Part 2: Statement of Language Teaching Philosophy and Methods.

In this statement, I will discuss what I believe about effective language teaching and learning. I will give the reasons for my beliefs and support them with literature. I will also show how these beliefs can be applied in the classroom, and share some of my experiences with teaching. The main core of my teaching philosophy stems from my training for the masters degree in TESOL, taken at Hawaii Pacific University. My teaching philosophy centers on the importance of motivation, authenticity, and social interaction in the classroom. A great challenge for any teacher is motivating students in the classroom. How can a teacher make the lessons fun and interesting, and encourage students to actively participate in class? To achieve this I believe it is important to be creative. Teachers need to vary activities and teaching materials. My view is supported by Lightbown and Spada (2006), which claimed that lessons consisting of the same patterns, formats, and routines lead to a decrease in attention and an increase in boredom. During my practicum teaching I got to work closely with students whose homework was reviewed each time the class met. It was routine to make students share their homework answers. To avoid boredom, I varied the form of the homework review. I alternated between having the students share their answers with a partner, in a group or with the class as a whole. Helping teach that class also made me discover another way to motivate students: co-operative tasks really engaged them. Lightbown and Spada (2006) believed co-operative learning could increase a students involvement because every participant in a co-operative task has an important role to play. Knowing that their group members depend on them can increase students motivation. As another way to increase students motivation, I also believe in

the reinforcement theory, which states, human beings will pursue a goal because they perceive a reward for doing so (cited in Brown, 2007, p. 85). To students, the reward could be praise, good grades, receiving a scholarship, or career ambitions. I think it is important to give students positive feedback. However, students should not become too dependent on praise. It is important to praise students when they do something well or give a good effort. Also, many students are very concerned with their grades. For some, receiving good grades becomes important, as it can help them obtain admission into prospective schools or enhance their career opportunities. I therefore believe that another way a teacher can motivate students is through assessment. Establishing face validity on a test is important. According to Brown (2007), when students do not know what is being tested, or a test is not testing what they feel it was intended to test, then a test lacks face validity. In order to avoid this, students need to be given essential information before the test. For example, they could be advised about test content, test design, and test length. Giving practice tests or exercises will also help prepare the students. I believe proper preparation before a test will lead to increased motivation. Lastly, I think giving students choices will also heighten their motivation. This belief is based on self-control theory, which states motivation is highest when one can make ones own choices (cited in Brown, 2007, p. 87). Giving students different alternatives on tests, activities, and projects are ways for this to be achieved. In addition to the importance of motivation, another belief central to my teaching philosophy is the desirability of authenticity in the classroom. I believe it is important for teachers to use authentic language material and authentic tasks. First, students need to read and hear how proficient speakers use the target language in authentic situations.

Instead of making up dialogues for a role-play activity for instance, a teacher could select samples from real-life conversations. I believe students can really benefit from authentic language material. A good example of authentic material is video. All types of videos from documentaries, TV shows, movies or broadcasts can be used as language material. Students are very familiar with this medium today, and I believe it can easily trigger their attention and motivation. I agree with Sherman (2003) that authentic video is an important part of language learning today. More specifically, authentic video provides a vast up-to-date linguistic resource of accents, vocabulary, grammar and syntax, and all kinds of discourses, which shows us language in most uses and contexts- something neither a course book nor classroom can do (p. 2). Video can be implemented in projects, discussions, and writing assignments. Another good source for authentic language material is corpora. Reppen (2010) defines a corpus as a large, principled collection of naturally occurring texts (written or spoken) stored electronically (p. 2). Naturally occurring texts means that the texts are from actual language situations, like conversations between friends, meetings, letters, newspapers or books, rather than madeup language (Reppen, 2010). There are large corpus databases where teachers can collect language samples to use in the classroom. It is very important to keep in mind the students skill levels when selecting sample materials. They need to be suitable to the students proficiency levels. I also believe that creating and using authentic tasks is another way to establish authenticity in the classroom. I agree with Egberts (2005) definition: an authentic task is one learners perceive they will use outside of class in their real world or that parallels or replicates real functions beyond the classroom (p. 6). More and more students in

Norway are choosing to study abroad in places like Britain, Australia, and America. Activities that would prepare them to enroll in universities where English is the language of instruction would be perceived as authentic to them. Such activities would need to focus on English for Academic Purposes. The web site of the Michigan Corpus of Academic Spoken English (MICASE) has a number of teaching activities that could be used to prepare students for such a purpose (Reppen, 2010). I believe authentic tasks will also increase students motivation because they see how the tasks can be of use to help them achieve future goals, like participating in a study abroad program at an American university. I believe it is essential that language learners can perform in authentic situations outside of class. In order to achieve this, learners need to engage in social interactions As an English language learner myself, I have been fortunate enough to study abroad in America. Speaking the language on a daily basis greatly improved my English proficiency. I therefore think it is very important to give students many opportunities to interact with their peers in the classroom meaningfully. There are also many researchers that acknowledge the importance of social interactions for language acquisition. Vygotsky believed that language develops primarily from social interactions (cited in Lightbown & Spada, 2006, p. 20). His theory was that learning occurred when an individual interacts with an interlocutor within his/her zone of proximal development (ZPD). The ZPD is a metaphorical place, where a learner is capable of a higher level of performance because there is support from interaction with an interlocutor (Lightbown & Spada, 2006, p. 206). Long argued that conversational interaction was an essential condition for language acquisition. He argued that learners need opportunities to interact

with other speakers, and that together they can reach mutual comprehension. The interlocutors will figure out what they need to do in order to keep the conversation going, and how to make the input comprehensible (cited in Lightbown & Spada, 2006). The Comprehensible Output Hypothesis focuses more on the learner than the interlocutor. It proposed that the occurrence of communication problems makes the learners more aware of their own limitations, which requires them to find better ways to express meaning. Thus, the demands of producing comprehensible output will push learners forward in their development (cited in Lightbown & Spada, 2006). I highly agree with the opinions of these theorists. In my practicum teaching, I also noticed that students were more engaged in activities that involved group discussions. I saw that they made an effort to negotiate meaning with each other. I therefore believe that interaction in the classroom can increase the students motivation. As a teacher, I want to give students many opportunities to interact with their peers and myself. I want students to co-operate with their peers when working on classroom tasks, or checking their answers with a partner after individual work. In conclusion, I believe that motivated students will learn a language more efficiently. Motivation can be developed several ways. I think giving students choices, properly preparing them before a test, providing positive feedback, and varying tasks and materials, are some ways to achieve this. Furthermore, I believe that authenticity and social interactions in the classroom will also increase motivation, and that they are effective ways to promote language acquisition.

References Brown, H, D. (2007). Teaching by principles: An interactive approach to language pedagogy (3rd ed.). White Plains, NY: Pearson Education. Egbert, J. (2005). CALL essentials: Principles and practice in CALL classrooms. Alexandria, VA: TESOL. Lightbown, P. M. & Spada, N. (2006). How languages are learned. (3rd ed.) Oxford, England: Oxford University Press. Reppen, R. (2010). Using Corpora in the language classroom. New York, NY: Cambridge University Press. Sherman, J. (2003). Using authentic video in the language classroom. New York, NY: Cambridge University Press.