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Running head: MY PHILOSOPHY OF TEACHING ENGLISH LANGUAGE LEARNERS

My Philosophy of Teaching English Language Learners

Yueting Zhang
University of California Riverside
TESOL Portfolio
11/18/2016

MY PHILOSOPHY OF TEACHING ENGLISH LANGUAGE LEARNERS

I began to learn English from primary school when I was 10 years old. Then I never
stopped learning it during my school time and work. After school, I had been teaching English as
a second language for almost 6 years. Therefore, my philosophy of education is rooted in both
my learning and teaching experience. It has formed, grown, branched out, and finally become my
own philosophy of teaching English. I believe that, intrinsic motivation and effective strategies
are the core to help students to become successful language learners.
My learning experience in school formed the outline of my philosophy of learning
English. When I first learned English, I was not good at it. I still remembered that it seemed my
English teacher didnt like English and she could not find anything interesting when she taught.
She just read the words and sentences without enthusiasm, then asked us to repeat. I had been
confused most of the time in the first two years when I got to know there is a second language. I
didnt know what it was, why I had to learn it, how I should learn it well. Then I went to my
middle school where my teacher said I did well in the entry test, so I could be her class
representative to help her collect homework, lead the class to read in the morning, and give
directions what the teacher wanted us to do. I felt encouraged in my English learning journey. At
the same time, I felt a kind of responsibility which might not be clear enough when I was 13
years old. I remembered after I finished our teachers assignments, I always did extra jobs in my
English study. I had a word list to record all the new words when I came across during my
reading. I had a mistakes correction notebook where I wrote down every mistake I made in the
examinations. I analyzed each one and took notes. For example, I wrote down the reason why I
chose the wrong answer, then wrote down what was the right one as well as the reason. I did a lot
of reading repeatedly until I knew the new words. I made progress little by little and finally in
my high school, I realized that I developed my own strategies for learning English. Because I

MY PHILOSOPHY OF TEACHING ENGLISH LANGUAGE LEARNERS

wrote down the analysis of my answers, when my classmates or teacher asked me why I chose
that answer, I could explain to them clearly. I remembered that my classmates were fond of
finding me to ask questions and coming to my home to learn English with me because they
thought my understanding and explanations were clear.
Motivation became the main focus when I became an English teacher. My teaching
philosophy is based on my learning experience, but learning experience was different from
teaching practice. First, based on my own learning experience, I believe the teacher should tell
the students what English is and why they should study English. They may have own their
understanding and reasons for that. In this part, the teacher should identify the students who are
highly motivated and who are not. According to Brown (2014), there are three perspectives about
motivation. First, behavioral motivation is simply related to the anticipation of reward. Students
would like to receive the positive feedback. Second, cognitive motivation is driven by human
internal needs such as exploration and manipulation. Third, constructivist motivation related to
the social context and communication in a group. My examples of being encouraged by my
middle school teacher is behavioral motivation. Then in my high school I begin to explore the
cognitive motivation. Later I had a desire to use English in society like I wanted to speak with
English speakers, I wanted to understand an English movie or song which is constructivist
motivation. Therefore, I believe that, as a ESL teacher, it is very important to help students to
find their own motivation in learning English. The teacher could help the students based on the
three perspectives by Brown. Also, I believe that self-motivation is better than the enforcement
from outside. As Brown(2014) mentions here, intrinsic motivation s clearly superior to
extrinsic. In my class, Id like to encourage students by giving them rewards to increase their
motivation. For example, there used to be some students who were always late for school. I told

MY PHILOSOPHY OF TEACHING ENGLISH LANGUAGE LEARNERS

them the first student coming to school would get an extra score in the final test. From then on,
students seemed that they would like to come to school earlier than each other and they were
very proud of this. Id also like to use desuggestopedia methods to make my students feel they
were safe and relaxed. Id like them to learn with enjoyment. I will put plants and flowers in the
classroom. I will play music during the break of class. Therefore, every time students come to
class, they will feel comfortable. They have more motivation to come to class next time. The task
I choose will be not easy or hard so that I can help students to build self-confidence and make
them believe that they can learn English successfully. Thats also one way to increase
motivation. Whats more, I will play comic movies to students to let them find the funny and
beautiful things in English. I will make up situations the same as the real world to increase the
social competence of English. If permitted, Id like to organize activity that groups of students
travel to English spoken countries. I think it would be a lot help to increase their motivation to
learn English.
Finding suitable learning strategies is another crucial aspect in my philosophy of
teaching. ESL classes consist of many different kinds of learners who may vary in backgrounds,
needs, goals, cognitive styles, learning styles, etc. (Richards & Farrell, 2013) Suitable and
effective learning strategies are all based on the factors mentioned above. Teachers should design
activities that fit individual needs. A student-centered class will be more effective than a teachercentered one. Richards & Farrell (2013) demonstrates, Learner-centered teaching means
teaching that reflects learners individual differences in cognitive styles, motivations, needs, and
interests. In a student-centered class, students can participate more and teachers can get more
feedback from their responses which are important for teachers to alter their class. For example,
in my class, I will give directions to the students about what they need do and leave most of the

MY PHILOSOPHY OF TEACHING ENGLISH LANGUAGE LEARNERS

time to them to work together to independently. During this process, I will observe them and
check whether they understand or not. When they make mistakes, I can tell them the right
patterns individually.Teacher can also use multiple intelligence to identify strategies and
methods. When creating an effective class, the teacher also should pay attention to the
atmosphere of teaching environment. Teacher should create a safe learning environment so that
students wont be afraid of taking risk of making mistakes. The activities the teacher designs
should not be too easy or too hard. They must fit for the level of students so that they can build
confidence as well as get knowledge. Id like students to get to the point step by step, not all at
one time. For example, when introducing tenses, I may teach affirmative sentence in the first
lesson, then negative in the second class, finally question sentences. I wont introduce the three
forms all in one class which may make students confused a lot. There are also a lot for an ESL
teacher to do. I hope I can search more and do more to become better to help the students who
need.
In conclusion, teachers should help students to find motivation to learn English and tell
them the most effective strategies to be successful. Today, more and more multicultural
education is required and the age of learning a second language becomes earlier and earlier. I
feel a tremendous responsibility to continue to refine my own theory and practice.

MY PHILOSOPHY OF TEACHING ENGLISH LANGUAGE LEARNERS

Reference:
Brown, H. Douglas (2014). Principles of Language Learning and Teaching. Chapter 6. Affective
Factors.
Richards, Jack C. & Farrell, Thomas S.C. (2013). Practice Teaching. Chapter 9. Developing
Learner-centered Teaching.