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.