Muayad Enwiya Jajo

My purpose in teaching English is threefold, involving two short-term goals and one long-term goal.  The first short-term goal is to provide students with the knowledge and skill they need to successfully complete their study program and use English in any context they might encounter in life as well as excel in using it.  This can be done by helping students approach, appreciate and apply what I teach them and by immersing them in every practical and useful niche of the language.  My second short-term goal is to ship culture with the language I teach.  A language learning experience should be a window through which students have the opportunity to see another culture and be introduced to new social, ethical and philosophical values.

My long-term goal is to teach my students the process of learning itself.  This equips them with a sense of autonomy they will need after they graduate.  My belief could be summed up in the old adage, “Give a man a fish and you feed him for a day; teach a man to fish and you feed him for a lifetime.”  In this respect, I work hard to turn language into papier-mâché in the hands of the students to be shaped in ways that effectively serve the purpose they may have at hand.

British linguist David Crystal believes in linguistic equality (i.e., that all languages are equal, and no language is better than another).  By the time I was five, I was trilingual and, despite my later attempts at septilingualism, I have never been so captivated by any other language than English.  Its aesthetic nature, its intriguing intricacies, its capacity to accommodate any content or context, its huge arsenal of lexis, its meticulousness as a handmaid to logic and law, and its diversity and kaleidoscopic structure are second to none.  There was a time when I sought, in vain, to blind myself to its merits and seek them in other languages.  I finally had to reconcile my findings with the notion of linguistic equality by promoting the idea that all languages are equal but some languages are “more equal” than others (an allusion to George Orwell’s novella Animal Farm).  This ever-increasing fascination of mine with English made me the English-language teacher that I am now.

My teaching style is eclectic, mostly adopting the Communicative Approach, Affective-Humanistic Approach, the Comprehension Approach and the Direct Approach.  Instead of adhering to one language teaching approach, I borrow elements that I find very useful and practical from these and at times other approaches.  I find these three approaches very useful and practical for several reasons.

The Communicative Approach, for example, does not neglect one language skill in favor of another.  All the four language skills of speaking, listening, reading and writing are taught.  It also focuses on communication, interaction, culture and the element of entertainment.  The Comprehension approach stands out in its focus on the value of comprehensibility and assimilation of language components in the learning process.  I find the Affective-Humanistic Approach very effective in intention to invest on students’ emotional and artistic tendencies in achieving the desired language learning outcomes.  I encourage an English-only policy and immerse students in firsthand experience with the language, as the Direct Approach recommends.

These approaches present ideas that have a major contribution in achieving the language learning objectives.  Placing a high value on the element of entertainment, as the Communicative Approach does, serves to increase students’ interest and motivation.  The aesthetic side to the language which the Affective-Humanistic Approach focuses draws students to the language.  The silent period that the Comprehension Approach advocates gives the students’ brains a chance to comprehend input before actually diving into practice.

I like the ideas of immersion which the Direct Approach calls for as another means of language learning.  I teach university students who come from different cultural backgrounds and the eclectic style of teaching I am using tends to merge these ideas from these approaches to introduce a sense of variety and cater for all their individual abilities and tastes.

The teaching techniques I use are all orientated towards achieving the learning objectives of the lesson or course.  When I plan my lessons, I always check if the objectives, instruction, practice and assessment are all aligned.  Class time is based on the 80/20 rule (80% practice and 20% instruction), which is essential in helping students acquire the language instead of just learning it.  I always make sure that I am striking a balance between content and technique.  The university students I teach often begin my class after attending two classes given by another teacher on a different topic, so I make sure to give a 3-5 minute warm-up to grab their attention and stimulate recall of prior material.  This can be achieved through questions or visual aids.

During the instruction period, I use teacher talk, body language and scaffolding to make meaning clear.  To let ideas stick, I use metaphors, pictures, jokes, games and anecdotes.  I also use warm language to engage the students further.  To relate lessons to real life, I introduce “realia” and authentic materials, such as a real recorded conversation or a real interview, if I am teaching them conversation for example.

After modeling, I move to guided practice, less guided practice and independent practice.  When introducing activities for practice, I make sure to switch between the focused and diffuse modes of learning to help the students master both modes.  I employ role reversals, role playing, desuggestopedia, humor, dramatization, pair work and group work to lower the Affective Filter.  I allow enough room for formative feedback and sefl-correction.  I use gamification as a motivational strategy.  During less guided and independent practice, I pair up students and walk around in class to provide advice and feedback.  The university courses I teach are all credit courses with summative assessment tools, and so I give the students quizzes, tests, assignments and exams and make sure that they not only grow from the instruction, model and practice I provided but are also authentic.