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Students are sensitive to who cares about them. Learning motivation is a factor that affects success. Thinking back to my school experiences, still, I am highly appreciative for many teachers who have guided and encouraged me throughout my school life. They recognized my talents and strengths to maximize my learning experience; they believed that I could achieve any goals I set my eyes on and my future holds many possibilities. This strong support reinforces my belief in my learning life and this feeling always reminds me to be a good teacher. In addition to criterias I have observed from amazing teachers I encountered in my life, I believe there are more elements that will make me a great language teacher, which is the ability to provide opportunities and make language learning enjoyable through providing authentic, comprehensive learning experience for the students.
Every student is unique. Knowing students’ possibilities and capabilities are the teachers’ responsibility. If a teacher simply conveys knowledge without knowing the abilities of each student and how they differ, the quality of teaching could be lowered. As the Assistant Teacher for the Chinese Immersion program at Post Oak Elementary School, I interact with 15 students on a daily basis. Since every student has strengths in different areas, I find opportunities for them to utilize those strengths. For example, a student of mine is not afraid to fail and enjoys learning more than the others. Thus, whenever I teach a new lesson in Chinese, I encourage this student to practice with those who are particularly shy when speaking. I believe one of the most important skills as a great language teacher is the ability to spot the students’ strengths and provide opportunities for them to develop in those areas.
● Caring students’ different needs
A great teacher should have the ability to recognize the strengths of the students and to “tailor the course to their learners’ needs” (Agosti et al., 2006) as she aims to make teaching more effective in the classroom. To provide high quality, effective teaching, teachers should understand the various developmental levels of the students. According to Gardner (1991), “teachers who recognize the multiple intelligences of their students acknowledge that students bring with them specific and unique strengths;” I believe the recognition of the students’ strength by the teacher can be an asset to the class, the students’ development, and the teacher herself. Another trait that I believe a successful teacher should hold is the ability to understand and remember each student’s preferred style of learning because “awareness of their preferred learning style can assist in improving learners’ Metacognition awareness” (Anderson et al., 2012). Not only should the teacher recognize different learning styles, she should also be able to incorporate all styles, using the appropriate strategy, to provide a comprehensive learning environment for all the students. For instance, some students enjoy learning by themselves versus others prefer the teacher walking them through all the details. Thus, when I volunteered as the Chinese Dance Coordinator for the local elementary school, I often provided time for the individual learners to practice on their own without instructions and offered specific instructions for those who enjoy learning in a more structural manner.
● Conduct a supportive and natural learning environment
Reflecting back to my grade school experience, I have never met any teacher I was scared of. All the teachers I met cared about my learning experience and encouraged me to achieve my goals. Therefore, I believe it is critical and important for teachers to provide a healthy, safe, and supportive environment for the students’ to learn. A great language teacher should conduct a natural learning environment which makes students feel supported, safe, and secured. The space that fosters a positive learning experience for students should comfortable and joyful, and it should increase the students’ willingness to engage in the class. Within this positive, supported, and calm learning atmosphere, I believe students will trust my teaching expertises and become more involved in their language learning. An example for this comes from my experience teaching Mandarin Chinese to pre-school students. Most students had never left their parents prior to pre-school; thus, it can be daunting if they did not have their parents to turn to (e.g. if they fall or cry, their parents cannot rush to school right the way). To foster a welcoming and comfortable experience for all students, I tell all them within the first week of school that I am their “school mom” and I will protect them if anything happens. Thus, I created a safe and enjoyable environment for all students, which allows them to focus on language learning.
● Conduct a student driven curriculum
I believe creating a student-centered, open-minded learning environment is important to allow students to learn what they are interested in. Students learn better when the contents of the lesson is tied to the areas they are interested in. Thus, I believe creating a dynamic curriculum is an effective way for students to learn languages. A language teacher cannot focus on teaching language as a subject; the language should be presented to the students in combination with other meaningful tools (e.g. documentaries on the culture and origins of the language). Looking ahead, my future intentions as a Mandarin Chinese teacher is to provide a comprehensive experience for my students via Chinese dance, videos, songs, and other culturally-relevant materials. I hope my students enjoy learning Mandarin Chinese because they are genuinely interested instead of simply checking the language off of the list of class subjects they are enrolled in. A prime example that I have witnessed was when I taught the Chinese summer camp at Michigan State University this past July. I showed the students videos of Chinese opera and taught them the dance moves as they sang the songs in Chinese. These videos sparked the interest of the students; they wanted to learn and understand the lyrics they were singing and they became extremely interested in Chinese culture. I believed I created a student-centered learning environment by changing the lesson plan based on what the students wanted to learn and fostered an open-minded space by encouraging the students to ask any questions they had in mind.
The role of the teacher is a facilitator, not a micro-manager. I believe a teacher should give up her power as the leader of the class and allows her students to utilize their creativity and explore the learning environment on their own with appropriate support from the teacher. For instance, when I taught the Chinese summer camp at MSU, I allowed the students to pick the topics they are interested in learning. This allowed me the serve the facilitator role and only intervene if the students face barriers. I believe a good teacher is also a good leader and not a manager.
● Provide authentic materials
When a teacher simply teaches language by asking her student to memorize, she is initiating “rote memorization and drilling, and its failure to produce conversational ability in the foreign language” (Hadley & Reiken, 1993). As an English as second language learner myself, I still remember my English language learning experience.English was taught by memorization; I was not able to communicate with people in English even after years of English classes.
A great teacher should have a clear teaching goal in their mind and know how to select authentic, best materials to facilitate language teaching to avoid wasting time in the classroom setting on topics that are not related to the lesson. Students learn better when the selected contents can be found in their lives. The American Council on the Teaching of Foreign Languages states, “Use the target language as the vehicle and content of instruction,” (Robustelli-Price, 2016) which is exactly how I believe language teaching should be. In addition, I believe teachers should creating a learning environment with authentic materials because this will truly allow the students to utilize what they have learned outside of the classrooms. To find authentic materials that can be relatable to American students lives is difficult. However, I believe framing makes a difference. Instead of referring to the lesson we are learning in foreign, Chinese words, I try to frame the lesson or the subject with similar English words or subjects to allow the students to better understand the intention of the lessons. For example, I taught the students about Chinese New Year and the legendary beast called nián shòu that only comes out during Chinese New Year. This character is important to the cultural learning and provides authentic experience. To make sure the story of the beast does not scare any students, I compare the importance of scarecrow being a part of the Halloween holiday. This allows the students to recognize the importance of this cultural character while being able to relate it to what they know in their lives.
● Recognize personal teaching style
After many years living in the U.S., I have not only improved my language skills, but also learned different perspectives from Americans. I have never thought that I could speak English and teach American students Mandarin Chinese. There were many experiences and challenges that I encountered before achieving it. For example, I learned to always ask for clarification if I do not understand an English word and I hope to encourage my American students to do the same as they learn Mandarin Chinese. Through many years of teaching language in a public school and in the community, I have tried to use 100% target language teaching in the class to develop students’ communication competence by using authentic materials. My background as a Chinese dance teacher allowed me to teach my students Chinese by singing and dancing to traditional Chinese songs. Many of my students loved being a part a my class because of the music; in fact, most of my preschool students continue onto the kindergarten Chinese program due to their positive experience. There is one thing that I have observed through my years of teaching: students learn more when I speak to them in Chinese regarding their daily experience because they learned the language best when using it to discuss something they are interested in. Gardner (1999) believes that the purpose of schooling "should be to develop intelligences and to help people reach vocational and vocational goals that are appropriate to their particular spectrum of intelligences. People who are helped to do so, [he] believe[s], feels more engaged and competent and therefore more inclined to serve society in a constructive way” (Gardner, 1999). In 2017, I am very excited to join the masters program at MSU. I hope I could pursue my dream goal to be a great Chinese language teacher in the future: a great Chinese language teacher that provides authentic learning experiences and encourages students to overcome limits. These pedagogy of teaching will help me become more professional in teaching second language.
“Teachers’ sense of self-efficacy appeared to be the most important motivational factor for explaining teacher learning and teaching practices” (Thoonen et al., 2011). I want to be a great teacher who knows how to be professional in teaching. The professional power is driven by the students’ desire to learn. I believe my knowledge and expertises can be expanded to teaching other languages (e.g. Hakka, which is a Taiwanese dialect I speak). My teaching goal is to let students have the confidence to carry what they learned and to explore their lives using the tools learned in classrooms as they continue in their journey learning Chinese. As a teacher, I would continue to provide opportunities for my students to practice Chinese outside of classroom settings (e.g. leading free Chinese dance programs and communicating with them in the halls using Chinese even after they leave my classroom).
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