Teaching Philosophy

Muta Mutashobya

LLT 807 -Dr. Van Gorp

December 13, 2021

My Teaching Philosophy

My beliefs about language teaching have changed over time. When I started teaching English as a second language in my country, Tanzania, my classroom practices reflected how I learned English. I was focusing on teaching knowledge rather than skills. My overall approach was lecturing and grammar-translation. However, I observed students struggling to express themselves in English. This resulted in poor academic performance and low self-confidence. These challenges caused me to reflect on my teaching practices and my own English language learning experiences. Something was not right! I started searching for opportunities for more second/foreign language teaching training. At Michigan State University (MSU), where I was placed as a Fulbright Fellow, I observed how my supervisors taught foreign/second languages. I learned about different language teaching approaches through TESOL classes and professional development workshops and seminars. This experience refined my beliefs about language learning and language teaching. My teaching philosophy revolves around four aspects: beliefs about learning and teaching, my students’ goals and teaching styles, my interaction with students and assessment, and professional development and classroom research.

Beliefs about learning and teaching

I believe that the focus of second language instruction should be communicative. With this belief, practical language teaching approaches are project-based learning and task-based language teaching. For example, with project-based learning, students can choose the topics they are interested in, work in groups, identify the questions, and seek solutions. When working together, students build friendships and teamwork, making them feel comfortable and confident. Thus, collaborative work through project-based- learning helps students develop other skills in the process of active learning. These skills will prove helpful beyond the classroom and after they finish their studies.

Task-based language teaching (TBLT) is based on the belief that learners acquire a language to reach functional goals, and they do so while trying to achieve those goals. In TBLT, learners are encouraged to use their own resources to communicate. This allows learners to negotiate the meaning of difficult words and expressions with their interlocutors. For example, in a language classroom, students work together in independent tasks to negotiate the meaning as they work toward the non-linguistic outcomes. This pushes the language development on the learners. Thus, TBLT perceives a second language learner as an agent who, through the performance of tasks, develops implicit and explicit second language knowledge, and gradually becomes more proficient in comprehending and producing the target language for meaningful purposes. As the teacher, I play the role of mediating students’ language development, a key figure in implementing TBLT, and a classroom researcher.

Students’ learning goals and teaching styles

Learners have unique attributes and are diverse. Therefore, my teaching styles should match students’ learning goals and abilities. For example, some students visually respond to information, some in auditory, and some in kinesthetic ways. My knowledge about students’ cognitive styles will help me meet all of my students’ learning needs, including having all the grammar charts, vocabulary lists, media content, and varied activities prepared for each unit.

Helping students set their learning goals will be my priority. I can accomplish this by determining the needs, passion, and interests of my students at the beginning of the year and getting students to create their own Specific, Measurable, Attainable, Relevant, and Time-based (SMART) goals. Bovell (2014) argues that teachers should plan to learn each student’s goals to design and deliver learning experiences that allow every student to demonstrate improvement in their learning. As a teacher, I continually reflect on student progress and my success and challenges as an instructor in the classroom. I also take time to talk to students one-on-one when they complete reflections for the sake of understanding my students better. This is very significant in a diverse environment as everyone has differing perspectives. Listening to students explain their understanding builds trust and a positive relationship.

Interacting with students and assessment

I believe that a positive classroom environment makes a successful class. Sieberer-Nagler (2015) argued that a positive classroom climate feels safe, respectful, welcoming, and supportive of student learning. It is also vital to promote positive relationships for a good classroom climate. I have built positive relationships with my students by being my authentic self in the classroom. I achieve a positive classroom by giving my students a voice and the opportunity to make their own choices regarding their learning, as well as by motivating students to view their mistakes as learning opportunities.

My classroom practices on assessment have also proved to be a great tool to achieve a positive classroom environment. Due to the diverse nature of my students, my assessment focuses on equity practices. I try to be fair in testing and grading, flexible in approaches to teaching, and my attitude toward students. Since I started using formative performance assessments, I learned a lot about students’ differences in their abilities, learning preferences, and motivation. Performance assessments improved my teaching practices by questioning myself: how should I change what I am doing to ensure the students achieve their learning? I started diversifying my assessment practices by incorporating various oral performance assessment tools such as interviews, reflective journals, presentations, and role-plays. Although performance tasks are constructed to develop independent learning, students cannot accomplish it without guidance and direction from detailed and relevant feedback. Comprehensive feedback is required for successful performance assessments.

Professional development and classroom research

Questions such as, “How should I change what I am doing to ensure students can achieve their learning?” are vital for reflective teaching. As a concerned teacher, I have been using all the opportunities that come my way to advance my teaching practices. I have done this through professional development workshops, seminars, conferences, and earning advanced degrees in language teaching and teaching in general. I intend to continue reflective teaching practices by monitoring my students’ learning progress. I will also continue to take advantage of professional development and join professional learning communities to exchange ideas with my fellow expert language teachers.

I also intend to practice classroom research to improve my students’ learning experiences. I think it is vital for teachers like me to engage in action research in education because it will provide us with new knowledge and understanding about developing a systematic, inquiring approach toward our practices, bringing about a positive change in our practices and within a broader school community. In addition, teachers involved in action research are invested and interested in using the findings to improve their classroom instruction, their collaboration with colleagues, and the learning for their students. Effective teachers are long-life learners who use the research to improve their practices.

In conclusion, my experiences as a language learner, a teacher, and a scholar have shaped how I view language learning and teaching. First, the way I adopt strategies to meet my learners’ goals. Second, the way I interact with my students and measure their progress—finally, the role of professional development and classroom research as tools to becoming an effective teacher.

References

Bovell, M. (2014). Using student assessment to improve teaching. Australian Council for Educational Research – ACER. https://www.acer.org/au/discover/article/using-student-assessment-to-improve-teaching

Branden, K. V. den. (2016a). Task-based language teaching. In The Routledge Handbook of English Language Teaching. Routledge.

Branden, K. V. den. (2016b). The Role of Teachers in Task-Based Language Education. Annual Review of Applied Linguistics, 36, 164–181. https://doi.org/10.1017/S0267190515000070

Graves, K. (2016). Language curriculum design: Possibilities and realities. In The Routledge Handbook of English Language Teaching. Routledge.

Jack C. Richards & David Bohlke. (2011). Creating Effective Language Lessons. Cambridge University Press. https://www.academia.edu/download/35301544/Creating-Effective-Language-Lessons-Combined.pdf

Kabaker, J. (2015). Deeper Learning in Practice. Edutopia. https://www.edutopia.org/blog/deeper-learning-in-practice-jennifer-kabaker

Painter, D. D. (2004). NEA – Teacher Research Could Change Your Practice. http://web.archive.org/web/20200217170158/http:/www.nea.org/tools/17289.htm

Sieberer-Nagler, K. (2015). Effective Classroom-Management & Positive Teaching. English Language Teaching, 9(1), 163. https://doi.org/10.5539/elt.v9n1p163