Teaching Philosophy

Learning English has always been a difficult and annoying issue since I was in
middle school. The teachers usually taught English that was either focused on grammar or
improving our test score. I thought I was pretty good at English as I had no problems with
reading and usually obtained good scores. When I started my career at a multinational
company, however, I had many problems with speaking and writing in English. My English
was not effective in real-world situations and I became very frustrated. So I tried different
ways to develop my English skills. For instance, I tried to watch funny American TV series,
or take an ESP course on business English. Since then, I have become very interested in
learning English and I applied for the HUFS TESOL certificate program. We learned various
subjects, from culture and pragmatics to teaching four skills to methods and approaches that
enlightened me on progressive and interactive methods of teaching.
Subsequently, my newfound teaching philosophy has been shaped by my experiences
within the TESOL certificate program, the TESOL graduate program, and observations within
my work place, an English institute with Canadian immersion-style classes. My teaching
philosophy now includes providing students with a supportive learning environment, helping
them achieve communicative competence through meaningful activities, and meeting their
needs to succeed in the English academic environment. For example, I incorporate a variety
of meaning-based activities that provide authentic and relevant input students that relate to
real life such as writing for science journals and show-and-tell about dreams. People learn a
second language more successfully when they use the language as a means of acquiring
information (Richards, 2001). I am especially interested in the interactionist perspective,
where language is seen as a tool for maintaining interpersonal and social relations. So I like
utilizing task-based, cooperative and content-based methods. According to Brown (2001),
content-based classrooms have the potential of increasing intrinsic motivation and
empowerment, since students are focused on subject matter that is important to their life. With
respect to cooperative language learning, McGroarty (1989) suggested advantages such as
having opportunities for students to act as resources for each other, thus assuming a more
active role in their learning and having increased frequency and variety of second language
practice through different types of interaction.
Within my institute, teachers integrate subject knowledge into a variety of active
techniques suitable to the developmental stages of the children. For example, our students
learn about flying with making, and, flying a kite, and, reading a book about Wright brothers,
and writing a journal that uses English as a medium of communication. Students exhibit a
positive attitude towards English through varied, stimulating, and enjoyable experiences. Our
students do not feel they are solely learning; instead, they really enjoy class. They learn to not
just speak, but think in English. As it has worked well, I am very impressed with this teaching
style. Students can clarify information through tasks or activities, integrate ideas from their
previous experiences, develop their imagination and creativity, as well as explore and
experiment with their environment. To be honest, none of this is easy to do in the Korean
public school system.
The MB government in Korea has considered implementing the immersion of
English education within the public school system. This idea has yet to take root as several
issues need to be resolved, such as big class sizes and varying student abilities. Throughout
my studies related to MALL in graduate school; I have realized that multimedia and
educational technologies program can make content and task-based work easier and more
efficient. For instance, I once used the ASSURE model to develop a lesson plan that
integrated instructional strategies and multimedia tools into an EFL lesson. It was very
interesting, and as such, I hope to design and develop programs that focus on related content
and task-based activities so that immersion programs can make effective use of multimedia in
the Korean public school system. As immersion education in EFL requires considerable
language development due to methodological and language factors, I want to study and
develop my understanding more in this area.
In addition to the interactionist perspective, I also believe EFL students need to be
able to communicate in meaningful ways. Activities in which language is used for carrying
out meaningful tasks promote learning (Johnson 1982). Culture and pragmatics naturally
affect communication. Hence, language learning requires understanding how to adjust to
contextual factors such as roles and purpose. In this manner, teachers could help students
understand socially appropriate communication. Therefore I want to develop materials and
methods that better reflect cultural cues, understanding, and interaction.
Finally, drawing from my knowledge of teaching EFL and personal experiences as an
EFL student, I believe teachers need to keep an open mind about different teaching
approaches, methods, and techniques that encompasses the dynamic nature of education.
Hopefully, as I gain more knowledge and experience in teaching EFL, my teaching
philosophy will continue to evolve for the better.