Language has always been an important instrument in facilitating communication among individuals. At the same time, it helps bridge out gaps among people by actively creating standards to interact and relate with one another. As a language educator, it remains to be my responsibility and ultimate purpose to educate and create opportunities for students to appreciate and become competent in the subject. This is the integral part and benchmark of my teaching philosophy.
Many say that there are no definite ways of teaching language to other people. It can be administered using different methods and strategies that in the end should create competency among students to use language to their advantage in areas such as writing, speaking and vocabulary. Due to this, it has brought about considerable amount of research and literature aimed at giving current and future professionals their own perspective of how such practice can be improved and intensified.
Having the Right Values and Mindset
To be a good language teacher, one must have the right values and mindset to actively administer and educate students. From my personal experience, one must have the patience and dedication to endure the struggles and challenges in teaching. Since this subject involves communication, an educator must responsive to the needs of each one. He/she must use different mediums of interaction to showcase the desire to facilitate and impart relevant issues and ideas.
Likewise, the teacher must have the diligence to endure the tasks associated in the process. In here, one must create and develop lesson plans wherein it must adhere to standards and promote the overall welfare of students. At the same time, assessments must be made so as to actively measure the capability of each student to acquire, process, and analyze information. Lastly, the teacher must adapt each day to his/her students and seek to perform the goals and objectives for that particular lesson or topic.
The Importance of Content
Operating on my own personal beliefs as an educator, I adhere to the notion that careful attention must be given to content and method of instruction among students to learn the language. I feel that these two ideas are important because it can serve as the catalyst towards better appreciation of the subject matter. At the same time, it encourages the formulation and development of new ideas that can exhaust the needed changes to maintain adaptability and capability to address current issues in language education (White, 1987).
As an educator, it is my task to carefully plan out how I will educate my students. I must actively begin with the enumeration of my goals and objectives until the formulation of assessment procedures to be undertaken. Due to this, the overall content is essential towards the achievement of prescribed objectives and at the same time serve as a guide for the educator on what actions must be undertaken. Seeing this, providing content and resources remain to be a hurdle for many educators. Since it must cater and adhere to the standards stipulated. However, by carefully giving out the appropriate and adequate amount of content to students, there can be more effective and efficient outcomes of facilitation (Fitzgerald, 1993).
For example, when I plan to create a lesson plan on a particular area, I see to it that I research and determine several updated references that student can use. At the same time, I make it a point that it actively adheres to the standards given by administrators and the overall curriculum content. However, this does not mean that I will undermine the needs of my students. Rather, I see to it that I strike a balance between student welfare and protocols. By doing this, I can create a class that is focused not too much on rules but on learning and improving on the process.
To add, these resources enable children to use these as guide towards their pursuit of learning the language. It can both serve as exercises for the improvement in vocabulary and reading. It can help children discover their skills and potentials in communication and harness new ways wherein they can communicate not only within the school environment but to the community in general (White, 1987).
Teaching Methods
As an educator, I consider myself to be a mixture of a transformational and participative leader. I feel that by actively reaching out to the needs of the students, I can design, plan, and implement better strategies in addressing the continuing clamor of my students to learn and acquire information. Moreover, I realize the importance of a teaching strategy because it is another determinant for student growth. Without a firm and solid method of instruction, it cannot exhaust the potential of students and compromise the overall learning process.
Seeing this strategy, I mentioned to use an approach revolving the mixture of transformative and participative educator. This means that I constantly seek out to change and involve students in decision making process not to exert my authority but to show them that I am their guide towards the duration of the course. I bear in mind that these students need to be motivated in order to keep their enthusiasm high in class and keep them from getting bored. In addition, I try to use my experiences as a source of instruction. By doing this, I can generate appreciation and connection among my students and give them the idea how it impacts man’s lives.
Encouraging Communication
Since the primary concern of this instruction is language, it is important that I promote open communication among my students. This is one of the values I try to impart because the educational institution can serve as a training ground in honing interpersonal skills that can be beneficial in the future. Encouraging communication in the classroom can also generate important feedback that can help increase the openness of the class with regards to issues, hurdles and problems (Pica, 1987).
Additionally, communication can also be used as a tool to extract information and insights that can generate new ways to improve instruction. For example, since I am advocating the participative educator style, whenever there are conflicts and arguments within my class, I usually let the students settle the issue on their own. I will only act as an arbiter and adviser after the resolution of the conflict. Not only shall this initiative be geared towards ensuring fairness, at the same time it can also generate accountability and effectiveness of practice.
On the other hand, the idea of communication does not solely revolve around students but also on other actors that can influence learning and development. As a teacher, I continuously monitor and coordinate with the parents of my students to both actively report their sons/daughter’s performance and get their insight on issues related to the subject matter. By actively fostering these elements, barriers can be lessened and increase participation among parents.
Fostering Interaction
Another important way to enhance student participation and establish competency is by letting students engage in interaction strategies. Interaction is one important strategy wherein the teacher can utilize the content and tools to further the objectives of the subject (Pica, 1987). Also, it helps generate relationships among peers and students.
To showcase this trait, I often ask my students to engage in small and group discussions wherein they can actively communicate their ideas and come up with a collaborative effort and promote harmony. During these group sessions, I ask them to fill up a feedback form to actively monitor and understand their responses among each other. I feel that it is vital in teaching language because it enables my students to actively apply the lessons imparted in real life scenarios such as groupings, reporting, and group projects.
Also, the process of interaction can also be applied to the other actors within the community. Interaction can help lessen the difficulties felt by educators in trying to reach out within the community and seek collaboration (Fitzgerald, 1993). Seeing this, it is necessary that parents establish interaction for it can enhance the way children appreciate where they are in and what they can get.
Creating my own Standards
Standards and rules are an essential part of every classroom environment. This enables the educator to have firm control over the areas such as discipline, instruction and testing (Pica, 1987). Having these can help reinforce objectives and actively align strategies.
Like any other group setup, there are rules that need to be implemented and enforced. As a teacher, I barely give out my own rules as a strategy for class. But when I do, I make it a point at it is followed. I often tell my students that these standards are important because it maintains order and stability in our class. Without it, it may be difficult on my part to administer the lessons and for students to acquire information.
Formulation of Rubric
Since it has been argued that the practice of design and standards is essential in the directive to increase capabilities among language learners, the creation of rubrics can help intensify and diversify such scheme by giving out categories and criteria wherein each student shall be graded. “This involvement empowers the students and as a result, their learning becomes more focused and self-directed” (Pickett and Dodge, 2007, p.1). Such process generates positive effects among students and enhances their skills relevant to the topic being discussed.
On my part, I feel that the creation of rubrics served different purposes and helped me decipher and gauge where each student is strong and which areas needs improvement. Since teaching language as a whole may be vague in nature, by creating rubrics, I can be able to simplify and point out essential ideas that are relevant to the subject. Similarly, since this is designed for my students, I collaborate with them to actively determine their own parameters of measurement and how they want to address such issue. “By involving students in the creation of the rubric, the students take more responsibility for their own learning, are empowered by being involved in the teaching/learning process, and have a clearer idea of what is expected in terms of specific performance” (Pickett and Dodge, 2007, p.1).
Fostering a Holistic Assessment
The creation of assessments is an important tool used by schools to actively determine the capability of each student to decipher and understand the lessons and subjects given to them (PSSA, 2008). It enables the school to actively measure its standing as far as the accomplishment of its goals and objectives are concerned. As an educator, it is thus essential that effective assessments are created to ascertain how students will respond to the strategy employed by an educator.
Assessments serve as check and balance in the educational system for both educators and students. For educators, this procedure determines the capability of their strategies to adhere to the needs of the students and how he/she has fared in the overall process of instruction and facilitation. On the other hand, this also determines the capability of the student to exhaust and acquire information in the subject. In the end, by adequately providing the standards and measurements, administrators can determine each actors capability to fulfill their roles and responsibilities.
In my experience as an educator, it is important for us to come up and design a holistic assessment that tries to tackle majority of the issues discussed and provide different ideas and outcomes based on the rubric provided. Likewise, I must actively synchronize it with the goals and objectives of the course and the state and district standards. Due to this, it requires a thorough understanding of the topic and a fair share of insight to equally address these issues.
Why I chose this strategy
Given all of these, I chose these teaching styles because it fits my perspective of how information and knowledge should be facilitated. I believe that for students to actively appreciate the essence of language, they must be able to experience it. Rather than bombarding them with textbooks, it is important that relationships be established. By engaging them in these activities, students can experience and feel insightful about the relevance of language not only in communicating but also in establishing social relationships.
At the same time, I wanted my students to find their own capabilities and skills. My role shall only serve as a guide and bridge. Instead of making them comply with several tasks, I wish to design a program that will give them the opportunity to explore their ideas more fully and be able to apply it in their community and environment. By being able to reach out and guide them, students can maximize their potential and expand their horizons in a much wider level; without constraints and hindrances.
In the end, I believe that teaching has always been centered on the capability to create changes in the lives of your students. It is the ability to transcend your experiences towards creating a consensus and understanding that anything can be possible once you believe yourself you can do it. This is what continuously inspires me to educate and create opportunities for students.
References
Fitzgerald, J. (1993) Literacy and students who are learning English as a second
language in The Reading Teacher. 46 no. 8 Retrieved March 17, 2009. pp. 638-646
Pica, T. (1987) Second Language Acquisition, Social Interaction, and the Classroom in
Applied Linguistics. 8 Retrieved March 17, 2009. p.3
Pickett, N. and Dodge, B. (2007) Rubrics for Web Lessons. Retrieved March 17, 2009
from, http://webquest.sdsu.edu/rubrics/weblessons.htm
PSSA (2008) Improving your Child’s Assessment and the Importance of Assessment.
Retrieved March 17, 2009 from http://smasd.k12.pa.us/pssa/html/Partner/impoasmt.htm
White, L. (1987) Against Comprehensible Input: the Input Hypothesis and the
Development of Second Language Competence in Applied Linguistics. 8 Retrieved March 17, 2009. p.95
