sls485_teaching_philosophy.odt | |
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File Type: | odt |
My teaching philosophy
My real English learning did not happen in nether a middle school nor a high school period, but it accidently began in my twenties only after my twelve years of school learning. For that reason, my path toward English learning is quite dramatic from others, and this finally led me to becoming a teacher of this language. This unique personal experience as a learner has shaped my instructional philosophy in English learning.
I personally believe that learning a second language is like going on a diet because they share some common characteristics: both learning and dieting are goal-oriented activities. I have no doubt that successful language learning drives from a sense of achievement, perseverance, and interaction. My goal as an English teacher is to help my students to understand that making mistakes is inevitable steps to an advanced level of fluency. In addition, I want my student to realize that learning a second language is not studying the subject for the exam but more like some physical practices such as swimming as we use mouth, eyes, hand gestures and so on. Then, my students will know the importance of listening and oral practices for their fluency.
Achievement
I believe that one of the best ways of increasing and maintaining motivation is to give students a taste of success and accomplishment although it is just a small thing that can happen in classroom. My initial experience in learning English began by the thought of getting high scores on the English test called “TOEIC” (Test Of English for International Communication). At that time, my teacher helped his students to improve test score by giving them relatively easy weekly test. By doing so, students gain high score in their weekly test and thus became encouraged to study with English with more confidence. Eventually, my test score went up both in weekly test and the actual TOEIC test. When my progress in English was getting noticeable by my test scores, it gave me a lot of confidence that allowed me to feel like I can do it. This small achievement was the turning point that has changed my perspective on learning English completely.
Perseverance
When it comes to learning a second language and going on a diet, it is inevitable to go through some stage where no more progress happens. Moreover, this sort of feeling periodically happens over and over. However, once we keep up the good work and finally overcome the discouraging period, we end up losing weight in diet, and also taking one step closer to the advanced level of fluency in learning English. Perseverance is exactly what makes it possible to do things that we think is impossible. Every time I face challenge in English learning, I choose not to give up but to keep up my work anyway because I know that hardship and challenges are inevitable reality that could make us stronger and eventually move us toward a better future. In class situation, to help students realize this perseverance, it is highly recommended to keep exposing students naturally to what they learned in a previous lesson through a current lesson. For example, if students learned the expression in a previous lesson 'I think that ~', a teacher could say 'I think that ~~~' quite a bit in class to remind the students of what they learned.
Interaction
I am a strong believer of interaction for a successful second language acquisition. My twelve year of exposure to English in the classroom was never a successful experience for me to learn English. In addition, even my high score of TOEIC test was not sufficient enough for me to say a word in English. My spoken English improved only after I began to talk with people in a group and over the phone with my English teacher. This experience led me to the conclusion that a key element for genuine second language learning is interaction. Given this thought, I would highly encourage students to collaborate for speaking practice through lots of group activity in class by giving them some activities such as 10min daily small talk session, and group discussion.
For the past seven years, I have been both a learner and a teacher of English, and from my experience, I've built up my belief that a sense of achievement, perseverance, and interaction can work as very important key in successful second language learning. This can possibly help them overcome their challenges with learning second language.
My real English learning did not happen in nether a middle school nor a high school period, but it accidently began in my twenties only after my twelve years of school learning. For that reason, my path toward English learning is quite dramatic from others, and this finally led me to becoming a teacher of this language. This unique personal experience as a learner has shaped my instructional philosophy in English learning.
I personally believe that learning a second language is like going on a diet because they share some common characteristics: both learning and dieting are goal-oriented activities. I have no doubt that successful language learning drives from a sense of achievement, perseverance, and interaction. My goal as an English teacher is to help my students to understand that making mistakes is inevitable steps to an advanced level of fluency. In addition, I want my student to realize that learning a second language is not studying the subject for the exam but more like some physical practices such as swimming as we use mouth, eyes, hand gestures and so on. Then, my students will know the importance of listening and oral practices for their fluency.
Achievement
I believe that one of the best ways of increasing and maintaining motivation is to give students a taste of success and accomplishment although it is just a small thing that can happen in classroom. My initial experience in learning English began by the thought of getting high scores on the English test called “TOEIC” (Test Of English for International Communication). At that time, my teacher helped his students to improve test score by giving them relatively easy weekly test. By doing so, students gain high score in their weekly test and thus became encouraged to study with English with more confidence. Eventually, my test score went up both in weekly test and the actual TOEIC test. When my progress in English was getting noticeable by my test scores, it gave me a lot of confidence that allowed me to feel like I can do it. This small achievement was the turning point that has changed my perspective on learning English completely.
Perseverance
When it comes to learning a second language and going on a diet, it is inevitable to go through some stage where no more progress happens. Moreover, this sort of feeling periodically happens over and over. However, once we keep up the good work and finally overcome the discouraging period, we end up losing weight in diet, and also taking one step closer to the advanced level of fluency in learning English. Perseverance is exactly what makes it possible to do things that we think is impossible. Every time I face challenge in English learning, I choose not to give up but to keep up my work anyway because I know that hardship and challenges are inevitable reality that could make us stronger and eventually move us toward a better future. In class situation, to help students realize this perseverance, it is highly recommended to keep exposing students naturally to what they learned in a previous lesson through a current lesson. For example, if students learned the expression in a previous lesson 'I think that ~', a teacher could say 'I think that ~~~' quite a bit in class to remind the students of what they learned.
Interaction
I am a strong believer of interaction for a successful second language acquisition. My twelve year of exposure to English in the classroom was never a successful experience for me to learn English. In addition, even my high score of TOEIC test was not sufficient enough for me to say a word in English. My spoken English improved only after I began to talk with people in a group and over the phone with my English teacher. This experience led me to the conclusion that a key element for genuine second language learning is interaction. Given this thought, I would highly encourage students to collaborate for speaking practice through lots of group activity in class by giving them some activities such as 10min daily small talk session, and group discussion.
For the past seven years, I have been both a learner and a teacher of English, and from my experience, I've built up my belief that a sense of achievement, perseverance, and interaction can work as very important key in successful second language learning. This can possibly help them overcome their challenges with learning second language.