My Philosophy of Teaching

Teaching is a dynamic transaction and learning is an active process. Teacher should be energetic and learners need to be involved during learning activities. Learners who are engaged by the lesson get motivated to learn a language. Active learning allows the students’ learning to be more effective and personal. This can be summarized by Benjamin Franklin’s words:
“Tell me and I forget
Teach me and I remember
Involve me and I learn”

Teacher should be careful about learners’ fears and frustations, their feelings. Teacher must make students feel relax and in safety. If affective filter is low, a student could learn. Affective filter is an imaginary device and a person’s attitude toward the target language. Affective filter is high, student cannot focus on studying, because s\he has some problems in his mind. Teacher need to be tolerant and patient in this situation, s\he should help students to improve their autonomy, self-esteem and performance. Teacher have to know why learners want to learn that language, what the purpose of learning is.

Teacher beliefs about learners and language teaching are very important for an effective teaching, because thinking of teaching and learning seperately is impossible, both are parallel process. The approaches and methods that teacher uses in the lessons express the beliefs of teachers about teaching and learning. “Teachers‘ beliefs about what learning is will affect everything that they do in the classroom, whether these beliefs are implicit or explicit. ……we can only be really effective teachers if we are clear in our minds what we mean by learning, because only then can we know what kinds of learning outcomes we want our learners to achieve. If our aim is to teach enough language items to pass an exam, then this will have significant implications for the way in which we teach. If, on the other hand, we see learning a new language as a lifelong process with much broader social, cultural and educational implications, then we will take a very different approach to teaching it.‖(Marion Williams et al., 1997) 

There are several principles in language teaching that based on teacher-centered or student-centered. Teacher needs to choose an appropriate technique, method or approach to teach effectively for which language skill is wanted to be emphasized.

Grammar Translation method could be used  if students learn English for reading and writing literary text or translating to their mother tongue. They will learn grammar and memorize vocabulary. Grammar translation is a teacher-centered method and grammar is taught deductively in this method. Student feelings are not important and literary language is over spoken language. I would not like to teach grammar in a deductive way. To learn a language does not mean that you apply the correct grammar rules. We do not learn our native language like that. First of all, we listen without saying any word, but we mimed and imitated our parents to communicate.

In Total Pyhsical Response, second language learning is just like acquisition of native languge. Actually, it works with young learners best. Learners listen in silent mode and then they start speaking. First of all, teacher speaks, students reply nonorally, later they express their feelings and thoughts in words. They learn through imperative structures that teach vocabulary and basic grammar. Learners feel unstressful when learning and they have fun.

Another method which cares student feelings is Suggestopedia that I am absolutely sure I will use when I am a teacher. In Suggestopedia, teacher tries to remove the barriers that prevent to learning. Students feel secure and comfortable to be active in learning process. Their affective filter will be reduced when they listen music in background and their teacher read the passage. Teacher is authority in the class and students trust him. Learners are exposed to English with extra linguistic materials like posters, flashcards and realias.

I would not use the Silent Way in my classes, because it is a harsh method for me. Teacher is mostly silent, students try to discover the rules and language themselves. Teacher cannot help them or help in a minimum level, students are independent from teacher and they have interaction among students. It could sound nice, students are active and try to solve the problems by themselves but it’s hard to control what and how they learn. Learning through discovery and problem solving is attractive but it is not effective in my opinion. Silent Way could be good at practising pronunciation, however I cannot teach other skills from reading to speaking.

If I want to improve students’ speaking skills, I would use Audio-Lingual method or Natural Approach or Communicative Language Teaching. Audio-Lingual method aims to get students memorize language. Speaking and listening are emphasized in this method. Repetition and  drills are useduntil the students can use the language automatically. Language is taught through new dialogues and students learn grammar inductively. Inductive grammar learning is more effective in my opinion, because students are more involved in the learning process and tend to participate more actively when an inductive teaching is used. Audio lingual method is similar to the direct method. The audio-lingual method teaches the language directly but does not use the mother tongue to explain words or grammar. However, unlike the direct method, it does not focus on teaching vocabulary, instead the students are drilled in the use of grammar in the target language. In direct method, vocabulary teaching is important, it is over grammar teaching because spoken language is the focus of teaching.

In my opinion, fluency is over accuracy in language learning. Fluency means the ability to produce language easily and communicate quickly, while accuracy means the ability of produce and use language in an grammatically correct way. Of course, both of them are important but if a student wants to speak English, s\he should not care how to use grammar rules and structures, s\he needs to just speak fluently. “Its greatest claim to originality lies not in the techniques it employs but in their use in a method that emphasizes comprehensible and meaningful practice activities, rather than production of grammatically perfect utterance sentences” (Richards and Rodgers, 2001, p. 201). To teach communicative competence, Natural Approach could be used in the classroom. Language is a tool to communicate and teacher provides comprehensible input. Translation and grammar is rejected and learners are exposed the meaningful language. When learners are ready to speak, they are not forced like in Total Pyhsical Response and all humanistic approaches. Learners acquire the second language as their native language.

As I mentioned before, if I want to improve my students speaking skill, I could use Communicative Language Teaching. The goal of this method is communication in the classroom and in real life. Accuracy is important as well as fluency in CLT.  Learners are encouraged more to talk for real life situations. Students learn how to communicate in social context. Students are motivated to use English through active student interaction. Students need to get opportunities to try out and act what they know and learn. Teacher is facilitator, so s\he helps the group to find their own answers, teacher should not give them the right answers. Teacher should provide authentic materials like magazine articles,text from real life sources. These materials provide some cultural information about the target language.

In Community Language Learning, language is for communication and developing creative thinking. Students should learn how to use the target language communicatively. Students feelings are highly important in this method. For a successful learning there are some psychological requirements that are collected under the SARD. “S” points out security. Students should feel secure to learn successfully. Classroom atmosphere, student’s interaction and teacher’s attitude to students affect the student’s feelings. If you remember, I mentioned about security in Suggestopedia, so again, principles could be similar.  “A” means attention and aggression. Attetion is the learner’s involvement in learning. As we know, students need to involve in the process and be active. Agression is the self assertion that students try to Show and prove what they know and learn. “R” points out reflection. Students need enough reflection time to learn. “D” means discrimination. Student should distinguish the similarities and differences among target language forms. Teacher should be counselor in the classroom and try to remove threating factors. Students are initially dependent on the teacher first, but in time, they become more independent in order to pair and group Works that increase the students’ interaction.

In briefly, An effective teacher should identify the level and personalities of learners and then s\he needs to develop her\his teaching style that work right for learners. The traditional methods could be successful in the past, but,today, teachers should be innovator. I would choose the student-centered methods  that teacher and students have equally active role in the classroom. I want to be facilitator, coach and delegator. The aim of teaching language would improve the sense of autonomy in the learning process. If a student is comfortable with independent learning and takes active role in group Works, it is easier to facilitate the class.

#7th Week (19.12.14)

Hello :)

Here is my 7th week observations..

 Today, 3E class studied adjectives. In the course book, 6 adjectives are taught (tired, happy,surprised, angry, sad and energetic) but Mrs Ergür wrote 15 adjectives on the board and tried to teach. I was shocked really. They are only 8 years old. We can teach them only 5-7 at most 10 words in a lesson. I don't understand how she escaped it. Mrs. Ergür gave a writing homework for 5 times and said "we never write during this unit anymore, don't worry!" It was wrong, in my opinion, a teacher needs to be patient to teach in time. We should identify our students' language and cognitive level when making lesson plans.

There was a coloring activity that practice the related adjectives in student book. Teacher read the sentences like " there is a tall boy in the park. Color him green. Small ball is orange. Color the big ball purple." It was a good exercise to practice. Young learners like coloring and cutting as we know. The students who don't have books were realized ten minutes later. The class size was 32 and it is not too hard to distinguish in the begining of lesson that.

That's all to share!

Thanks

<3

#6th Week ( 12.12.14)

Hello :)

I am going to share with you my opinions teaching English to young learners through my observations in practicum.

Classroom management is very difficult when you study with young learners as i observed. They have very short attention span and they cannot concentrate for a long time and they get bored easily in traditional teaching methods. A teacher who works with YLs should be innovator and use student-centered method. 

Teacher should keep exercises fun and short because these students have short attention spans and are easily distracted. We should teach students how to behave in a classroom by asking them to be quiet while you are talking and raise their hands if they have questions or want to answer a question. This may not be directly related to ESL but it is important that students learn good behavior. It would help to managing the classroom.

We need to teach them to respond to basic classroom English phrases such as “Please sit down.” because these are expressions that they will hear repeatedly throughout their learning. In this stage, we can use Total Physical Response for teaching expressions. 

 For students at this age, we are responsible not only for starting to teach them English, but also for preparing them for their next level of education. Students will perform better in their classes if they behave well and have a good understanding of basic principles.

That's all.!

Thank you

<3

#5th Week - 05.12.14

Hello :) 

Here is my 5th week experiences..

As I learnt in the school and observed during practicum, being active and mobile during lessons is really important for young learners. They are very energetic and need to move. Almost every student cannot sit their desks for 40 minutes ever. Everyone stand up, go to the near garbage can or just stand on their feet next to the desk during lesson at least twice. My mentor doesn't care this situation and doesn't use any activity that provide mobility. 

It is important to make our lessons relaxed and fun. YL Students will be learning very basic material but we can design creative lessons that get students moving around and speaking with one another. Young learners are generally very enthusiastic about songs, especially if they can sing along, and active games.

That's all to say.

Thanks

<3

#4th Week - 28.11.14

Hello :)

It's my 4th week in practicum. I get used to my classes and students. Now, I will share with you my experiences at 4A class. 

When the lesson began, teacher asked to students what they learnt last class and then she controlled the project about "like\dislike". Students prepared a cardboard by pasting some pictures and writing what they like or do not like. Students presented their project papers in front of the class. Teacher checked mistakes and misspelling and corrected them. 

Today, students learnt a new conjuction "but". Teacher gave some sentences like " I like playing football, but I don't like reading comics." and wanted students to guess the meaning of it. It was a good way to teach conjuction to young learners, in my opinion.

Mrs. Ergür warned verbally the students who were talking with their friends during the lesson.

That is all to share with you.

Thanks

See you

<3

#3rd Week (21.11.14)

Hello :)

I'm going to share my third week experiences. As time goes, I become aware of what i should pay attention during the intern and post on my blog. I hope i could reflect all my opinion and experiences. 

At 3rd grade, "People I love" unit is learnt in this week. Students learn adjectives like big,fast,heavy,thin,small,old,young and how to make sentences by using "am,is,are".

They learn through repeating the adjectives how to pronounce and translate into Turkish. Pronouncing is very important for Mrs. Ergur. When a student pronounce improperly, she corrects them right away. 

There is an Ask and Answer activity in the student book. Mrs. Ergur asked students to cut the related pictures. Students like the cutting activities as i observed. I helped some students who couldn't cut appropriately. After cutting was completed, teacher asked some questions about pictures like "Is the green ball big?" "Is the lion weak?". Then she wanted some students to ask their friends that they chose. 

In my opinion, this activity can be active more. Students could cut pictures in 6 instead of using a whole paper and they would have 6 pieces of pictures. Teacher would ask them to choose 3 of the pictures and prepare 3 questions about the related pictures. Every students stand up, walk around and ask 3 friends and wait for answers. It's not too much time consuming but good for mobility in class for young learners, because they cannot sit for a long time at their desks, we cannot hope it. My suggested activity has a disadvantage also, i know, teacher cannot control all students and correct their falses but advantages is more, i think :)

Anyway! Mrs. Ergur controls the class everytime by asking "Do you hear your friend?" "Do you understand the question?". It's a good way to manage class and check what they know or not.

Mrs. Ergur chose the best students at the end of every lessons according to their interactions with their friends and teacher, their responses and attendance the lessons. She gives plus and minus to every student and 3-5 students who she chose best, are given some stickers as reward. Students consider important to take some stickers, they compete with their classmates.

My mentor gives some homeworks and projects for students. For this week, the homework is writing adjectives 4 times and memory them.

That's all to share with you, my dear friends.

Thank you.

<3

Get Your Tips :)

Hello :)

All we know these things written below, but it's good to remember ;)

Having your lesson plans and teaching materials ready before your student arrives makes you look prepared and eager.

Ease into the lesson with some small talk to get your students to relax. Speak slowly and clearly.

Choose user friendly topics. Basically if it is not something you would talk about with your granny then it may not be appropriate to teach in a lesson.

Grade your speech to your students level and try to be sensitive to signs that may indicate that they don't understand, e.g: avoiding eye contact, going quiet, pained quizzical expressions.

Doing a brief review of the last lesson can help identify problems that your students may have and it also shows that you're keen and have an ongoing interest. Teachers may want to keep lesson records.

Throw in a few comprehension checks along the way as students often say they understand when they actually don't.

Allow a bit of time at the end of the lesson for a warm down and ask students if there are any questions about the lesson.

Homework can be fun (?), even in the form of quizzes and word games. Make sure you know the answers though.

Final points. Schedule the next lesson... get paid... don't forget your student's name!

I hope it works when i enter the class next time :)

Thanks

<3