What do I believe about teaching and learning foreign languages?

The essay below presents key principles that I use to guide my language teaching and also explains how I carry out those principles in my classroom. As a language teacher, I believe that it is my responsibility to be flexible in exploring various teaching methodologies and strategies and utilizing new tools for the betterment of my classes, my students, and myself as a teacher learner. I am persistent in making refinements in my lesson plans and classrooms to improve the quality of my teaching rather than following one practice. To do so, I aim to incorporate multilingual pedagogy, communicative approach using authentic tasks, and learner motivation when creating lessons.

Being a language learner myself, I often have found these three aspects to be absent in past language classrooms. Instead, I was mainly exposed to traditional approaches to language learning that focused heavily on the grammar-translation method; additionally, there was little opportunity for me to take notice of my own motivation for language learning. It was not until I moved to Colombia after university as an EFL teacher where I began to explore such concepts as both a teacher and learner of Spanish. My experience in various countries—Colombia, Chile, and South Korea—and teaching in different learning settings such as a private university, an alternative middle/high school, and private institutions, has allowed for a wide range of practical applications and practice.

I continue to refine my pedagogy and always practice reflective teaching as I gain experience and knowledge throughout my period as a teacher. While doing so, I strive to provide optimal learning environments for students with individual preferences and goals in hopes of helping them preserve their motivation and positive attitude. While carefully avoiding disruption to students’ target language acquisition, I continue to advocate for implement multilingual pedagogy along with a communicative approach using authentic tasks in a way that would enhance their learning experience and engagement.