Teaching Philosophy

My English learning and teaching experiences have greatly inspired me to catch the
opportunity to serve society by optimizing myself to be a capable ESL/EFL teacher. Given any
opportunity, my enthusiasm for teaching English will shine through. Tutoring my schoolmates
and working as a substitute teacher during my undergrad was one of the happiest times in my
life. In this statement, I will elaborate my opinions on what a teacher's role should be and how a
teaching process should be implemented.
What makes teaching so enjoyable to me? I believe that it is a productive process of
sharing. Both students and teachers can improve and perfect themselves through exchanging
questions and answers constantly. I tend to train myself to be more sensitive to students needs
and appreciative of their potential. It is very important for teachers to gain the ability to deal with
students from different backgrounds. My previous students included not only teenagers but
adults who were engaged in a plethora of professions. I always try to use multiple teaching
techniques that I learned from the teaching methodology course to meet the various needs of
students who have different learning styles. Students are encouraged to explore new methods
such as communicative language teaching or cooperative language learning. Subsequently, I
make adjustments to adopt the preferred method according to the feedback and assessment of the
students levels and needs. I try to let the students be in charge of the classroom and create a
student-centered environment. This means it is a teachers role to facilitate students learning by
providing guidance and resources to achieve learning goals. For example, traditional reading
comprehension activity tend to be designed and monitored by teachers. But in my class, I tend to
assign the comprehension article only and let the students come up with their own
comprehension question and answers to assess their peers. In this case, I serve as a facilitator
rather than an authority in the classroom. While I regard myself as the students equals, I have
also served as their mentor, friend and role model. By doing so, I've won their trust and I believe
they will be confident in my teaching abilities. This has also served as an assistant, increasing my
teaching productivity and efficiency.
To sweeten the bitterness of learning a foreign language, entertainment is by no means
just a trick I use to enliven the classroom atmosphere. It has its own significant value. Without
the chance to feel safe, be relaxed and have fun, students may find it difficult to stay interested,
not to mention this vapidity also harms students acquisition ability. Hence, entertainment is
always an inherent technique I offer to my students during teaching. For instance, I use multimedia such as YouTube videos, memes, or different interaction such as TPR to change classroom
atmosphere.
The overwhelming exam-oriented ESL/EFL education has compelled entertainment to be
the least thing to be considered on the pedagogical list of an average English teacher. Curricula
are primly limited to the contents that are tested in the exams, the purpose of learning English is
lost all too often due to the fanatical manufacture of high-grade prodigies. I sincerely believe
that education could reshape peoples personalities and capabilities, interaction between teachers
and students therefore can absolutely not be kept at a minimum in the classroom in order to

prevent producing exam-accomplishing machines. I also see my role in developing and using
assessments in the classroom as an on-going process, rather than a redundant activity that must
be carried out for the sake of attaining grades but for learners own edification. It is every
teachers responsibility to foster students ability to take initiatives or solve real-life problems
instead of competing to heap homework and tests on students. Students should be confident,
have excellent academic performance and sophisticated interpersonal skills to be well established
at the end of the day.
As stated above, I think it is safe to say that bringing the up-to-date resources and
keeping students in touch with real life applicable skills and knowledge is another key aspect
during teaching. In my point of view, language is an artistic tool that humankind employs to
create and conduct. Therefore the ultimate goal of learning a language, to me, is to apply it in
real-world daily and academic lives to solve problems. As a result, teachers must be well
prepared before class, incorporate authentic materials and practical knowledge within amusing
activities to ensure that a well-organized, thoughtful lesson takes place efficiently. During the
preparing process, it is crucial for a teacher to be considerate of any suggestions, ideas, or
criticisms in order to appreciate the differences among diversified students. In other words, I am
open minded to any feedback or information because it helps me and the students to be more
involved and it will be gradually developed into a propitious class that benefits everyone
eventually.