Dairíne Hoban

Dr Savona

FLE 6829

05/11/18

Teaching Philosophy

"The mediocre teacher tells. The good teacher explains. The superior teacher demonstrates. The

great teacher inspires." - William Arthur Ward

Amid the many different methods to teaching a language the main goal, in my opinion,

should be to inspire the student to enjoy the language. In my experience, enjoyment comes from the

satisfaction of both being able to understand and communicate in the target language, whatever the

level. So that is what my classes usually aim towards, communication. Every class is different and I

believe that every class should be designed for that specific set of students in every aspect: rate of

teacher’s speech, explicit vs implicit explanations, classroom atmosphere and activities, to name

just a few.

I believe the use of target language is vital as for many students it is the only exposure to the

language that they have. On another note, a teacher does not always have access to the native lan-

guage and so must prepared to act, draw and perform in order to explain through the target lan-

guage. Use of the target language from the students in my classroom is encouraged through group

work, tasked based activities and performances. Whether it be songs, plays or presentations, practis-

ing the language is constant in my classroom and begins on the first day of the course. I let my stu-

dents know this from day one and encourage interaction between them by setting up the classroom

in a semi-circle so they can all see and interact with each other. If this seating arrangement is not
attainable I try to manipulate as best as possible to at least facilitate for easy interaction between the

students. I think this adds to the “group” environment that is important to create in the classroom

for me as I believe it sets up the class for group learning and achieving the common goal. Commu-

nication involves more than one person so the interaction with fellow classmates is vital in their

learning experience.

I believe students need goals and objectives and this is another huge part of my philosophy,

setting goals both by the teacher and by the students. To relieve students from feeling too much

pressure from the idea of having to perform or present I make sure that my classroom is fun and I

usually get students to do a mini dramas early on in the course which are supposed to be fun and an

alternative ice breaker. This can alleviate any anxiety that they may have in the future because they

have now already completed their “first performance.” Having my students feel comfortable to

speak and engage in the classroom is important and so I like to focus on self correction when it

comes to errors and I am also a big believer in giving group feedback so as to not single anyone out

yet maintain a learning atmosphere. I also strongly encourage group correction and try to facilitate

the students in coming to their own conclusions and rule making which can really benefit the learn-

ing, and is a great way to teach grammar. If the students can talk out the patterns and recognise a

rule by themselves they have a much better metalinguistic awareness and I have seen this to be

much more effective than the grammar translation method.

Communicative Language Teaching (CLT) or as Brandl describes it, creating real life situa-

tions that need communication, is definitely a main factor in my classroom. In relation to grammar,

I illicit sentences from the students using the new grammar and so they are learning in context.

Context is an incredibly important aspect in my classroom because if there is no purpose to what we

are learning it leaves the realm of CLT. When it comes to preparing activities I try to ask myself: is

this activity something they will do in the “real world”? If not, how can I adapt this activity to

make it functional? This is where Tasked Based instruction comes in to play, using tasks as a central
component to form the basis of a lesson plan. (Brandl 2008) This is how I look at activities, they

should be functional. To always have the students engaged; however, activities must not be boring.

Assigning tasks such as Dragons Den, where the students become entrepreneurs and have to come

up with a business plan, assign and play roles and also defend their idea in front of a panel, is a

great way to teach Business English. On the other side, functional does not always mean serious.

We can make the Dragons Den a dramatic and funny performance at the same time as using the new

grammar and vocabulary. Another example would be a “trivia” game which is a great way to prac-

tice formulating questions and is something they might take part in in real life.

As a language learner I know how important the role of a teacher can be in language learn-

ing. Some of my teachers made the classroom so fun that we never missed a class and we were ac-

tively engaged at all times. This is what I aim to achieve in my lessons. With dedicated time set

aside for more individual difficulties with the language and some more metalinguistic issues I think

my classroom always has a good balance. I like to build a good repairer with my students and get to

know them all on an individual basis. I am happy to spend a day explaining the lyrics of a popular

song to a class so that they can go home and listen and understand the song on the radio, that is real

life! Of course, students that need a more academic focus have be catered for too, which brings me

back to my original point: Classes are unique and so lessons should be designed accordingly.

Reference

BRANDL, K. (2008). Communicative language teaching in action: putting principles to work. Up-

per Saddle River, N.J., Pearson Prentice Hall