Running Head: TEACHING PHILOSOPHY

Teaching Philosophy

Mengzi Cai

Colorado State University

TEACHING PHILOSOPHY

Class: E528

Name: Mengzi Cai

Teaching Philosophy

As an ESL teacher, my goal for student learning is to improve my students’

communicative skills. To achieve this goal, I should consider many elements in my class. For

example, the classroom environment, building strong rapport with my students, and the students’

motivation. Furthermore, fostering a safe and inclusive classroom that celebrates diversity is

another important goal.

Language provides a tool to communicate with others. For most English learners, one

aim of learning this second language is the ability to communicate with native and other speakers

of English. Also, communication plays an important part in the process of learning a language.

As a second language speaker, I can understand the difficulty of using English to communicate

with native speakers or other second language speakers. Second language speakers may feel

uncomfortable when they talk with others in English. Because of this psychologic factor, second

language speakers may avoid chances to speak English or use English. In this way, they abandon

an effective way to improve their language skills. As an instructor, I will use the communicative

language approach in my class to improve their communicative skills. “Communicative

Language Teaching makes use of real-life situation that necessitate communication. The teacher

sets up a situation that students are likely to encounter in real life. Un like the audiolingual

method of language teaching which relies on repetition and drills , the communicative approach

can leave students in suspense as to the outcome of a class exercise, which will vary according to

their reactions and responses. The real-life simulations change from day to day. Students’

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motivation to learn comes from their desire to communicate in meaningful ways about

meaningful topics.” （Galloway, 1993, p.1）.Group discussion, presentation and conference

which are related to familiar topics will be designed in my class to provide chances for students

to communicate.

To handle the diversity in class, I will have a survey or quiz for students to examine their

learning style and learning level of them. For example, self-assessment online can be used to

collect the preferable learning style from students. It contains some questions: what kind of books

would you like to read for fun？/ what’s best way for you to study for a test？/ Do you like

independent study or studying in a group？Having a rough idea of learning situation of students,

I will use the most flexible way for students in my class and different teaching methods can be

used to improve the participation of students. For instance, if most of students like the teacher-

centered class, I will have lecture for my class in most of times, but I will also ask students to

share their learning experience. Based on the different levels of students, I can ask one or two

high level students to form a group with low level students. Then they can help each other, and I

will give instruction for each group.

One challenge is that lots of L2 learners are unwilling to use English which is the

obstacle for improving the communicative skill. At first, I won’t have difficult content in my

class and I will use understandable sentences to instruct my class. I will choose materials based

on the ACTFL proficiency guidelines: Advanced, Intermediate, Novice. For the aim of

encouraging the students to speak out, I don’t correct every error when they use the language. I

focus on their effort to express their opinions and I will give positive statement for them to

encourage them. For example, I don’t correct the pronunciation or the grammar from students’

utterances because I know these two parts are hard for L2 learners and students may improve

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their pronunciation or grammar when they have more inputs in the later process of learning

English. What’s more, motivation is one significant factor in class. Mohammdi (2012) took a

research in English class, the group which in motivation strategies get higher grade than the

group without motivation. I will use some positive words, such as good, excellent in my class to

encourage students to participate in class. Instructor-students rapport is another key point to give

encouragement Besides, having some awards and interesting activities could attract students to

take part in the class in order to make them use the English in class. Then I will choose the life

related topic in my class. I prefer to teach them with the common expression in ordinary life.

Once they know how to have a conversation with others, they may be eager to talk to others. In

addition, in my class I will put emphasize on trial of listening and speaking because these two

parts are indispensable in daily conversation. I also ask the feedback from my students to have

assessment of their learning acquisition. For instance, I would like to ask them what knowledge

they gain in this class or I would take quiz for them.

In summary, I will focus on the communicative skills of students so the communicative

language approach will be used in my class. I provide different ways for students to encourage

them speak out and use English in conversation. I pay attention to collaboration in class. I will

consider the adaptability and flexibility in terms of the different learning situation of students.

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References

Galloway, A. (1993). Communicative language teaching: An introduction and sample activities.

ERIC Document Reproduction Service No. ED 357642. Retrieved from ERIC
database.

Mohammdi A. How to encourage students to learn English? Department of English Language

Teaching, Kermanshah Branch, Islamic Azad University, Kermanshah, Iran.