My teaching philosophy

I strongly believe that before any teaching or learning can be done, a bond between teacher and student needs to be established, so that a rich atmosphere is set and the affective filters are down. As Stevick (1980: 4) says «Success [in learning a foreign language] depends less on the materials, techniques and linguistic analysis, and more on what happens inside and among the people in the classroom.» Once students and teacher feel at ease and motivated, the learning and teaching processes can begin. 

APPROACHES AND METHODS 

The main approach which supports my teaching is the communicative approach, in which interaction is the way to learn and practice the target language in order to develop communicative competence, together with some PPP.

In the different levels of education, though, this approach is also helped by other approaches and theories such as TPR and the natural approach for kindergarten and primary school (especially the first three years), which emphasize the use of movement for young learners and the exposure to the target language to guide a process similar to acquisiton. (Asher and Krashen)

For older students, from 10-year-old students onwards, my teaching also includes some Task-Based Learning (Nunan, 2004) and Content and Language Integrated Learning (Marsh), especially when working at schools in accordance with biology, history and other subjects’ teachers. 

Finally, all my teaching is also based on what we learnt from Piaget's theory of cognitive development; Gardner’s theory of multiple intelligences and Vygotsky’s Zone of Proximal Development and Scaffolding. In this way I can distinguish the kind of activities my students can do according to their age, how to include different ways to present the target language and finally the way to support the learning process.

RESPONSIBILITIES

On the one hand, when in charge of a group of students, I think it is vital to plan ahead carefully and thoroughly: the school year in order to set the main goals and overall approach according to the group; the unit objectives and strategies to be implemented to achieve them; and finally, the class procedures taking into account the possible difficulties that may arise.

On the other hand, I agree with Scrivener (2011) when he states that teachers also need to develop and trust their intuition. They need to be able to "know what their students are thinking, to read their reactions to things, to decide if they like a task or not, to determine if they're bored, etc." In this sense, we must learn to observe our students and our teaching practice to reflect upon what we see and act accordingly. Hence, the class plan gives us a guide, but it is not written in stone. Changing our plan in some way, adapting it to our students' needs, is also a skill to be worked upon. 

From my experience as a student and as an aducator, young children are usually highly motivated to learn English – and other subjects - at school. But this initial enthusiasm is sadly undermined as they grow older, especially closer to adolescence. This may have several external causes, but I would dare to say the main problem is our mediocre planning. We need to present challenging, engaging and motivating classes so that students are keen to learn the language. And it also applies to other classes too, not just English. This does not mean we should become clowns or entertainers, but make our students enjoy the learning process.

MY ULTIMATE TEACHING GOAL

As our curriculum design establishes, being able to resort to two language systems allows the learners two means to develop themselves, to approach other knowledge, to build a wider vision of the world. It helps them to reach a deeper understanding of the multicultural world. (Armendariz y Ruiz Montani, 2005).

We teach to foster their communicative competence, which implies the ability to organize the linguistic and sociocultural knowledge for communicative purposes. Learners need to be granted the proper room, environment and tools to develop that communicative competence, with our assistance.

Some strategies I use to convey information to our students and assist the learning process are modelling, exemplification, description, explanation, demonstration, among others. I usually apply all of the above mentioned plus experiential learning and the use of graphic organizers

INNOVATION IN THE CLASSROOM

I’ve learnt from Dorney and Ushioda that motivational techniques can make students engage with the task and the learning process itself. Motivation must be generated, maintained and protected. The use of ICT inside and outside the classroom can help us to keep our class plan innovative, especially because our students rely greatly on image. Information and Communication Technologies can also aid to establish dynamic interaction between learners and the target language, by enabling the inclusion of memorable student-centered activities.

PERSPECTIVES

In five years' time, I see myself having completed a postgraduate degree. I have already gathered some information from an online university for a Bachelor's degree in English Language which I would love to study, both to grow professionally, and to be more competitive in the work market.