My Teaching philosophy

‘Teaching’ is different from one teacher to the other. That is because every teacher possesses a philosophy of teaching which is specific for themselves. However, as an ESL practitioner and an undergraduate following the degree of TESL, my philosophy of teaching is based on four components; teaching can be defined as a process in which a teacher should establish a strong teacher – student relationship in the classroom while giving more space to leaners making a learner – centered setting and focusing the practicality of the lesson, and, at the same time, the teacher should keep in mind that every child is unique in some aspects. 

Teaching is a kind of an art, and the teacher is the one who crafts it. Significantly, before a person is given the title “teacher”, he/she is a human. So, obviously, his/her emotional background can affect the process of teaching at some point. However, it is the expectation of the teacher to minimize the impact of the personal scenarios into the teaching, and to create a strong teacher – student rapport in the classroom because it eventually affects the child’s ability to learn and it improves their behaviours as well. As an ESL teacher, I always try to be in the same level as my students like friends although I have my personal boundaries. Also, regardless of their gender, ethnicity, socio – economic background or proficiency level, I show equity for every student. By implementing these techniques in the ESL setting, what I noticed was that building a strong relationship between the teacher and students makes the learning process success. In addition to that, I believe learning happens naturally - forcing learners to learn is meaningless, and they should be given the chance to learn by themselves. So, I appreciate the concept of ‘student-centered classroom’ where the teacher plays the role of a facilitator. In a student-centered classroom face to face interaction, posture, facial and body expressions and giving feedback can be introduced as the core values, and these values indirectly promotes leaners’ performance and the acquisition of the target language. So, the teacher can reduce the teaching – talking time and give more space for the learners in order to create a leaner – centered classroom. 

Many ESL teachers tend to focus on only the theoretical aspect of the language which is not adequate. I assume that the practicality of the lesson is more important than just teaching the theory. Students should be aware of how to use the target language in authentic situations. So, when planning lessons, I try my best to incorporate activities and materials such as role play dialogues, debates, impromptu speeches, story – telling, and so on aiming to develop students’ speaking skills and equipping them to use the learnt theories in actual settings. 

Another vital feature that ESL teachers should focus is that every child is unique in some ways. An ESL classroom can be contained with learners who belong to various socio – economic backgrounds, linguistic groups, ethnicities, religions, proficiency levels, and as well as who have disabilities. Because of that, ‘diversity’ is one of the major concerns in the field of English Language Teaching. Also, these leaners may have different needs, abilities and lacks. As a consequence of that, the planned lessons and materials should address each and every learner without marginalizing them. So, instead of focusing only one group of students, incorporating Multiple Intelligence Theory (Gardner,1983) and Humanism, I try to use different types of activities which are suitable for different types of leaners during my teaching. 

In this way, my philosophy is based on the factors discussed above, and considering all of them I try to create a leaner friendly environment for every leaner regardless of the differences they have.