Reflection

All educators bring their own teaching and learning experiences with them to the classroom, and I’ve gathered many transformative experiences that I wish to apply in my future teaching. There are many different approaches that are considered “good”, but I’ve identified student-centered approaches as most strongly aligning with my beliefs, as well as sociocultural (Vygotsky, 1978) and communicative approaches (Brown & Lee, 2015; Brumfit & Johnson 1979) as some of the most meaningful for students. Not only have I solidified my own beliefs about what a positive classroom environment looks like, but I have also expanded my knowledge about what key components of teaching and planning lessons are, such as the 8 key criteria for lesson design (Yerian, 2022), the communicative framework (Celce-Murcia et al., 2010), and Bloom’s taxonomy and related verbs (Bloom et. al, 1956). While I have learned much during my 15 months, it is also important that I remain a lifelong learner in order to effectively serve my students as “best” approaches and techniques change over time. Therefore, it is important to be able to reflect on my experiences and discover ways to better my approaches for my future students. My statement of beliefs, my tutoring reflection, and my reflection from my internship at the AEI demonstrate my understanding of what it means to effectively teach others and apply relevant methods and approaches. The following artifacts represent both my competency and personality as a teacher. 

Any teacher needs a clearly identified set of beliefs that guide their teaching and practices, and these may require adaptation over time as one’s contexts and students change. My statement of beliefs demonstrates this ability to adapt as well as my other core beliefs as I draw on the importance of a student-centered classroom as well as learner agency (van Lier, 2009; Brown & Lee, 2015). I also discuss the importance of keeping culture and context in mind when teaching certain languages or to specific groups of learners. These beliefs are largely based on van Lier (2009) and Brown & Lee (2015)’s ideas of learner agency and motivation, as well as Vygotsky’s (1978) sociocultural (SCT)/interactive theory, and DeCapua (2018)’s notions of cultural sensitivity.  Vygotsky’s SCT largely informs the ways that I plan activities, and I try to base most of my classroom activity in peer-peer or peer-informant interactions. DeCapua’s discussions of cultural sensitivity and literacy also inform how I treat materials in the classroom, and attempt to demonstrate my own literacy and teach this to students as well. My discussion of these notions in my statement demonstrate my understanding of some key facets of modern language teaching. Not only do I show an understanding of these, but I also demonstrate an ability to apply these concepts of learner agency, sociocultural theory, and cultural sensitivity. Taking an example of the former, I experimented with differing levels of student agency in my LING 444 (Second Language Acquisition) and 201 (Language and Power) discussion sections, and decided to let students have more control over class content in LING 444 and slightly less in 201 based on students’ levels and interest in linguistic topics. This experimentation demonstrates my ability to apply these “good” teaching practices in reality. 

I also had the opportunity to try a very student-centered and personalized approach (Brown & Lee, 2015) when I co-tutored visiting scholar, Seon-ha, with my peer Anthony Delsanter for LT 539, Design for Learning Language Pronunciation. During our time with Seon-ha, we attempted to deeply personalize the language and topics we were focusing on in our pronunciation lessons towards her needs and interests; in this way we both centered materials around the student and created highly personalized content for her. I discuss the successes of this in my reflection itself, but one key takeaway from this experience is that the process could always be more student-centered. After our experiences with Seon-ha, we realized that we had not directly asked her what specifically she wanted to be working on and practicing; we had some input about what she thought her issues were, but she did not have direct control over the materials and activities that we used. So, one of my learning experiences here was realizing how easily something like a needs-analysis (Brown & Lee, 2015) or survey could center content and activities even more around a student, especially in this one-on-one/two context. This experience demonstrates my ability in applying these concepts, and in recognizing my own shortcomings for future changes. 

Not only have I had the opportunity to observe these approaches and principles of effective teaching in my own classrooms, but I’ve also had the opportunity to watch another seasoned teacher employing key aspects of language teaching. During winter term I interned as a classroom assistant at the AEI under Nancy Elliot. My responsibilities during this time were grading homework assignments, assisting Nancy during class, and occasionally leading class and class activities; however I also got to watch Nancy and observe the strategies that she employed in her classroom. Here, I definitely noticed Nancy drawing much on active and discovery learning practices (Brown & Lee, 2015; Bruner, 1961), as well as creating an inclusive classroom community. These aspects of her classroom seemed to greatly improve student motivation and engagement, and I learned a lot from her about how one might create a similar classroom environment using these strategies. From this experience, I grew much in what effective classroom management strategies looked like, and further solidified my beliefs in the importance of discovery learning and comfortable learning environments for students. 

As described in my statement of beliefs, and two reflections from teaching experiences, I have demonstrated a competency in what I believe are key facets of teaching: focusing classroom experiences on students, and remaining a lifelong learner in order to best serve my learners. Going into the program, I already firmly understood that instructors should be able to meet students where they are, and should allow for room for students to personalize their learning experiences. However, it was during my time within the LTS program that I was able to learn and realize what this looks like in reality, as well as how there is an existing continuum to implementing various student-centered approaches in a classroom. I will continue to employ these concepts in my language teaching as they prove to be effective both in research and my own observations. I will also continue to learn from others and better my understanding of the “best” teaching methods in order to provide my future students with beneficial learning opportunities.

Artifacts