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Running head: PHILOSOPHY OF TEACHING STATEMENT

Philosophy of Teaching Statement

Jiayun Zheng

University of California Riverside Extension Center

< TESOL Portfolio>

<03/10/2019>
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Philosophy of Teaching Statement

My philosophy is based on my learning experience and previous knowledge. I started

learning English when I was in elementary school but I was not good at speaking, listening. In

China, most students are studying English for the university entrance examination in which there

is no speaking and a little listening. Language is a communication tool but a lot of Chinese

students can’t use English in a practical way. I discovered I wanted to be an English teacher when

I was an undergraduate in university. I was a volunteer to teach children in an elementary school.

These children had great passion for English listening and speaking. I wanted more children to

keep this enthusiasm while they are learning English. In this statement, I hope to talk about my

philosophy of teaching including my educational background, my beliefs about effective teaching

and learning, and experience that illustrate my beliefs.

My major in university is teaching Chinese to the speakers of other languages which has a lot

of similarities with TESOL since both of them are about second language teaching. Therefore, I

mastered basic linguistic knowledge and had teaching experience before I attended 15-Unit

Professional Certificate in TESOL program. However, I still have a lot to learn about English

teaching frameworks and methods because English and Chinese are totally different languages. I

want to go back to China and to be an English teacher in an elementary school. I will try my best

to be the type of teacher that can motivate students, guide students’ learning and cultivate

students’ interest in English.

In the following statement, I will focus on two aspects to continue my philosophy of teaching:

firstly, introducing my beliefs about the best teaching and methods for teaching; secondly,

illustrating theories with my own experience I have had.

I strongly believe that ESL/EFL teacher should apply learner-centered teaching and
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communicative language teaching in their classes.

Learner-centered teaching approach takes priority in learners’ interests, needs and

preferences. By acknowledging learners’ needs, interests and learning styles, teachers can help

learners develop confidence and self-esteem. Learners can become the focus of teaching in the

following ways. Firstly, we have to make consciousness of learners’ goals and needs by the means

of conversation, classroom activities, questionnaires and writing activities. Then, we have to

understand learners’ favor of classroom interaction and participation. According to Good and

Power, there are six different types of students: task-oriented students, social students, dependent

students, phantom students, isolated students and alienated students. (Good and Power, 1976)

Thirdly, we need to recognize students’ difference in cognitive styles: some may require to watch

a short TV clip (visual learners), whereas others may understand the material better if they get in a

group with other peers (group learners). Moreover, teachers also need to create a community of

learners and build learner-centered outcomes into lessons.

I have observed the learner-centered teaching approach effectively applied in many instances.

A particularly powerful example I saw is during a classroom observation. In observation#1, I

watched ESL teacher Mrs. Lisa Zufferey delivered an integrated skills class at UCR for

intermediate level students who are mostly from Asia countries like Japan, South Korea and China.

Since the class was at the beginning of a new quarter, Lisa said hi and asked several questions

when students came into the classroom. It seems that the teachers in Asia countries concentrate

much more on reading and grammar teaching, so students from Asia countries have less

confidence in speaking.

The class focused on listening and speaking. At the beginning of the class, Lisa made a

survey about technology around life which was closely related to students’ lives. There are some
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questions like “what app do you use most?” and “what app do you use while you are studying?”.

Students had several minutes to think about their own answers then they were going to discuss it

in pairs. Students worked with partners who spoke different languages which ensured English was

the only language in the class. Lisa gave some pieces of advice before the discussion that students

can ask follow-up questions to continue the conversation. Students were engaged in this activity

and they shared different apps in their countries to their partners.

This activity clearly demonstrated many of the principles of learner-centered teaching. First

and foremost, the small conversation between the teacher and students before the class and the

class before let the teacher learn that these students have little confidence in speaking. Given that

students need more chance to speak, Lisa designed an activity which was related to students’ daily

life which encouraged students to share their experience to the other people. Second, Mrs. Lisa

executed individual work and group work in her learner-centered teaching. As we all know that

students have different cognitive styles, some are group learners while some are individual

learners, Lisa found most of her students learned best when they were working with others. When

I observed the class, I noticed that students enjoyed a lot when they discussed with other students.

This kind of activity not only encourages students to practice spoken English but also creates a

relaxed and low-anxiety environment.

Communicative language teaching is an approach teaching methodology and its goal is to

enable students to communicate in the target language. (Larsen & Anderson, 2011) Since we use

our language in a social way, second language learners should not only be able to produce the

sentences in the class but also use this language to communicate effectively outside the classroom.

According to Hymes, being able to communicate requires learners to know when and how to say

what to whom. (Hymes, 1971) one of the features of the CLT is that students are engaged in a lot
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of communicative activities, like role-plays and games. The truly communicative activities should

have information gap, choice and feedback. In the real life, communication is always purposeful.

Thus a speaker can evaluate whether or not listener catch the meaning of what he said based on

the feedback he received from the listener. Another characteristic of CLT is that all the

communicative materials are authentic, which can help students understand language as it is

actually used in social life.

I have effectively employed communicative learning teaching in a writing class. The class was

targeted to intermediate students who were studying in a university language program. They were

mostly from Asia, like China, South Korea, Japan and middle-east countries. The goal of these

students was improving their academic writing skills. Students would be able to use connective

words to write sentences to build a story with their classmates.

To help students use connective words effectively and accurately, I designed a story-

construction activity. Students were divided into pairs according to the month of their birthday by

which students had the partners who spoke different languages. I passed out a blank paper to

every group and told them that they can start the story with any sentence then they passed their

paper to the group on their left side. The next group had to write a sentence with connective

words to continue the story then passed to another group. When the story went back to the first

group, it should be a completed story. They would read their story to the whole class.

Story-construction activity includes have information gap, choice and feedback. Firstly,

students worked in pairs which means that they have to talk with their partners and share their

ideas when they wrote the beginning of their story and built the story so information gap existed

when they were writing. Second, each student has a choice of what he will say and how he will

say it. (Larsen & Anderson, 2011) They can agree with their partner’s idea about the story or they
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can give his own suggestion. Negotiation did exist and true communication did occur. Finally, I

noticed feedback existed when they made a conversation. For example, I heard student A said

“can you repeat it” and his partner B said his opinion again. This action suggested that B’s

purpose has not been achieved so another exchange happened. Story-construction activity is a

highly effective and efficient approach to teaching. I noticed students engaged in the activity and

they all built interesting stories.

In conclusion, my philosophy of teaching resets on several beliefs about teaching, including

the value of learner-centered teaching and communicative language teaching. Through study and

research, I acknowledge the definition and principles of these two theories; through observation

and teaching experience, I had the opportunities to witness the approach and employ it to a real

English teaching class. It is my hope that my understanding of learner-centered teaching and

communicative language teaching coupled with my learning experience in TESOL and teaching

Chinese to speakers of other languages will provide necessary foundation about effective English

language teaching in the future.

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References

Richards, J. and Farrell, T. (2011). Practice teaching: A reflective approach. Cambridge:

Cambridge University Press.

Larsen-Freeman, D. and Anderson, M. (2011). Techniques and Principles in Language

Teaching, 3rd Edition. Oxford University Press: Oxford.

Good, T.L. and Power, C. (1976) Designing successful classroom environments for different

types of students, Journal of Curriculum Studies.

Hymes, D.(1971). ‘Competence and performance in linguistic theory’ in R. Huxley and E.

Ingram(eds). Language Acquisition: Models and Methods. London: Academic Press.