When I was teaching as a voluntary teacher in Nepal, one day, I told my students the statue of liberty was the symbol of freedom, they said they had no idea of the word “freedom”. At first I was quite shocked, but later I found their answer was actually reasonable. In Nepal, where the children hardly ever contact the outside world, how can we expect them to understand modern concepts like “freedom”? Such experience inspired me a new perspective of language teaching. For people living in developing countries, language is not only a communicative tool but also a key to civilization thanks to the values and ideas conveyed.
I believe in Communicative Language Teaching and Task-based Language Teaching. My teaching goal is to facilitate my students to improve their communicative competence so that they can manage real-life communication outside classroom. I try to create authentic conditions for students to acquire language and build up learner autonomy eventually. I have learned English as a foreign language in China mostly under traditional ways, such as Grammar Translation Method and Audio-lingual Method. I soon found these approaches problematic because many Chinese EFL learners know well about the grammar and achieve high scores in exams but find it extremely hard to communicate outside classroom. Teachers tell students every structure but never let them focus on meaning and give them chances to produce authentic output. Therefore, students don't dare to speak because they think they have not mastered English yet. This is definitely not the kind of teaching I want to achieve. I do Needs Analysis first to get to know my students better. I want them to be confident enough to make most of their language even though their language knowledge and skills are deficient. I don't require them to get things right from the beginning and produce errorless speeches all the time. I try to set up a welcoming atmosphere that gives students ample opportunities to use English in the classroom.
Instead of being a controller or a lecturer, I regard myself more as a mentor or a facilitator in class. It is important to break the barriers between teachers and students because students are more willing to use the language when they are not afraid of the teacher and their language mistakes won’t be punished. As for seating arrangements, for a small group, I sit on the same round table with my students to show I am not the center of class. For a large group, I rearrange settings into small groups and avoid rows because rows give students the impression of a teacher-fronted classroom.
I think language learning happens during interaction. I conduct my lessons by a series of tasks that integrate four skills. By completing different tasks, students improve their language and practice communication skills. Their communication should focus on meaning at most time. I don’t simply tell students target language structures because this deprives their opportunities to experiment with the language themselves and also hinders the focus on meaning. I prime them with activities and let them engage with tasks. During tasks, they can experiment with the language and try to find proper language to express their meaning. After that, I present target grammar structures. By this way, students can see the necessity and rationale of target structures, which probably increases their intrinsic motivation of learning. As a famous Chinese proverb puts, “teaching people the skills of fishing is better than giving them fish directly”, doing task-based teaching aims at building learner autonomy eventually. Even without teachers and classroom, students still keep on learning the target language through real-life communication.
I assess my students mostly by listening to their productions and provide corrective feedback. In my class, I try to generate as much student talk in my classroom as possible. I believe teachers should not talk too much but contribute most of the class time to student interaction, either with other students or with teachers. I prefer to have students do pair discussion and group work rather than ask questions to the whole class and call on someone to answer. Talking in front of the whole class can be very intimidating for some students, but this stress can be eased during group work. Students are not afraid of expressing themselves and making mistakes through group work so they get more chances to practice target language. Besides, negotiation of meaning and feedback happen during group discussion, which largely promotes acquisition. By doing group work, a community could also be formed, and the classroom environment would be more friendly and interactive.
Besides, technology is frequently used in my classroom. I sometimes use PowerPoint slides to give task instructions as well as visual aids and Doc cam to show results of group work to the whole class. Likewise, I often supplement my class with audio-visual materials, such as movie clips, TV shows, TED talks and on-line open lectures. The advantages of bringing these supplementary materials are two-fold. On one hand, they can increase students’ interest of learning. On the other hand, authentic input can prepare students for real-life communication.
I regard teaching as a process of providing conditions for speakers to improve communicative competence. My lessons are meaning-oriented, student-centered and involve authentic input and output.
I believe in Communicative Language Teaching and Task-based Language Teaching. My teaching goal is to facilitate my students to improve their communicative competence so that they can manage real-life communication outside classroom. I try to create authentic conditions for students to acquire language and build up learner autonomy eventually. I have learned English as a foreign language in China mostly under traditional ways, such as Grammar Translation Method and Audio-lingual Method. I soon found these approaches problematic because many Chinese EFL learners know well about the grammar and achieve high scores in exams but find it extremely hard to communicate outside classroom. Teachers tell students every structure but never let them focus on meaning and give them chances to produce authentic output. Therefore, students don't dare to speak because they think they have not mastered English yet. This is definitely not the kind of teaching I want to achieve. I do Needs Analysis first to get to know my students better. I want them to be confident enough to make most of their language even though their language knowledge and skills are deficient. I don't require them to get things right from the beginning and produce errorless speeches all the time. I try to set up a welcoming atmosphere that gives students ample opportunities to use English in the classroom.
Instead of being a controller or a lecturer, I regard myself more as a mentor or a facilitator in class. It is important to break the barriers between teachers and students because students are more willing to use the language when they are not afraid of the teacher and their language mistakes won’t be punished. As for seating arrangements, for a small group, I sit on the same round table with my students to show I am not the center of class. For a large group, I rearrange settings into small groups and avoid rows because rows give students the impression of a teacher-fronted classroom.
I think language learning happens during interaction. I conduct my lessons by a series of tasks that integrate four skills. By completing different tasks, students improve their language and practice communication skills. Their communication should focus on meaning at most time. I don’t simply tell students target language structures because this deprives their opportunities to experiment with the language themselves and also hinders the focus on meaning. I prime them with activities and let them engage with tasks. During tasks, they can experiment with the language and try to find proper language to express their meaning. After that, I present target grammar structures. By this way, students can see the necessity and rationale of target structures, which probably increases their intrinsic motivation of learning. As a famous Chinese proverb puts, “teaching people the skills of fishing is better than giving them fish directly”, doing task-based teaching aims at building learner autonomy eventually. Even without teachers and classroom, students still keep on learning the target language through real-life communication.
I assess my students mostly by listening to their productions and provide corrective feedback. In my class, I try to generate as much student talk in my classroom as possible. I believe teachers should not talk too much but contribute most of the class time to student interaction, either with other students or with teachers. I prefer to have students do pair discussion and group work rather than ask questions to the whole class and call on someone to answer. Talking in front of the whole class can be very intimidating for some students, but this stress can be eased during group work. Students are not afraid of expressing themselves and making mistakes through group work so they get more chances to practice target language. Besides, negotiation of meaning and feedback happen during group discussion, which largely promotes acquisition. By doing group work, a community could also be formed, and the classroom environment would be more friendly and interactive.
Besides, technology is frequently used in my classroom. I sometimes use PowerPoint slides to give task instructions as well as visual aids and Doc cam to show results of group work to the whole class. Likewise, I often supplement my class with audio-visual materials, such as movie clips, TV shows, TED talks and on-line open lectures. The advantages of bringing these supplementary materials are two-fold. On one hand, they can increase students’ interest of learning. On the other hand, authentic input can prepare students for real-life communication.
I regard teaching as a process of providing conditions for speakers to improve communicative competence. My lessons are meaning-oriented, student-centered and involve authentic input and output.