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My Philosophy of Teaching Statement

Wenjia Ye

University of California Riverside Extension: TESOL Portfolio

27 February 2017
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My philosophy of teaching ESL or EFL based on my previous learning experience and

observation in China. I have learned English more than ten years, through my experience, I

noticed that a great number of Chinese students including me are unwilling to express

themselves in class. Some students could possibly be afraid to make mistakes in class because

their classmates might laugh at them and teachers may criticize them. Whats more, because of

students silence in class, it is difficult for teachers to understand their learning progress and

needs, and teacher have to assign a lot of homework to make sure they understand what teacher

has taught. As a result of these elements, students might gradually lose their interest in English

learning. Therefore, as a language teacher, there is a good chance to create an effective

classroom learning environment where can establish students trust, respect, and confidence.

Learning is acquiring knowledge of a subject or a skill by study, experience, or

instruction (Brown, 2014). As a language teacher, I am supposed to know what affect students

in class in order to create an effective classroom learning environment for them. There are three

main elements may influence students learning process according to my own learning

experience and observation. First, lacking of confidence probably leads to students timidity in

class. Most Chinese are not likely to give their opinion directly in front of people if they are not

quite sure which is attributed to Chinese traditional culture. Second, students might not master

enough knowledge, skills, and expertise to support their expressions. They perhaps have a

wonderful logical thought about their views; however, they cannot organize their ideas by using

their second or foreign language. Hence, most students are afraid to use the target language to

share their opinion in English class. Third, it is a common phenomenon in China that students

and their parents respect their teachers highly, and attach great importance to their assessment,

which result in students tension and fear towards the class. Consequently, most learners are
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inclined to be wordless in class to avoid teachers attention. Some of these elements relate to the

perspectives on second language acquisition: sociocultural factors, observable performance, and

language competence.

From my view, as a language teacher, I am supposed to create the right classroom

climate for students to have an effective classroom learning environment. Classroom climate

refers to the affective side of the classroom, that is, the feelings the students have towards the

lesson, to the teacher and other students, and the learning atmosphere of the classroom

(Richards & Farrell, 2011). There are two factors in building a right classroom climate. On the

one hand, I should help my students have a positive view and expectation for my class and me. I

have observed a listening and speaking class in UCR Extension, the teacher stood at the door and

greeted every student before the class started, and the teacher handed out candies as a reward

during this class. The teachers behaviors show her respect and concern about students.

Therefore, these students are more willing to share their experience and feeling with the teacher.

Inspired by the teacher, I can discuss some common interests and concerns with students such as

food and TV shows to suggest that there is no generation gap between students and me so that I

can have a harmonious teacher-student rapport. Whats more, I will ask my students to do some

small favors for me such as distributing handouts to classmates. Thereby, students probably feel

respected and valued because the teacher is friendly and approachable. On the other hand,

according to Richards & Farrell (2011), another important factor in establishing the right

classroom climate is creating a safe learning environment for students where they are not afraid

to take risks or make mistakes, establishing professional credibility and a sense of purpose in

lessons, as well as establishing appropriate norms of classroom behavior. That means understand

students level and needs is extremely vital for me because I can choose the appropriate content
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for students to learn so that they will not feel stressed or bored. In order to make students feel

nonthreatening and comfortable in the class, take my own experience as an example, when my

high school English teacher corrected our errors, she smiled to encourage us to give another

answers rather than accusing our errors. Consequently, most of my classmates liked to

participate in her class.

Based on Brown (2014), teaching, which is implied in the definition of learning, may be

defined as showing or helping someone to learn how to do something, giving instruction,

guiding in the study of something, providing with knowledge, causing to know or understand. A

fifty-minute class normally includes warm up, presentation, practice, production, and wrap up,

and all these elements are necessary elements for a successful class so it is important for me to

manage my use of class time to build an effective classroom learning environment. In my

opinion, it is a beneficial method for me to use Simple Six which consists of giving direction,

modeling, comprehension check, giving time, monitoring, and correcting as class when I do

activities of practice and production part because it can avoid needless or over-lengthy

explanation and instructions, and monitoring students performance on activities so that they

have had sufficient time to complete them but not too much time. Whats more, setting time for

activities can help teacher control the use of class time, and students will feel a little stressed to

finish the activity earlier. For example, I have delivered several lessons during the TESOL

program, and Simple Six is applied to most of my class, which is efficient and useful.

Becoming an English teacher for a primary school in Shanghai, China is my goal, and I

want to pursue a M.Ed. after finishing my bachelor degree there are three reasons why I have

such dream. First, in my opinion, excellent begun is only half done. It is vital for young learners

to have a solid foundation so that they can study English or other languages more effectively and
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easily in their further studies. Second, a master degree in Education will allow me to consult in a

variety of areas of education. Third, a teachers responsibility consists not only teaching but also

imparting moral principles such as empathy, integrity and fairness and this aspect of teaching at

the elementary school level inspires me to pursue my aim. Generally speaking, I want to be an

English teacher so that I can apply my philosophy of teaching into real teaching.
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Reference

Brown H. (2014). Principles of Language Learning And Teaching. NY: Pearson Eduation.

Richards, J. & Farrell, T. (2011). Practice Teaching: A Reflective Approach. New York, NY:

Cambridge University Press.