Delaney Ybarra, M.A. TESOL

Teaching Philosophy

My passion for supporting learners and meeting them where they are at is grounded on the transformational and critical perspective of Vygotsky: humans learn from feedback and reaction to others in our environment. According to Vygotsky, in order for learners to do something on their own without help, they need an interaction in the zone of proximal development, which is what the learner is able to do with assistance. Offering help to learners in the zone of proximal development is of utmost importance in order for learner development, and this is where I come in as the educator. I find joy in meeting students where they are at and assisting them in discovering the unique tools they need to reach their educational goals. 

I wholeheartedly believe that I have the tools necessary to help students reach their fullest potential. I have developed a personal teaching model called the CCC Teaching Model in order to ensure that I meet students where they are in their zone of proximal development. The model stands for communicative language teaching, cooperative learning, and content and language integrated learning. I believe these are the three most important principles of language teaching.

1. Communicative Language Teaching

The first principle of my CCC Teaching Model is utilizing methods and techniques that promote Communicative Language Teaching (CLT). The main goal of CLT is to help students develop communicative competence in multiple different avenues, and prepare them with the ability to communicate in real-life situations that are unique and meaningful to them . One of the reasons I value methods and theories that fall under the CLT umbrella is because it requires active involvement of the target language from the students as they strive to develop in multiple areas of communicative competence (linguistic, sociolinguistic, discourse, and strategic) (Brandl, p. 4-6). Creating achievable and realistic tasks that put language in use through various social interactions (Task Based Instruction), is just one of many examples of how I intend to put CLT in action. Helping students develop these communicative skills will always be at the forefront of my mind and will shape me as a teacher.

2. Cooperative learning 

The second principle of my CCC Teaching Model is incorporating cooperative learning opportunities for students. It has been proven that there are a lot of benefits to cooperative activities that require learner-to-learner interaction, whether it be in groups or pairs. I value Long’s Interaction Hypothesis, which claims that when learners interact, they make changes and negotiate meaning which in turn promotes language acquisition (Brandl, p. 18). Also, language learning has been shown to take place when learners engage with meaningful input with other students while accomplishing clearly defined tasks together. Therefore, allowing a significant portion of class time for cooperative learning to take place, whether it be in warm-ups, main activities, or closing activities, will be a priority for me as an educator.

3. Content and language integrated learning

The third and final principle of my CCC Teaching Model is using an approach called content and language integrated learning (CLIL). Due to the belief that language and content are intertwined, CLIL is an approach to enhance language acquisition through teaching a specific curricular subject through the target language, as opposed to focusing on teaching language (David, 2021). Cognition, communication, and contexts are all taken into consideration while utilizing a CLIL approach to language teaching. The CLIL approach has been found to be incredibly effective in Europe according to the European Commision. Due to the measured success of the CLIL approach, I believe using portions of my class to focus on specific curricular subjects, such as literature, history, or environmental sciences, while using authentic materials such as real-life telephone conversations, TED talks, and TV shows will help students’ language development (Brandl p. 13). 

These are the three main theories and principles that shape me as a teacher and an applied linguist. I wholeheartedly believe that I have the tools necessary to meet students where they are at, and help them reach their fullest potential through communicative language teaching practices, offering opportunities for cooperative learning, and providing space for content and language integrated learning.

Citations

Brandl, K. (2008). Communicative language teaching in action: Putting principles to work. Pearson/Prentice Hall. ISBN-13: 978-0131579064

David, R. (2021). Content language integrated learning [PowerPoint slides].