My Teaching Philosophy
Mark Twain wrote, “Travel is fatal to prejudice, bigotry, and narrow-mindedness, and many of our people need it sorely on these accounts. Broad, wholesome, charitable views of men and things cannot be acquired by vegetating in one little corner of the earth all one's lifetime” (The Innocents Abroad/Roughing It). Eliminating negative stereotypes is my primary motivation for becoming a teacher and I have specifically chosen to be a teacher of language because without the ability to communicate with others charitable views of one another cannot flourish. I encourage students to venture out and broaden their perspectives through nurturing a curiosity in other peoples and in cross cultural communication.
In my classroom students are introduced to cultural topics in an environment that provides a safe space in which delicate topics can be discussed without prejudice. Right now my students are writing an essay about American stereotypes. In the past my students have produced profiles on the history and cultures of Spanish speaking countries. Cultural understanding is my premise, but this is accomplished through the practical application of linguistic principles. Most importantly, I implement Communicative Language Teaching.
Language learning is very complex but the most important outcome is communicative competence. I like this student led approach because when the students are active they build and create their own interlanguage; they are learning how to use the language rather than simply about the language. I start with a needs analysis to determine the students' goals and interests for lesson planning. While maintaining the target language as the dominant vehicle of communication, I allow my students to rely on their previous linguistic knowledge, encouraging them to draw comparisons to their native language. Experience has taught me that when use of the students’ native language is condemned, it is stigmatized, stifling the students’ individuality, complicating acquisition and building affective barriers.
I use authentic materials because this provides input from real situations outside the classroom. Technology gives me access to abundant sources of authentic materials from videos, news outlets, blogs and music that supply the learners with variation in register and genre. Because learners retain language through negotiating for meaning and correcting one another’s errors, I plan pair work group work and peer feedback for collaborative activities. Reading, writing, speaking and listening are the four pillars of communicative competence and none can be ignored. Authentic materials provide the theme of the lesson combined with activities targeted at discrete linguistic forms.
Autonomy is also very important to implement a student led approach in the classroom. People learn better when they are motivated by their own curiosity and drive. I view my role as a teacher to facilitate student learning rather than to dictate it. I teach them conversational strategies like circumlocution, synonyms, clarification, or repetition. Learning strategies can be used for acquisition too, such as semantic categorization or chunking. I teach them to not be too hard on themselves when making mistakes focusing instead on every small achievement. Building their self esteem and their willingness to interact with the native speaking population will create good language learners. I have learned these strategies through my own experience acquiring Spanish which enables me to understand their difficulties.
Literature is an important element to incorporate into the classroom as any peoples’ standards of language and customs are reflected and recorded in its literary canon. I like to use essays, plays, musical lyrics and biographies for lower proficiency levels for cultural activities and vocabulary growth. Higher proficiency levels can work with poetry and fiction not only for cultural study but for analyzing figurative as well as literal differences. Literary works reflect the dialogic and idiomatic differences of a nation’s language and can also be useful to teach jargon and slang of cultural subgroups. I believe that to know a people’s language and culture these different genres of literature are key sources.
I still struggle with not knowing if I have had an impact on them. As a language teacher I only have a brief period of their life but I can make it influential. Even if I do not see substantial growth during my time with them I take comfort in hoping that everything I taught will have a lasting effect. Having nurtured in them the confidence and strategies they need to communicate and continue learning, perhaps they will succeed at broadening their world view when they immerse themselves into the culture of the target language and appreciate each native speaker as a unique individual. My hope is that when my students transfer these linguistic principles to the real world and interact with peoples from different cultures and backgrounds, I will have made my contribution toward eradicating bigotry and narrow-mindedness.
In my classroom students are introduced to cultural topics in an environment that provides a safe space in which delicate topics can be discussed without prejudice. Right now my students are writing an essay about American stereotypes. In the past my students have produced profiles on the history and cultures of Spanish speaking countries. Cultural understanding is my premise, but this is accomplished through the practical application of linguistic principles. Most importantly, I implement Communicative Language Teaching.
Language learning is very complex but the most important outcome is communicative competence. I like this student led approach because when the students are active they build and create their own interlanguage; they are learning how to use the language rather than simply about the language. I start with a needs analysis to determine the students' goals and interests for lesson planning. While maintaining the target language as the dominant vehicle of communication, I allow my students to rely on their previous linguistic knowledge, encouraging them to draw comparisons to their native language. Experience has taught me that when use of the students’ native language is condemned, it is stigmatized, stifling the students’ individuality, complicating acquisition and building affective barriers.
I use authentic materials because this provides input from real situations outside the classroom. Technology gives me access to abundant sources of authentic materials from videos, news outlets, blogs and music that supply the learners with variation in register and genre. Because learners retain language through negotiating for meaning and correcting one another’s errors, I plan pair work group work and peer feedback for collaborative activities. Reading, writing, speaking and listening are the four pillars of communicative competence and none can be ignored. Authentic materials provide the theme of the lesson combined with activities targeted at discrete linguistic forms.
Autonomy is also very important to implement a student led approach in the classroom. People learn better when they are motivated by their own curiosity and drive. I view my role as a teacher to facilitate student learning rather than to dictate it. I teach them conversational strategies like circumlocution, synonyms, clarification, or repetition. Learning strategies can be used for acquisition too, such as semantic categorization or chunking. I teach them to not be too hard on themselves when making mistakes focusing instead on every small achievement. Building their self esteem and their willingness to interact with the native speaking population will create good language learners. I have learned these strategies through my own experience acquiring Spanish which enables me to understand their difficulties.
Literature is an important element to incorporate into the classroom as any peoples’ standards of language and customs are reflected and recorded in its literary canon. I like to use essays, plays, musical lyrics and biographies for lower proficiency levels for cultural activities and vocabulary growth. Higher proficiency levels can work with poetry and fiction not only for cultural study but for analyzing figurative as well as literal differences. Literary works reflect the dialogic and idiomatic differences of a nation’s language and can also be useful to teach jargon and slang of cultural subgroups. I believe that to know a people’s language and culture these different genres of literature are key sources.
I still struggle with not knowing if I have had an impact on them. As a language teacher I only have a brief period of their life but I can make it influential. Even if I do not see substantial growth during my time with them I take comfort in hoping that everything I taught will have a lasting effect. Having nurtured in them the confidence and strategies they need to communicate and continue learning, perhaps they will succeed at broadening their world view when they immerse themselves into the culture of the target language and appreciate each native speaker as a unique individual. My hope is that when my students transfer these linguistic principles to the real world and interact with peoples from different cultures and backgrounds, I will have made my contribution toward eradicating bigotry and narrow-mindedness.