My Vision for Language Learning
I see myself as a learner every day along with my students. We are a team with the same goal of achieving for them, English language skills that they, the learner, can utilise successfully in their present and future lives. Whether it be for communicating with friends, family or in their future jobs, whether for pleasure or business purposes. As English is recognised as an international language, having a sound grasp of the English language is now paramount for many people to attain. Living in Australia, a a proficient level of English enables English language learners to communicate with locals and opens up job opportunities for the future. At the same time, I also believe it is also vital to incorporate the learner's mother tongue into the teaching and recognising the learner's identity and what they bring to the learning situation.
I view every language learner as an individual with their own identity. Each learner has different learning styles, beliefs, cultural backgrounds, personalities, motivators and prior learning and life experiences. All of these factors influence the learners' capacity to learn and how they need to be taught. There is not a one-size-fits all approach to language teaching, as every student is different. As Scarino & Liddicoat (2013, p. 51) states, “individual learners, with their own linguistic and cultural positionings and identities, are involved in an encounter with alternate positionings and identities that they need to understand and evaluate.”
The learner is the focus. Learning is also interactive, where meaning is negotiated. I incorporate activities that encourage collaboration and communication between learners,such as barrier games and brainstorming as a group to gather information on subjects.
The context of learning also needs to be considered when designing a language teaching program. I agree with Nunan (1991, in Hall, 2011, p. 78) who states, methods “all assume that there is a single set of principles which will determine whether or not learning will take place.”
As Prabhu (1990, in Hall, 2011, p. 98) states “best method depends on context, and …every method has some value…how methodological principles are implemented in practice, depends on teachers’ beliefs and their subjective understanding of teaching in their own particular contexts…the teacher’s ‘sense of plausibility..a personal conceptualisation of how their teaching leads to desired learning. A consequence of this sense of plausibility is that methodological principles may be realised in different ways by different teachers, and elements from different methods may be mixed and blended..teachers’ classroom methodologies are ‘eclectic.”
As Canagarajah (2006, in Hall, 2011, p. 100) notes, "we are no longer searching for yet another more effective and successful method; instead, we are now questioning the notion of methods itself."
I agree with the idea of the three principles of Postmethod Discourse proposed by Kumaravadivelu (2006, in Hall, 2011, p. 100) of particularity, practicality and possibility whereby "teachers act in a context-sensitive, location-specific manner, recognising the social, linguistic and cultural background of their learners" and where teachers can practice their own theories when teaching and where "the socio-political consciousness of learners is addressed in the classroom, as a catalyst for identity formation and social transformation."
Hall (2011, p. 100) proposes that"teachers can make informed decisions based on local and contextual expertise."
In reality though, in practice teachers still need to adhere to the NSW curriculum, school policies and student and parent expectations.
Research according to Savignon (in Celce-Murcie, 2001, p. 25) “support the integration of form-focused exercises with meaning -focused experience.” I believe that there is still a place for explicit instruction of grammatical structure balanced with meaning. The combination of activities depends on factors such as the learners age and learning requirements and there needs to be a range of both written and oral texts in context. During a lesson a range of activities can occur such as brainstorming, language modeling by the teacher whereby isolated sentences can be explicitly analysed with visual aids including drawings, role plays to demonstrate a language feature in use, reading and listening to texts and information-gap exercises involving using the English language to extract information from each other.
Wait time after questioning is also vital. Long (1984, in Celce-Murcia, 2001) found increased
wait time from 3 to 5 seconds resulted in longer SL student utterances
With the introduction of new technology, language teaching needs to adapt. During the Covid 19 lockdowns, I had to adapt to teaching some language learning lessons online through Zoom. Following on from the lockdowns my lessons now include utilising various forms of technologies including using the internet to access information and images and an interactive Smart Board.
As Shin & Kang (2018, p. 372) note, online language learning can now occur with no face-to face contact where the teaching and learning “occur when the learner and instructor are not in the same place at the same time.” Systems such as Blackboard are used so that students can communicate and upload and obtain resources. Students need to be able to access computer technology which according to Shin & Kang (2018, p. 375) could create a “digital divide between the technology ‘haves’ and ‘have-nots’ around the world.”
My future language teaching experiences may include the usage of new technologies. The style of teaching is continually evolving due to the advancement in technology and teachers need to have up-to-date computer technologies and to know how to communicate in virtual classrooms.
Students’ experience with schooling can also impact their
learning. Liu et al. (2010, in Shin & Kang, 2018) noted that Shin
& Kang (2018, p. 376) proposed that "students could have difficulties participating in
online discussion or citing references in online writing due to their schooling
experiences in their home countries where extensive reading and exam-driven learning
are emphasised.”
Online Learning
According to Brown & Long (in Oblinger, 2006, p. 9.3) there is a “shift in learning spaces to support how people learn” including virtual teaching environments including the usage of virtual whiteboards and videoconferencing. Furthermore, Brown & Long (in Oblinger, 2006, p. 9.4) acknowledge that "learning, not information, is increasingly the focus.” Learning-centred design shifts the focus to the users of the space for the design of the learning environment. As students bring technology to campuses the concept of learning spaces has broadend. As Brown & Long (2006, p.10) state, “to anywhere, anytime learning on residential, commuter, or virtual campuses.”
Curricula needs to be culturally sensitive.. Kramsch (1993, in Alsagoff et al., 2012, p. 40) language classrooms need a “sphere of interculturality.” As Widdowson (1994, in Alsagoff et al., 2012, p. 42) notes, “proficient speakers of English have equal ownership of English, regardless of their “nativeness.”
I am learning every day how to be a more effective language teacher and I am looking forward to the challenges and new experiences that my continually evolving role as a TESOL teacher will entail.
Hall, G. (2011). Exploring English language teaching: Language in action. Routledge.
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