Teaching Philosophy

Anne Sheriff

My goal as a language teacher is to help students build communicative competence in the

target language no matter what their L1, social background or reasons for learning the language
are, allowing them to become independent target language speaking, reading and writing
students. As a teacher, I must play many roles in the classroom to fulfill these goals.
While playing all of my necessary roles, I use a communicative approach, centered on
different themes and reasons for using the target language. Within these themes, I attempt to
help students learn language that they can use inside and outside the classroom. I develop tasks
and use authentic content that connects language goals with cultural and academic content so
students have a specific context in which to use their new language. I create communicative
activities that have students get information from each other instead of from me, giving them the
opportunity to see that they can understand and be understood in a language that is not their
native language. Neither fluency nor accuracy is overlooked as I take on all the necessary roles
of a language teacher.
One of these roles is the role of the facilitator. As a facilitator in the classroom, I bring
authentic language to the classroom in the forms of lectures, videos, advertisements and even
native speakers. These examples provide my students with opportunities to compare their
culture to the culture they are learning about, living in, or that of their fellow classmates. These
comparisons spark discussions and show one of the benefits of learning a new language as they
become members of the global community. With any texts used in class (written or spoken) that
are above my students levels, I provide scaffolding to make them understandable, leading
students through pre-listening or pre-reading activities to facilitate their comprehension and

learning. Continuing this scaffolding by moving from most simple to most complex, I strive to
include a large variety of activities in my classroom in order to allow students of all learning
styles have the opportunity to learn things in ways that make the most sense to them. I also
encourage me students to work in groups so they can support each other in their language
growth. By working together, they can work through any confusion together and support each
others and their own learning. During this group work, I circulate through the classroom. This
allows me to answer any difficult questions that might arise, facilitate conversation by giving
them follow-up questions to discuss, and discourage using their native language. As a facilitator,
my job is give students sufficient opportunities to use their newly acquired language and give
them the language support they need to facilitate their learning.
Another one of my roles in the language classroom is the role of motivator. I fill this role
by encouraging students to become independent, self-regulated learners and critical thinkers. I
Students can learn these skills when they are introduced to learning and comprehension
strategies in the classroom, such as using graphic organizers, making predictions, or asking
questions. I also work to create a positive learning environment that motivates them to be active
learners in the classroom. I maintain this positive environment with a high level of enthusiasm,
varying activities throughout the lesson and showing them ways they can use the target language
outside of the classroom. When I provide corrective feedback, I believe that the error correction
should align with the classroom and students language goals. When corrective feedback is too
severe or does not account for cultural norms, it demotivates students and destroys the classroom
environment. To balance my error correction, I also strive to provide positive, but meaningful
feedback to my students. This way they know specific things that they are doing well, instead of
just specific places that they are making errors. I motivate my students by showing them what

theyve learned on a daily basis by using review activities to evaluate their learning and show
them their progress.
My final role in the classroom is that of a collaborator. I want to promote a cooperative
atmosphere in the classroom not only between my students, but also between my students and
me. I give them the opportunity to have some input on the kinds of activities we do in the
classroom. This input varies from choosing the next reading to picking which language game to
play, from choosing what to review before an exam to leading a class discussion. It gives
students a sense of control over their learning and lets them make some decisions to better meet
their specific goals for language learning.
As a language teacher, my goal is to help students succeed in their goals for the target
language and show them that they are able to communicate in a new language. I strive to give
them the confidence to speak to non-native speakers and native speakers alike. I have
accomplished my job as a teacher when students grow as language learners and see how learning
a language is fun in the present and useful in our global society as well as in the future.
As a professional, I strive to continue developing as a language teacher by staying
informed on current practices. I seek opportunities to learn from and collaborate with my peers
to improve my teaching. By attending conferences and professional development seminars, I
aim at providing my students with new and improved techniques that give them the best
opportunities to grow as second language users.