My Teaching Purpose

        I always have a love for learning. This was the reason why I went back to school again to study education even when I already have a bachelor's degree in business and an extensive 21 years of experience working in a multi-national corporation. I want to teach.  As part of a course requirement, I was tasked to present the history and development of language. While I was doing my research, it made me realize that I am interested in language and its written form.  I connected this right away with my childhood interest in the Japanese culture, history, and way of life. I started studying Nihongo. I'm still not very good at it even up to this day. Well, it is not easy. I encounter difficulties and challenges primarily because people around me are not speaking the language. I realize that language learners could also encounter the same difficulties as I have. For that reason, I want to teach English to second language learners so that I can help them overcome the difficulties and challenges along the way.

        My current priority and short-term goal are to teach both young and adult learners in the English language and help them gain competence. The next phase of my career would involve learning and becoming more proficient in Asian languages so that I could also teach it.  In the long term, my plan is to help in the area of enhancing better learning systems in language acquisition. It is not yet very clear how I will do that. However, I am hoping that the steps along the way of my journey would make my plans increasingly more concrete as I gather enough knowledge and skills.

        It is my firm belief that learning languages bridge gaps and foster understanding across people from different cultures. Moreover, understanding each other makes the world a better place to live in.

My Teaching Style

        My teaching style is more aligned with the Communicative Approach (1980) because I want to focus more on communication and how people could use it to connect with each other and create ideas together.  I also like to apply the Direct Approach (1910) because I want my students to enjoy talking and experience the culture including the geography, history, and people of the target language.

        I want to teach all types of people who are interested in learning the language.  However, primarily I am capable of teaching all levels of elementary and high school students.

        Since my teaching style is a mix of Communicative and Direct Approach, I can meet the needs of the students by making my lesson plan activities relevant to their lives and more appropriate to their levels.  Hopefully, my teaching style will motivate them to learn by having them experience the joy of communication integrated in my lesson plans.

My Teaching Techniques

        I use various teaching techniques for different levels of students. 

        For elementary students, I build their vocabulary and practice pronunciation.  I also include pictures and phrases that enhance cultural awareness.

        For junior high school students, I like to do role-play and reading of articles and then discussion based on readings. These will improve basic communicative abilities like interpreting, expressing, responding, and reflecting.  The contents of the activities usually include topics that enhance global awareness.

        For senior high school students, the activities include readings, conversations and performing short presentations about a topic, or a combination of the three.

        I generally make an effort of giving 80% of the time for the students to practice language and only 20% teaching because most of the learning takes place while practicing.

        I motivate my students by showing genuine interest in every topic that we discuss.  Also, whenever they make progress, I make sure that I praise them appropriately.

        I use warm language by always greeting my student at the beginning of the class. I smile a lot. It makes the class atmosphere livelier. As mentioned, I also give praises at the right time to encourage my students. I use teacher talk to make instructions and discussions appropriate and more comprehensible to the level of the students.

        For warm up activities, sometimes I mention a news topic that can relate to the lesson.  It makes the class more interactive.  Most of the time, I read a short passage that relates to the lesson.  For guided practice, I often use conversations and cloze activity.  This makes the learner more confident.  For independent practice, I use conversations with open-ended questions and role-play.  My assessment activities include sentence construction, role-play, and presentations about a topic.  All of the activities are integrated into my lesson plans and they are beneficial to the students.

        I evaluate and assess my students using mostly the formative assessment method.  I believe that in an ESL class setting this is the more prominent and acceptable way of building the confidence level of the students.  Whenever there is a need to correct, I make it a point to let the student be aware of the mistakes.  However, most of the time, I focus more on improving the communicative ability of the students rather than correcting every error.

Summary

        As a teacher, my teaching philosophy is based on the belief that every student has the potential to learn and succeed. I believe that it is my responsibility as a teacher to create a safe and supportive learning environment that encourages students to take risks and explore new ideas. I strive to make learning engaging and relevant by connecting course content to real-world issues and experiences. I also believe that it is important to provide students with opportunities for collaboration and reflection, as well as feedback that is timely, specific, and constructive. Ultimately, my goal as a teacher is to help students develop the knowledge, skills, and attitudes they need to become lifelong learners who are able to think critically, communicate effectively, and contribute positively to society.