Carmen Jany

Fall 2006

Certificate in College and University Teaching Portfolio

CV

Websites

• Mixe
  Dictionary
• Ling 101
• Span 2
• Span 3
• German 3

Teaching Philosophy for Teaching Foreign Languages

My approach to foreign language instruction has developed from my professional experience as a teacher of Spanish, German, and English, as well as from my personal experience as a foreign language learner. In both capacities, I have had the opportunity to observe second language acquisition in language classes at universities and in small language schools with students having a broad range of needs, preparation, and cultural backgrounds. In general, I believe that motivation, enthusiasm, and commitment to students are most important. Motivation is what keeps the learning process going, a strong desire the explore new things and to acquire new skills. As a teacher, I need to constantly motivate students and grab their interest by demonstrating my own enthusiasm for the subject. This can be achieved by discussing relevant and current topics, by introducing authentic materials and culture, and by integrating technology. Being accessible to students, adapting to their needs, and providing them with the necessary tools for learning are my responsibilities as a teacher. Therefore, I am flexible and forthcoming and make adjustments in the material and pace of a class to best suit the students.

In my foreign language teaching I adhere to a healthy combination of communicative and proficiency‑oriented instruction within the direct method. I see communicative competence as the ultimate goal for my students. Students should work toward being able to convey and interpret messages in a foreign language and toward negotiating meaning within specific contexts. This entails not only a knowledge of vocabulary, grammar rules, and pronunciation, but also mastering socio‑linguistic, cultural, and strategic skills. Communicative language teaching focuses on the authentic functional use of the target language for meaningful purposes. In the classroom, I encourage contextualized and meaningful language use in a variety of tasks, such as for example critiquing current movies as a group activity or discussing internet use in child‑parent role play. While the communicative approach pays less attention to grammatical structures, I consider proficiency-oriented instruction as an integral part of a language program. Students need to engage in both kinds of activities: those with a primary goal in communicative competence and those with a primary goal in accuracy, such as practicing the subjunctive forms in Spanish. Attention to accuracy is needed to avoid error fossilization. Foreign language instruction should be conducted in the target language, hence using the direct method. The direct method is based on first language acquisition where direct association of words and meanings occur. While teaching exclusively in this method does not work well in the classroom, given the limited amount of time available and the fact that some grammar rules need explanation, I regard certain aspects, such as using the target language in class and avoiding translation, as very useful in foreign language instruction.

Classroom teaching should focus on all five basic foreign language skills: speaking, listening, reading, writing, and culture. While all five skills can be taught within a communicative and proficiency-oriented framework, the teaching techniques for each one of them may vary.

Most students feel that speaking is the most important skill they want to learn. As a teacher I try to encourage students to constantly practice their speaking skills in class. This can be achieved by stimulating conversations where students need to negotiate meaning in an activity that resembles a real‑life situation either through role play in a group, where selected groups may model the outcome in class, or in teacher‑student interactions in classes with fewer students (up to 10). For first year students topics may include: asking for directions, booking a hotel, or ordering food in a restaurant. Such activities can be put into context by showing a picture of the hotel or a menu with dishes from the country where the target language is spoken. Before practicing these speaking skills I introduce relevant vocabulary, and may talk about the differences between careful speech and vernacular style or about culture-specific circumstances, such as for example the fact that some restaurants in Spain open their doors for dinner at 10pm or later. For second year students topics can be more complex, such as discussing education systems in different countries or the effects of global warming. I encourage advanced students to pay attention to phonetics and intonation, and may present meta‑linguistic topics, such as pronunciation rules or how Spanish pronunciation varies from country to country.

Listening skills are very important and should be trained constantly in class. This can be achieved using the direct method. Visual aids, such as pointing to objects in the classroom, showing pictures from magazines, and making drawings on the board, help students understand what is said in the target language. This also keeps the instruction dynamic and entertaining. Total physical response, where the students perform an action such as shaking hands or standing up when asked by the teacher, may also prove useful in teaching listening skills. In addition, group activities are explained in the target language and often one example is modeled by the teacher and a student in class. While listening skills are trained regularly in class, students are only exposed to one variety or speaker of the target language. Furthermore, teachers tend to speak slower and articulate clearly when teaching. This is particularly problematic for Spanish because the spoken varieties are very different from each other. To expose students to other varieties of the target language I introduce authentic materials in class, such as music, or ask the students to watch a movie or to listen to a radio program. This activity then leads to other tasks, such as class discussions or writing an essay.

Students often believe that reading is less important, and they show less interest in activities designed to train reading skills. One problem is usually the text itself. I believe that it is essential to teach reading skills using an authentic text that covers a current topic, such as a magazine article on celebrity gossip or on the different kinds of ipods, or a culture‑specific topic. The text may be simplified to suit students’ proficiency levels. Pre‑reading activities are also essential to give students cues for better understanding. In pre‑activities I discuss the topic of the text in class to create a context and may go over some special vocabulary, discourse structures, or grammar rules. Before students read a text they need to activate their background knowledge. Visual aids, such as pictures or ‘realia’, i.e. an ipod, are very helpful. I may also introduce some reading techniques, such as finding key words and looking for visual and other cues. The reading itself occurs either in class or in groups. Post-reading activities test the students’ comprehension and include answering questions or a discussion about the issues presented in reading.

Teaching writing has traditionally been viewed as having a product-oriented goal. However, it has been shown that writing can be approached as a process. Process approaches treat writing as a creative act which requires time and positive feedback, not just setting a topic and receiving a final product without any intervention in the writing process itself. I belief that writing should be taught as a process where students are encouraged to think about their audience, correct their errors, and improve their style and organization of the writing sample. Writing should be taught for specific purposes as a problem‑solving activity and emphasize different styles, rather than being limited to essay writing. For example, students can be asked to write an e-mail or a letter to apply for a job, or a movie critique they can post online. Given the increasing use of the internet for all kinds of purposes, students need to learn how to express themselves online in a foreign language. Writing may also be approached as a collaborative activity whereby students either engage in peer editing or in a written exchange of messages (i.e. online) with each other. Nevertheless, I think that essay writing should not be abandoned completely and that it plays an important role in acquiring writing skills at higher levels of proficiency.

Culture should be an integral part in classroom instruction as language and culture are inseparable. In my opinion, a major purpose of foreign language instruction is to promote cross‑cultural awareness and appreciation. Knowledge and understanding of the cultures that use the target language is imperative for mastering the language and knowing ‘how, when, and why to say what to whom’, as the ACTFL (American Council on the Teaching of Foreign Languages) defines it in its guidelines, which I endorse. Cultural understanding needs to be constantly incorporated in classroom activities and should be emphasized in instruction materials. Geography, customs, art, music, food, and other cultural aspects may be discussed in class and differences between cultural aspects of L1 and the target language may be explained, in particular if they affect linguistic behavior. This includes context‑determined and function‑determined socio‑linguistic formulae, such as greetings, and connotations that certain words may evoke in the target language, such as ‘movie theater’ or ‘public transport system’. I think that culture can be taught through processes and facts, as well as through comparison with the students’ culture.

Overall, approaches to teaching each of the five skills vary. Nevertheless, they have many things in common, such as activating and using the students’ background knowledge, putting activities in a context, and using advance organizers and visual stimuli in general. New technology, in particular the internet, can and should play a role in teaching each of the five skills.

I encourage the use of new technology to keep pace with our constant modernization and to facilitate learning. The internet is an excellent teaching aid and can be used for instruction beyond the classroom. As a teacher, I can post relevant information or links to culture‑specific or language‑oriented sites on my class website, create an online forum or blogs for students to practice their writing skills, or upload interactive exercises for additional grammar practice. I encourage students to visit websites and chat rooms in the target language. Using technology students can gain access to authentic up‑to‑date materials and work at their own pace. Special software can serve as a teaching aid for difficult aspects of second language acquisition, such as intonation, where visualizing a pitch trace may foster learning. In general, I see technology and the internet as motivating factors for students and as a great resource for both, teachers and students.

In sum, I use an interactive and communicative‑approach within a proficiency‑oriented framework in my foreign language teaching, and I believe that foreign language instruction should primarily occur in the target language. With my enthusiasm and creativity and by choosing the right topics and resources, such as authentic materials, new technology, and the internet, I strive to motivate my students and to facilitate learning.