My Own Way

By now, I already know in which grade I would like to teach because I have been exposed to diverse schools and different grades. I was very upset when I had to change my classes at school at the beginning of this second semester because I felt very comfortable with my teachers and with the students I was working. Now, I look back and I think that I was mistaken because with the change I realized how much I wanted to work with high school students. I am now working with 5th and 6th graders and whenever I finish an activity I see that those are not the classes I will feel comfortable with. My main aim in teaching English is to help them become critical thinkers and, more importantly, subjects in this society. Learning English is simply the means of accomplishing that final goal. However, I do think they will learn English because they will be constantly exposed to plenty of input and they will need it to participate in the class. I would also like to help them become more autonomous and responsible of their own learning. In this essay, I will explain what my position towards teaching English is and which approaches seem the most appropriate for my objectives to be accomplished.

We have dealt with the many approaches that exist when it comes to teaching English during our methodology classes. I may say that some are better than others such as: the communicative approach and the learner centered approach. Some other approaches are old fashioned and not very useful for my goals with learning English such as: the grammar translation method and the silent way. This categorization should always consider the students’ characteristics and the objectives of your classes. However, by categorizing the approaches as useful or useless I am limiting myself: therefore, I will not have an eclectic approach in my classes. Nevertheless, I need to use the approach that best suits my expectations and objectives in a determined class with certain learners. Unfortunately, that approach does not exist and I must have a mixture and create a balance of different approaches.

Firstly, I think I would use a learner centered approach because the learners are definitely more engaged when they are creating and actively participating. Knowing the reality of Chilean classrooms, the best approach to solve the problem of large classes is the learner centered approach. Otherwise, the teacher would be constantly lecturing the students and they would never have the opportunity of practicing what they have learnt. This approach involves plenty of group work which will help our students be more tolerant, respectful and have an opinion about various issues in the society. In high school, I could bring many tasks that can be developed in groups and my part would be just that of a mediator. These activities can, at the same time, be fostering students’ critical thinking skills. For example, I am very interested in literature and by bringing books and using the reader response approach which is an approach to literature consisting of having students interact with each other and with the text; I will be fostering their critical skills and using the learner centered approach. By means of discussions in groups about the selected readings, students will be practicing the target language, tolerating others’ opinions and interpretations and being critical by questioning whatever the author is trying to pose. The methodology of these classes is having the students doing the talk and the teacher just monitoring their discussions. The more relevant characteristic of this approach is that students will have a sense of “ownership” of their learning (Brown, 2001). The learner centered approach is the one which considers students needs and styles the most. Since the most important part of the class is the student, everything works having them in mind. As we have seen in class and at the ELAB, we may have the best planning, but if this planning does not regard the students’ needs, styles and interests, the class will probably fail.

Secondly, the learner centered approach is very much related to the communicative language teaching approach. Since they will be working in groups, the possibilities of communicating with others are great. By definition, this approach consists in having all the elements of the English language incorporated in the class: the main focus of this approach is to build learners communicative competence by means of engaging them in authentic and pragmatic functions of the language (Brown, 2001). Students are engaged in using the language receptively and productively and group work is essential to have this approach in the class. This approach is also related to the idea of incorporating the four skills in the classroom. Therefore, the planning of my classes will develop skills and not individual features of grammar or vocabulary. Ergo, students will be eventually learning these features in context and practicing the language in order to acquire it which is also one of my main goals in being a teacher.

Thirdly, I think it is essential that my classes include challenge and fun. In order to achieve that I think I should include the Total Physical Response approach. With this approach, students will have fun and they will be a part of the learning. This approach consists of having students respond to various commands. Regardless the fact that I want to work with high school students, we saw in class that this approach can be used with learners of all ages and of all proficiency levels. It is very selfish to take all the fun away from high school students just because they are too old to play. Sometimes, even I would like to have some fun in my classes because it is a fun way to learn. I completely disagree with teachers that state that school is not for playing because I, as an English teacher, will have an immense variety of games and I am planning to use them with my students. For example, I can have an introductory class with new students using this approach. It would work as an ice breaker. If I ask my students to walk around the room and ask them to stop in front of another student and answer his/her questions, I will be helping them to get to know each other better and they will be practicing their comprehension skills. For that reason, Total Physical Response (TPR) is completely applicable in any context and in any class.

Lastly, in order to help them become more autonomous and responsible, it is important to teach them as many strategies as possible so that they continue learning English outside the classroom. In the book Learning Strategies for Success, Douglas Brown points out that “It has long been recognized that the most successful learners of languages are those who understand their own abilities and capacities well and who autonomously engage in systematic efforts within and beyond the classroom to reach self determined goals of acquisition” (2002). Therefore, I need to build a set of strategies for our students to learn English. These strategies should consider the students’ needs and styles. Using this approach, I will save so much time from the class because we will not have to learn all the vocabulary in the class, they will engage in practicing their speaking skills outside the class, they could write entries on a blog which are all language activities they will perform autonomously. As I provide them with different strategies, it will be of their responsibility to use them in order to acquire the language. In the end, the ones who are more interested will use them to learn more, practice more and acquire the target language faster. At the same time they will get to know their characteristics as learners better because they will have to take some tests for identifying multiple intelligences, learning styles, if they are left or right brained and many other features of themselves.

After working on this paper, I can conclude that the best approach is the one created upon other approaches. Taking your students and the objectives of your class into consideration is essential for making this eclectic and balanced approach work in your classes. In this paper I have mentioned several approaches which have worked in my own classes at ELAB, but some of them may not work in a different context. For example, I have mentioned the learner centered approach as one of the most important ones, but I know that sometimes my classes will need a different format and I will have to give explanations or even lectures of the content. It is known that the perfect approach does not exist, but with one’s own constant evaluation of the approaches we are using, we can come up with the one that best suits our expectations, students’ needs and objectives for a certain class. I am sure these approaches can change from one school to another and even from one class to the next because of the different contexts, students and even time schedules. It is in this constant evaluation and reflection where we can become better teachers. Therefore, we must spare some time to reflect upon our practice and evaluate how our teaching is being developed. Hence, this is my approach to teaching today, maybe next year my approach will be entirely different.

Bibliography

Brown, H. Douglas. Strategies for Success: A Practical Guide to Learning English. New York: Longman. 2002

Brown, H. Douglas. Teaching by Principles: An interactive Approach to Language Pedagogy. New York: Pearson Education. 2001