Teaching Philosophy

                    My aspiration of growing into an English Language Teaching practitioner was a long-lasting expectation. Therefore, one of my treasured ambitions was to enter Mahaweli National College of Education. But fortunately, my hope to become a proficient ELT practitioner ended up by entering as an undergraduate at the University of Kelaniya reading for Bachelors in Teaching English as a Second Language. My teaching career started after I completed my Advanced Level Examination in 2014. I joined a reputed private school. Henceforth, teaching became deliberately an inseparable episode in my life where I have around 9 years of experience. Currently, I employ as an ELT practitioner in a Sri Lankan state university, mostly teaching English for Specific Purposes (ESP) courses for ESL learners ranging from the UTEL benchmark band 4 to 6. Accordingly, as a junior academic, I have engaged in self-reflection in order to explore a well-defined statement of teaching philosophy.

Within global capitalism, English language has emerged as a critical factor of employability, particularly in the context of a “shrinking public sector” and an “expanding private sector” (National Education Commission Report, 2003, p.176) and social mobility, status, class disparity and social inequality (Medawattegedera, 2015). Within this context, it implies that the underlying predisposition of the Sri Lankan education network is predominantly aligned with a utilitarian perspective and thereby learners develop into consumers and education becomes a commercialized product, where the prominence is given towards the employability of undergraduates and their proficiency level in English language. Therefore, being an educator in tertiary-level education, my end goal is to empower my students to achieve the realistic motives of education.

I believe that my teaching approach is grounded on the concept of a transformative learning process where I unquestionably demand to negotiate and empower individuals to see the social world distinctively through an ethical lens so that they will challenge and change the status quo. As Mezirow (1991) stated, transformative learning is based on constructivist assumptions, meaning exists within individuals and is acquired through comprising with other individuals and through communication. Therefore, I believe that using learner-centered approaches, problem-solving tasks, critical reflection mould a secure milieu where trust can be established inside the classroom. In addition, I desire my students to critically examine their values and beliefs and develop a condemnatory consciousness where they appreciate multiple perspectives and inclusive mindsets.

Accordingly, my perspectives are principally associated with acknowledging and questioning the Communicative Language Teaching Approach where I believe that learners “learn in the language and learn to use the language, but not learn the knowledge of the language” (Savignon, 2002 as cited in Santos, 2020, p. 105). Therefore, I incorporate typical activities including games, and role play and I anticipate my learners to communicate information, share ideas and complete meaningful tasks where the teacher’s role becomes just a facilitator. Moreover, I believe in generating a student-centered concept rather than a teacher-centric concept and my principal responsibility in the classroom is to lead the communication between students via effective learning tasks. Students are allowed to have interpersonal interaction, share and exchange peer examinations and share contributions with each other. Besides, I employ teaching and learning materials from their current living communities and contextualized learning modules.

In addition, it is intelligible that my philosophical perspectives in relation to ELT are predominantly aligned with Task-Based Language Teaching (TBLT) where tasks are used as the core of language teaching. Therefore, in my lesson plans, I follow the Task-Based Learning Framework presented by Jane Willis (1996) in order to enhance the application of naturalistic language, to attract learners’ attention to linguistic components as they emerge incidentally in lessons, to raise intrinsic motivation and to upgrade communicative fluency while not disregarding accuracy. Hence, in my lesson plans, I have pre-tasks that would activate the schemata, interactive classroom tasks like role plays, and presentations along with a proper process of analysis and practice opportunities for my students.

Since I study new theories, approaches and concepts in the MA TESL program, I have started experimenting them in my ELT milieu as well. The concept of ‘multimodality’ is one of those where I employ a combination of diverse communicative modes within one text which I believe designs opportunities for students to explore and perform ideas and identities using a range of meaning-making resources. In addition, I admit that the integration of technology in the classroom is an element in my philosophy where I believe that it transforms students from passive receivers to active learners. For an instance, the concepts of flipped classroom and blended classroom and game-based learning and assessment are two frequent adopting strategies in my lesson plans.

Furthermore, I strongly believe that my perspective is woven around collaborative learning (CL), one of the realistic and pragmatic approaches which stimulates students to work in groups and critical thinking skills. As Rao (2019) stated that collaborative learning reduces anxiety, fosters learners to engage actively in their learning activities, provides more opportunities for personal feedback and promotes learners’ interpersonal development. Moreover, Vygotsky’s Socio-cultural theory is applied since learning is facilitated through More Knowledgeable Others (MKO). Hence, me being an MKO, I always attempt to furnish learners with support for their language acquisition and learning. Furthermore, I encourage learners to communicate in the target language and I always attempt to enhance the interaction between the MKOs and the other learners.

I prioritize in-class evaluations and assessments. Every lesson is completed with proper forms of assessment of learning and also assessment for learning concerning the students’ progress in learning and mediating them to get success. Simultaneously, I cherish providing constructive feedback for every task learners complete in the class because effective and appropriate feedback enhances learners’ performance. This is further corroborated as Gibbs and Simpson (2004) stated that regardless of being conscious or unconscious, feedback is the most capable impact on learners’ accomplishment. “Educators have to realize that a classroom is a place for the students to construct knowledge through critical thinking, manipulatives, primary resources, and hands-on activities” (Saefurrohman & Balinas, 2016, p.82-83).

Being an educator in tertiary level education, the question is ‘does my statement of teaching philosophy address and empower my students to achieve the realistic motives of education’? I could say it is, yet I am still refining my teaching philosophy since I assimilate contemporary theories, and approaches in the milieu of ELT. I strongly believe I will be able to become an efficient academic, applying the theoretical concepts I master in the factual classroom context.

References

Gibbs, G., & Simpson, C. (2004). Conditions under which assessment supports students’ learning. 

            Learning and teaching in higher education, 1(1), 3-31.

Medawattegedera, V.V. (2015). Kaduwa or manne? Issues and tensions related to bilingual education 

            policy in Sri Lanka. OUSL Journal, (8), 39-50. doi.10.4038/ouslj. v8i0.7317

Mezirow, J. (1991). Transformative dimensions of adult learning. Jossey-Bass Publishers.

National Policy Framework on General Education. (2003). National Education Commission.

    Colombo: Sri Lanka.

Rao, P.S. (2019). Collaborative Learning in English Language Classrooms. ACADEMICIA,

    9(2), 10.5958/22497137.2019.00020.X

Saefurrohman, Balinas, E.S. (2016). English Teachers Classroom Assessment Practices. International 

                Journal of Evaluation and Research in Education, 5(1), 82 - 92. 

Santos, L.M.D. (2020). The Discussion of Communicative Language Teaching Approach in Language 

                Classrooms. Journal of Education and e-Learning Research, 7(2), 104 -109.

Appendix 

Please note that the Teaching Philosophy is part of the first continuous assessment. Above attached is 

the revised version of the Teaching Philosophy. 

Click here for the earlier version of the Teaching Philosophy.

OR

Use the following link to view the earlier of version the Teaching Philosophy. 

https://drive.google.com/file/d/first draft of the teaching philosophy