Philosophy of Teaching

My interest in the field of teaching English began from my past experiences. For

example, I taught English and reading comprehension at an after school tutoring center and I was

also a teachers assistant at a local elementary school here in Riverside. Through these

experiences, I formed a passion for teaching when I saw that the efforts of my students

manifesting in their improvement. When I was able to witness students achieve their goal, I

became passionate about becoming a teacher. In this statement, it is my goal to effectively

communicate my philosophy on the best approaches in regards to teaching methods as well as

my background and professional goals.

I am currently an undergraduate student at the University of California Riverside

majoring in History and I am enrolled in the 15 unit TESOL certification program. Although my

major is in History, my long term end goal is to become a professor of History at the university

level. Also, I believe the skills I obtained in my major will allow me to become an effective

teacher. For example, as a History major, I study a plethora of different cultures and societies that

greatly differ from one another which has only cultivated my appreciation for different cultures,

which is an essential skill needed to teach abroad. As I always knew I wanted to live abroad in

South Korea, and after learning about the EPIK program, which would allow me to fulfill my

dream, I set out reach my goal. EPIK is the acronym for English Program in Korea and they

recruit foreign English teachers to teach in Korea. In my teaching philosophy, I believe that a

teacher needs to be kind, patient, and understand that each student is a unique individual with

differences. In addition, I believe an instructor should constantly be searching for ways to

learner centered environment.

My philosophy of teaching follows two categories: respecting and promoting intellectual

diversity and to have students strive for self improvement. As I stated earlier, it is important to

remember that each student has a preferred method of learning. Following Gardners theory of

Multiple Intelligence, I believe that intelligence lies on a spectrum and students have strengths in

one area and weaknesses in others. As a result of students multiple intelligence, they will have

certain preferred learning styles such as auditory, visual, kinesthetic and more. In order to cater

to the different learning styles of each student, it is essential to present a wide array of activities

that will supplement the preferred methods of learning for the students. It is also a goal of mine

to have my future students strive for self improvement. It was my past experiences with students

whom I have seen develop an interest in the subject and an intrinsic motivation to want to

improve that sparked my interest in teaching. Therefore, in my philosophy, it is my duty to

present the material in a way to get the students genuinely interested in the subject and to enjoy

learning. The efforts in which I can take to ensure this is to relate the subject to the students

interests as well as take reflective measures on my lesson planning to better improve them.

My goal in every lesson is to have students involved and engaged throughout the lesson.

To support this goal, it is important to incorporate relevant approaches and methods of teaching

to create an effective learning environment. Earlier, I stated that my philosophy of teaching

reflected the idea that it is essential to recognize students multiple intelligences and individual

differences as well as creating a communicative environment. Utilizing the Communicative

Learning Teaching approach and the Student Centered Approach to understand the individual
differences of the students in order to lower the affective filters present in the classroom best

explicates my approach to creating an effective teaching method.

The Communicative Learning Teaching approach is a theoretical perspective of teaching.

In this approach of teaching, the aim is to make communicative competence the goal of

language teaching (Larsen-Freeman and Anderson). In this teaching approach, the main goal is

to enable students to practice and communicate in the target language. The key word in this is

enable. The instructor, rather than taking the center stage in the classroom, acts as a facilitator

in the classroom encouraging students to take upon more responsibilities. Due to the fact that the

key goal is communication in the target language, there are a plethora of interactive activities

that would promote student participation while engaging their interests. To exemplify, many

communicative activities such as role-plays, problem solving tasks, and information gap are

effective methods to support a communicative classroom. The communicative classroom is more

effective than a more tradition classroom as it engages students leaving little room for boredom

and it also creates an environment in which students can self correct and learn from each other.

Along with the Communicative Learning Teaching approach, the Student Centered

approach is an effective tool to create the best learning environment. The core ideology of the

Communicative Learning Teaching approach as well as the Student Centered approach is the fact

that they are both revolved on the student taking the main role in the learning experience while

the instructor acts as the facilitator. As Jack C. Richards and Thomas S.C. Farrell (2011) state

An important skill in teaching is the ability to make your learners the focus of your

teaching. This involves understanding your learners needs and goals, communicating trust and

respect for them, acknowledging diversity of needs and learn gin styles, giving feedback on their
learning in ways that help develop their confidence and self-esteem and minimize loss of face,

and using strategies that help develop an atmosphere of collaboration and mutual support among

learners (p. 120).

Overall, a student centered classroom is one in which students needs, interests, and

preferences take priority in teaching (2011). In addition, due to the fact that this approach

understands the fact that students have a diversity of needs one must understand the context of

the classroom environment and understands your learners needs. With a variety of students, a

variety of learning styles are present in the classroom. To exemplify, some students have

different cognitive learning styles such as visual learners, auditory learners, kinesthetic learners,

tactile learners, group learners, individual learners, etc. In order to not favor one type of learning,

it is essential to present various activities that will target the strengths of different students. In

doing so will lower the affective filters present in the classroom environment. An affective filter

is a condition for acquisition that is met when the classroom atmosphere is one in which anxiety

is reduced and students self-confidence is boosted (Larsen-Freeman and Anderson). Teachers

can implement various activities in order to create a communicative and student centered

environment. One of my favorite activities I like to implement in the classroom are role plays

because it gives students a chance to produce their own content.

When supplemented together, the Communicative Learning Teaching Approach and the

Student Centered approach are affective methods in creating an environment in which students

are directly motivated and involved in their learning. While lowering the affective filters present

in the classroom, it lowers the anxiety for students when learning a second language and allows

them to utilize their full potential.

geared toward student centered learning. Typically at a large university, one expects a large

lecture hall of two hundred students and an single instructor lecturing the entire class. However,

in on of my classes for my History Major, the instruction relied heavily on the instructions. To

exemplify, the instructor acted as a facilitator by assigning us the readings and the topics of the

week; but, presenting the material and proceeding to discuss it relied solely on the students.

Before each lesson, students were to prepare discussion questions and come to class prepared to

facilitate the discussion between the students of the material that week. This method forced

students to come to class fully prepared because they had to be experts in their assigned topic in

order to lead the class discussion. I believe that this is an example of a very effective student

centered teaching approach, because by preparing to teach the lesson, the students in turn became

experts in the material.

After taking my history course, I experienced the effectiveness of student centered

learning. I believe that creating a classroom that is communicative and student centered create an

environment which lowers the affective filters that are present and allows students to be able to

fully participate and augment their learning. After taking these TESOL courses, I look forward to

utilizing the tools I have learned through those classes and implement them in my future classes.
References

Richards, J.C. and Farrell, T.S.C. (2011) Practice Teaching A Reflective Approach. New York,

NY: Cambridge University Press.

Larsen-Freeman, D. and Anderson, M. (2011) Teaching and Principles in Language Teaching.

Oxford: Oxford University Press.