Kallie McNamara

FL 507

December 11, 2018

Statement of Beliefs: My Teaching Philosophy

As we consider how we learn our first language, it is clear that we do not learn language remotely

similar to how we are taught in the traditional classroom. As children learning our L1 we are not given

vocabulary lists or grammar drills, but rather we pick up on vocabulary and grammar through context and

meaningful interactions. We repeat what we hear and as we learn more and more language, organically come to

produce our own sentences and eventually discourse as we become proficient. It seems to me that the majority

of beliefs and theories about language acquisition hinge on whether you believe it is most efficient to learn the

target language in as close to the same manner in which we learn L1 or if it’s most efficient to develop language

skills in a laboratory-like setting to be released when the product is ready, or, as I believe, somewhere in the

middle. As I approach this, a couple of considerations to take into account are that when we learn L1, 1) the

child is immersed in the language and the language is needed for survival, or at least to function as most other

members of that society and 2) the child is in a different stage of cognitive development than the teen or adult

learner.

Taking into account the first point, 24/7 immersion is not something that can be attained when learning a

language in the classroom so I believe that the time spent together in the classroom should involve as much of

the target language through comprehensible input as possible. My Spanish 1 teacher was a firm immersionist

and consistently remained in the target language beyond ACTFL’s 90% recommendation and did an excellent

job of making the input comprehensible through gestures and humor. We were forced to pay close attention

since the input was in Spanish and were also engaged because it was a challenge, like a puzzle, to understand

what she said and it was rewarding to understand a joke or a story that she told in Spanish. I will say, however,

that this is much easier said than done and involves a much greater measure of classroom management than one

would think! It is discouraging to constantly fight against the pushback from students and parents who think

that they must understand 100% of what you are saying, as many times as you may explain the benefits of
immersion and that you will make your meaning comprehensible. However, it is rewarding for the students to

see how far they’ve come from the first day of class when they knew little to no Spanish to the end of the

semester when they can understand speech on familiar topics and engage in interpersonal communication in the

target language.

The other item to consider is the level of cognitive development of the language learner. When children

learn language it begins in a very concrete way (“mom,” “dad,” “eat,” etc.) and more is learned exponentially as

different stimuli are encountered. Older learners have the capacity to draw on prior experiences and speak in a

more displaced manner, such as “my favorite season is the fall” or “I love to go to the beach” which could really

be learned and understood in the first language lesson, whereas it would take a child longer to develop a

framework for such displaced speech. We also have the benefit of thinking in our L1 as we process what we are

learning in our L2. Perhaps having a more developed brain makes it more efficient to learn a language because

rather than hearing every possible conjugation of ser organically in context and picking up that the conjugations

are “soy” when I am talking about myself and “eres” when I am talking about you, etc. which would take quite

a bit of time, we can simply see a few examples in context, package it in a verb chart, and then practice it in

context.

If the goal of learning a foreign language is to be able to communicate effectively in the target language

in real-life settings, I think it’s important to simulate, as much as possible, how the language would be

encountered outside the classroom. I completed my undergraduate Honors capstone on John Dewey’s

philosophy of education applied to foreign language learning and in it explored presenting the content in context

(whether vocabulary or grammatical constructions) and then making observations about what we see being

used. For example, for vocabulary on class periods, the names of classes, and school supplies I gave each

student a fake schedule with 8 class periods and when I rang the bell, they walked to their “first class” and

copied down their school supplies list, then I would ring the bell and they would go to their “second class” and

did the same thing. Once they had their lists, they went through the “store,” where I had pictures of the different

school supplies in baggies and they would “shop” for their school supplies at one of the cash registers (I chose

three advanced students to play the role of cashiers) and then they wrote out a check in Spanish for their
materials) and sat back down with their shopping lists and class schedules (which were essentially their

vocabulary lists)! This was a way to learn their classes, class periods, and supplies through a situational

interaction with the vocabulary, rather than passing out a vocabulary sheet and filling in the blanks. For a lesson

on the ir + a + infinitive construction, I selected the song “Vivir mi vida” by Marc Anthony and had them to fill

out a cloze passage of the song lyrics while they listened and then we talked about what we noticed in the

construction.

In addition to presenting vocabulary and grammar in context and meaningfully, it is also important to

practice it in meaningful, contextualized ways. If we want the students to be able to order in a restaurant, ask

someone if they want to hang out this weekend, or be able to write a letter to a pen pal, then these are all

situations that we should practice in class so that the students are prepared to do these tasks outside of the

classroom and rather than doing so in a way that is scripted and rehearsed, do so in such a way that they are able

to respond spontaneously. I had my students to complete all of their speaking assessments without flash cards so

that they could demonstrate their ability. If their assessment was to describe a family tree or a plate of food, they

would get a completely new picture for the assessment but we would practice with many different examples so

that they would be prepared to answer spontaneously. It really is more important to be progressing in

proficiency than to simply make a 100 on a conjugations quiz and I admire teachers who have structured

proficiency-based assessments into their course. Millbrook High School, for example, has a system of assessing

students so that they know which proficiency level they have attained in each skill by using the same rubric for

all proficiency-based assignments. I have seen other teachers use a series of “I can…” statements to show

students how they are progressing and what they are able to do by the end of each unit of study. It takes a lot of

thought and strategy to come up with a system such as this and I have attempted to use similar systems in

different semesters of my career but never crafted a system for assessing proficiency across the span of the

semester that worked as well as I would like for it to. If I ever return to K-12 teaching, this is one of my goals!

It would also be helpful for me to become a certified ACTFL tester (at least for the lower levels) to better

recognize where my students are in their proficiency and how they are progressing.
 I do believe in the Communicative Language Teaching approach and also value the instruction of

grammar. I know that it is a misconception that people have that CLT does not value accurate grammar, but that

it rather plays a lesser role. I think that in my own theory of language learning, I would claim a CLT approach

but elevate grammar as equal with fluency of speech, if nothing else, then on a psychological level to encourage

the learner to feel comfortable in using the language. The best Spanish course I have taken was my Spanish 4

class in high school. The teacher instructed us in a very grammar-heavy way but it was in this class that I

learned virtually all of the grammar that I know today and helped me to feel confident to use the different tenses

correctly. I’m someone who needs to feel confident in the rule before I can use it because I don’t feel free to use

a construction that I may butcher. I would rather remain silent than say something incorrectly. Perhaps that’s a

product of not being taught in a CLT setting in those formative years; I am willing to concede that. However, in

my experience as a teacher as well, students do feel that they have more of a grasp of what is going on when

they have their charts and ser and estar acronyms, etc. and have that explanation in the classroom rather than

trying to figure it out on their own at home. When I arrived to college, I placed into level 331, largely, I feel,

due to the extensive grammar from my recent Spanish 4 class. I quickly discovered that these classes were

going to be very different from my experiences in high school Spanish classes. We did a few mechanical

activities on grammar points but they were always assigned for homework so that in class we could engage in

interpersonal or presentational communication and practice speaking, listening, reading, and writing, as opposed

to isolated grammatical constructions. To be honest, I did not feel that I was learning as much or as quickly as I

did in my high school (namely 1 and 4) classes, but as I’m now thinking about it, it is easier to see the gains you

are making when you see success on a rote task as opposed to gains in proficiency which happens more

longitudinally. It seems that I learned more in high school because it takes less to progress through proficiency

at earlier levels than it does when you are progressing through upper-intermediate to superior.

To summarize my thoughts, I feel that class time is most efficiently used to optimize language learning

when as close to 90% as possible of the target language is used, students are first exposed to the content in a

contextualized way and then have clear vocabulary lists and grammar explanations so that they feel comfortable

that they have all they need to take risks and produce in the language, students engage in meaningful
communication in the target language and are prepared to engage in spontaneous communication with native

speakers outside the classroom, and are assessed based on their proficiency so that they can see how they are

progressing in the language.