TESOL 01:Second Language Acquisition

My ELS teaching belief

Jen(Heo, Hyounghwa)

TESOL Weekday Course

Due Date:14thApril, 2010

Teacher:David McGill

Title: My ELS teaching belief based on personal experiences

Introduction

I will describe three of my second language environment, which       were successful for me.

Body

- I started to be aware of a second language for a communication      for the first time through my American friend.

(Krashen hypothesis)

- I was taught about the listening skill with adult learners in the        traditional classroom by the explainer.

(characteristics of adult learner)

- The best teacher who taught me made me enjoy learning and         teaching English.

(effective teacher)

Conclusion

These three language acquisition experiences have influenced my      teaching belief.

I have learned English in many different environment since I was a middle school student. However, I would like to pick out only three of them, which what a good teacher to me and an effective teaching environment should be like. They are about a second language acquisition hypothesis, characteristics of adult learners, the classroom environment, teaching types and an effective teaching.

I have got an opportunity to acquire speaking skill through my American friend  when I was a university student. I had to guide him during his stay here for around 3 months. I was more familiar with receptive skills like reading and listening skills due to a traditional teaching way before, usually teaching reading and grammar skills and making students just listen, take notes, or memorize new words. However, I could really enjoy talking with him although I was not a good speaker. He taught me many functions to speak English and it was very useful for me to enjoy speaking English. In addition, It was my turning point which I was aware of  English as a second language for a communication, not for just learning. Krashen says that students need to acquire language. I absolutely agree with his Acquisition vs Learning hypothesis.

I started to study English again last year and took a listening  class for TOEIC test. I was taught the listening skill in the traditional classroom of rather big class size by explainer. It might be a little bit challenging and boring because it was the class for the test. However, students' participation and paying attention was so high owing to the class for adult learners who are independent and self-motivated, goal-oriented and relevancy-oriented. First of all, I liked teacher's enthusiasm for teaching. She always was energetic and was like an actress. She repeated speaking scripts in oral until students understand the situations, repeating questions and answers over and over again. It was good for me to improve my listening skill. I think the most important point for adult learners is to give them a satisfaction about their needs and goals.

I have tried to choose appropriate environment or teaching type for learning a second language. One of the most important things for language acquisition is a good relationship between a teacher and a student. Let me describe the most effective teacher at least for me. He  taught the reading and grammar skills in a traditional room as an explainer. He was different from other explainers. he gave students the whole understanding for learning a second language, indirect experiences of western culture through his story of abroad experiences, positive feedback, appropriate advices and keep giving motivations to me. I came to have a dream to become an effective teacher to my students through the teacher. I really appreciate that he still gives me motivations to acquire and learn English.

My experiences have been the bases to set to my ELS teaching belief. First, I was aware of English for communication, not for learning, through my American friend. Secondly, the most important thing for adult learners is to give them a satisfaction about their needs and goals. Lastly, the effective teacher should be positive, give students appropriate advices, give students motivations for their goals. As I learned second language in the successful environment, I would like to give better environment to my students in the future.