Vous êtes sur la page 1sur 3

Teaching Philosophy of Hugh Fox III

https://foxhugh.com/about-me/my-teaching-philosophy/

My philosophy of second language teaching is to combine a high interest message + high touch
media + high tech media! For media I combine high touch and high technology. Motivation is
extremely important in the second language learning and the appropriate choice of message and
media can help motivate students.

The high touch media part of my lessons includes the use of props and video. I use props and
costumes to engage all the senses including the kinesic sense. Teaching with multiple modalities
accommodates different perceptual learning styles. The use of costumes is a fun activity that
lowers anxiety, boredom and doubt and lowers the affective filter. According to Krashens Input
Hypothesis, a lowered affective filter should enhance second language learning. I also use video
as the common classroom experience of a Language Experience Approach (LEA) lesson in order
to engage all the senses of the students prior to discussion.

The high tech media part of my lessons includes both hypermedia and student centered
technology projects. I use my blog to provide a hypermedia mode of instruction and this
increases teacher control over lesson content. The use of online hypermedia content means the
instructor can more readily control the difficulty level of text presented in the classroom for
lecture and/or discussion purposes. The instructor can easily share lecture and/or discussion
notes by sending links to the notes via social media. The students can access information that
was not presented in class through hyperlinks in the online lesson. The hyperlinks are designed
as extensions for remediation or enrichment.

When appropriate the students in my classes do technology based communication projects.


Second language learners may be unsure of their English skills but still have a strong interest in
technology that motivates them to try to communicate to their fellow students via technology
based communication projects. The infusion of technology as a communication tool in the
second language classroom also improves the technological competence of the students. Finally,
the best way to teach second language learners how to talk about technology is through
technology projects.
Teaching Philosophy of Hugh Fox III
https://foxhugh.com/about-me/my-teaching-philosophy/
2

If the main second language objective of the class is the development of Basic Interpersonal
Communication Skills (BICS) then I pick topics from pop culture. I also use more high touch
media rather than a high tech media when BICS are the main goal.

If the main second language objective of the class is the development of Cognitive Academic
Language Proficiency (CALP) then I use authentic academic materials. I also rely more on
hypermedia to communicate complex material in a fun and interesting way in which the pace of
comprehensible input is tightly controlled. I am also more likely to put an emphasis on
technology based communication projects.

In either case, I use prior research that I have done on what EFL students find interesting in order
to guide my lesson content decisions. In Fox (2004) the focus was just on student interests. The
follow up article Fox and Miller (2007) compared student interests with textbook content and
found there was a poor match. This packet is an attempt to provide research based high interest
topics that is superior to that of most textbooks. In my opinion, effective second language
teaching is the masterful synergy of message and media to create optimal conditions for
learning!

In all my lesson plans there will be both a BICS and CALP activity but I vary the ratio of time
spent on the BICS versus CALP objective depending on the level. The table below is an
approximation of the ratio of time this instructor will spend on BICS versus CALP activities
depending on the ESL level.

If the level of the students is very low then I might focus on the BICS activity and forego the
CALP activity altogether. On the other hand, even with a very high level class, I would never
neglect the BICS activity altogether. The BICS activity acts as a natural motivational warm up
activity that introduces the CALP activity even in the case of very high level ESL learners.

References
Fox, H. & Miller, A. (2007). What EFL Topics do Students find Interesting? Hwa Kang Journal,
13, 99-110
Teaching Philosophy of Hugh Fox III
https://foxhugh.com/about-me/my-teaching-philosophy/
3

Fox, H. (2004). A Study of ESL Teachers and Their Attitudes about Computer-Assisted
Language Learning Usage, Hwa Kang Journal of TEFL, 10. 37-56

Vous aimerez peut-être aussi