03/10/2024
My Teaching Style
Firstly, I take a thorough assessment of each student’s level of English grammar, vocabulary, and pronunciation. My teaching philosophy is to put the student first, and to listen more than I talk during the first lesson with the student. My teaching philosophy is to assess the primary way in which each student learns. Some students learn grammar by reading about grammar. Some students learn grammar by studying infographics and visuals about grammar. So, it is vital that I make a clear and thorough assessment of each student.
My teaching style is something that has served me well over the years. It is of the utmost importance to me that the student gets the most bang for their buck during our lesson. I try to put myself into the shoes of each and every one of my students. My teaching style is to continually assess the student and to involve the student in the planning of their future lessons. I don't believe it is essential for a teacher to be familiar with the students first language. Immersion in the second language during the lesson is strong encouragement for each student to do their homework between classes. In this way they will have the ability to study supplementary materials also included in the homework. I believe homework is essential.
I continually ask my students if I am talking too slow or too fast. I continually ask them if the road we are on is the road they are still pursuing. Teaching is very fluid, and I must always be on my toes in order to meet my student's needs. Again, listening is the key to making productive lessons where the students feel heard and enriched. (the 80/20rule)
Teaching technique. I used a variety of teaching techniques depending upon the student's intellectual level, their ability to learn at certain speeds, their goals and drive, and the intensity that they put into their studies. For example, with an advanced student that I see for 4 one hour lessons a week, I want to make the best use of their time so we pick a main course such as advanced general English, but since they are taking four lessons a week, I also like to sprinkle in some grammar lessons and maybe even a business English lesson if they are living in the United States. It is important for all English language learners who live in the United States to understand how things work here. Learning the culture of the language that they are learning is also essential. As we look at the United States, we see that it can be divided into various regions with various accents. If we only teach plain Native American English, they may be lost when they get a job where their boss is from India and their supervisor is from Virginia, yet they are from Russia and do not understand a word these two people are saying. Being exposed to different accents will give them a leg up in their professional life.
For the communicative approach, some students enjoy reading dialogues together of conversations that have meaning in the students' school or work environment. And then have an activity on the next page where the sequence of the dialogue is out of order, and the student must put the dialogue into order again.
This is part and parcel of using the communicative approach which connects people together. Being able to communicate meaning in a second language to native speakers, and also to others for whom English is their second language is a precious gift. The communicative approach brings people together and provides them with the chance to interact and grow closer.
I sometimes use role-play for communicative activities. Some students absolutely love this and some students don’t even want to do it.
In the communicative approach the communication must be pertinent for a real life agreed upon purpose. If there is no purpose for the communication, then there is no real practical communication going on. Communication is not just about learning languages. It’s about learning other cultures and people through language. The communicative approach brings people together through language. Through the communicative approach, we can all become citizens of the world, not just citizens of our country of birth.
One tool I use that the company I work for has available to students is that every private lesson I teach with each student is recorded so that the student can listen to it through their portfolio on their profile. I highly recommend them to listen to the videos of their class, so they can judge for themselves how well they are communicating.
The communicative approach is most closely aligned with my personal teaching style. I primarily use books, documents, ESL websites, and YouTube videos for my teaching materials.
For some students, I might use the Reading Approach to learning English. I primarily use this method with what I called “0 beginners “, people who can barely speak any English on their own.
This is a teaching technique I use for students who are learning to speak English for the first time. It seems that most students from other countries even if they can't speak English they can most of the times read English. So we will start out with reading and work on pronunciation while reading and before long they are coming up with sentences of their own. Overall introduction to a language through reading helps increase understanding and procurement of the language especially when combined with teaching.
When a student reads aloud in front of their teacher during the class, they hear themselves speaking written English which hopefully has been highly edited and is correct both grammatically and lexically. This learning is going into their brain and helping them as they begin to speak English of their own volition.
Of course, during this reading aloud together the students may ask any questions about vocabulary to have certain words simplified or further explained. I have used the reading approach, but I have very rarely used it for very long. The Reading approach usually leads on to other approaches when the student is able to advance in their studies of English.
All of the students I teach are adults of various levels. I teach a General English course, a Business English course, and an IELTS course.
Overtime through teaching english as a second language you develop a sort of a sixth sense about what each student needs in order to be successful in their future endeavors.
