-career changer who found his calling in teaching. This is why I became a language teacher.
Having taught English as Foreign Language (EFL) in large classrooms abroad, I believe it is especially important to maintain learner-centered pedagogy by providing a natural and comfortable setting that will enhance learners’ willingness to communicate. Since one of the primary purposes of language learning is to communicate with others, my goal as a language teacher is to provide the optimal learning environment for language learners to gain communicative competence through the Communicative Language Teaching approach (CLT). I find task-based group work with a communicative purpose to be an effective way to provide opportunities for authentic and meaningful communication that will increase learners’ autonomy and intrinsic motivation; therefore, group work is a an essential component of my learner-centered classroom.
Learner-centered instruction in my language classroom incorporates the principles of cooperative learning and interactive learning to meet individual student’s learning needs, goals, and styles. Cooperative learning aims to foster learner autonomy by having learners working together in pairs or groups to help one another achieve a common goal provided by a task. Interactive learning focuses on meaningful learning through the process of negotiation of meaning based on give-and-take conversations and the use of authentic and spontaneous language that reflects real-world communication. In my learner-centered classroom, my role as the language teacher is that of a guide and facilitator. My ongoing challenge is to resist the traditional model of dispensing knowledge because it places the students in a passive role. Learners need to be engaged and motivated, and it is my responsibility to provide the learning environment and resources for them to succeed.
I believe technology is a tool that enhances any classroom in the 21st century, and it has become an essential part of my language teaching. In addition to the enormous amount of language learning resources available on the internet, many Web 2.0 programs developed in recent years have focused on meeting the needs of teachers and learners in the classroom. Technology allows language teachers to maximize classroom time by “flipping the classroom” efficiently. I am always ready to utilize the authentic input readily available to learners through technology as opportunities for language learning. I use a class website as the main platform to provide course information and assignments for my students as well as the place for online discussion and learners’ portfolio. This is especially useful for formative assessment, which provides a holistic view of my students’ language learning progress when combined with appropriate summative assessment.
As a lifelong learner, I value the importance of the reflective teaching process that includes self-evaluation as well as peer critique and supervisor feedback. Every lesson that is implemented, either according to lesson plan or not, provides learning opportunities that, when attended to with deliberation and humility, will make me grow as a teacher and as a human being. I learn as much from my students and peers as I do from my professors and supervisors. At the end of the day, if I can make a difference with just one student, and help that student achieve his or her full potential both as a language learner and as a global citizen, then it makes all the hard work worthwhile. This is why I became a mid-career changer who found his calling in teaching. This is why I became a language teacher.