Teaching Philosophy
My teaching philosophy begins with love for English. I have always loved it very much - since I first heard it. For many years in the past it had been for me the language of the Free World, the language of elegance and fantastic melodic qualities. In general, I believe, this love for what you teach defines your pedagogical efficiency – whatever you teach. If you don’t love your subject, you cannot teach it adequately. Secondly, I believe in the teacher's competence as one the most important prerequisites for teaching. My mother used to teach physics in a military college in Kyiv, Ukraine, for some three decades. Once she said to me, “Students can forgive you many things - like being too demanding, or even merciless, but they will never forgive you if you prove to be incompetent.” I am fully convinced that ESL/EFL teachers must never stop upgrading themselves - in both the language and the pedagogy. It is a career-long process, but it is both your reward and your safety. Third, you cannot really teach students in any other way but skillfully helping them to learn. It is very easy to yield to the temptation of showing your pupils how well you know a topic or an element of English language. However, our mission is to instruct and not to flaunt. Teachers should provide for their students regular opportunities to experience the thrill of discovery and of newly acquired understanding while helping them only so much as it is needed – maybe even slightly less than that. Students must labor, they must stretch, or they will never become truly autonomous power users of English. Four, you must always know and let your students know why you study this or that thing in class. You ought to be able to quickly and smoothly zoom in and out – from a particular moment of instruction to the more general course objectives. It is best when all the “why’s” in a particular syllabus can be viewed as a web of the content elements with logical multi-directional connections. Five, I believe in constant assessment and the feedback analysis. A lack of comprehension in your students is a rather invisible thing – unless you continually verify their understanding of the material. Even if something is perfectly clear to you and most of the students in class, there is a possibility that some student(s) still struggle with it. I think a teacher must not be afraid of repetitions. "Repetitio est mater studiorum", as a famous Latin maxim says. Repetition is the mother of learning. Six, I believe in the extensive and regular using of all the resources available for the teacher - speaking, in the first place, about modern technologies. That said, I am convinced that the technologies ought to be used wisely and justifiably. Seven, you must always be honest – particularly in your answering students’ questions. Nobody can always answer whatever question his or her students might have. I strongly believe in the formula, “I don’t know, but if this is of real concern to you, I will do my best to find an answer.” Finally, teachers ought to love their students. We are to serve them. We are to protect and encourage them. We are to lead them on. We are to help them learn and befriend each other, so as to create a proper learning atmosphere in class. |