Teaching Philosophy

The history of language teaching has gone through a multitude of changes. From the grammar translation method to communicative language teaching, these have all built upon the shortcomings of the ones before them to arrive at our current belief of what effective language teaching entails. According to Brown (2007), history has taught teachers to appreciate interactive language and expose learners to the real world. Because language teaching will always be evolving, I do not believe that there is a single answer on how to teach effectively that will remain valid forever. However, we as teachers must all start with our own stance on teaching that we feel maximizes learning potential. This is by no means a comprehensive look into what I deem important. Instead, it works as what I think develops a rich foundation that encourages learning to take place.

A good language teacher is one who fosters a communicative learning environment. This means giving students the opportunity to grow in each and every class. The zone of proximal development (ZPD), a sociocultural theory coined by Vygotsky (1978), is the distance between the language produced independently and the language produced through guidance from a teacher or more capable peers. As mentioned in Gass (2013), ZPD “embodies the social nature of learning and underscores the importance of collaborative learning as it shapes what is learned” (p. 295). One way to do this is to orient the class seating in a way that supports a more communicative environment. Having students face each other, instead of the traditional seating arrangement towards the front of the class, is a good start. More importantly, class activities should involve more student-to-student interaction, instead of teacher led activities and lectures. Giving students a chance to interact with their peers on a regular basis allows students to learn from each other by expanding their ZPD. Meaningful output is as important for language development as meaningful input.

A communicative learning environment is also one that is culturally sensitive. With classrooms becoming more and more diverse, it is important to take into consideration the differences that students may have. As Brown (2007) suggests, “we tend to perceive reality within the context of our own culture, a reality that we have ‘created’, and therefore not necessarily a reality that is empirically defined” (p. 133). An effective language teacher always takes into consideration the different “realities” that our students may have. Mason’s (2006) study on cooperative learning also supports the idea of accommodating a culturally diverse classroom. In this study, she defines cooperative learning as “structured student interaction” that facilitates positive interdependence, individual accountability, simultaneous interaction, and more. In the same paper, she argues that culturally sensitive and diverse classroom “alleviates fear, breaks down stereotypes, and promotes relationship building among students” (p.57). Not only does cooperative learning promote cultural sensitivity, it also alleviates competition. Language teachers can help promote cooperative learning by bringing in class material dealing with content (e.g., news articles, podcasts, social media posts) from around the world.

Having said this, I often prefer class materials such as news articles and podcasts over traditional textbooks. Research suggests that students are more likely to learn when they come into contact with authentic materials that they would find in their target-language use (TLU) domain. Mousavi & Iravani (2012) studied the effectiveness of authentic aural material on listening comprehension. After studying 80 language learners for 10 weeks, they found that the group that used authentic listening material during the course improved their listening comprehension more than the group that used non-authentic material. The paper made the implication that non-authentic material does not expose learners to interactions between native speakers and the non-verbal gestures that facilitate the comprehension. Instead of fabricated recordings or reading from the textbook, I believe that appropriate news articles, podcasts, or video clips give a more accurate representation of practical language use.

While having authentic materials in the classroom leads to a more productive learning environment, I believe that the materials of the classes are only one part of the equation. What a language teacher does with this content is just as important. In other words, authentic materials should work toward authentic language activities. Huang, Tindall & Nisbet (2011) conducted a survey that asked in-service ESL teachers how they implemented authentic content in their classrooms. Five themes emerged from the data: Employment, Technology, Consumer-Related Goods, Consumer-Related Services, and Citizenship/Civic Participation. Several activities that are common within these themes are preparing for a job interview, searching for a job, writing resumes/e-mails, filling out paperwork/forms, and more. As it turns out, these authentic tasks are also highly interactive which supports the idea of a communicative classroom. Such activities allow for role playing and other student-centered group work. Furthermore, these contextualized activities “provide opportunities for students to take ownership of their language use and express their own voice” (p. 8). As a language learner myself, expressing myself in a different language using my own thoughts is very empowering. Additionally, seeing the utility with my language is gratifying. This is why I believe that students need to be aware that they are working towards a personal language goal.

The field of language education has come a long way, making the language classroom much more interactive. Being that language is a social skill, it seems clear that instruction must maximize interaction. Keeping your students interacting with one another has the potential to increase their language growth, cultural awareness, and interdependence.

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(For my complete teaching philosophy, please contact me via email). 

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