When I think about a teaching philosophy I think first in all of the elements that I can gather to be an effective instructor. So I will start my teaching philosophy by expressing what represents to me to be an effective instructor of a Foreign Language.
An effective instructor means to be able to perceive and recognize who the students are and what goals they are pursuing. With this information, it is possible to develop an effective approach. My goals being a language instructor are to provide students with a supportive learning environment and to help them achieve communicative competence through meaningful input and output activities.
By meaningful activities I mean activities that students can easily understand because they are familiar to them. If the student cannot identify himself or herself in a real life situation, instead of bringing about all the conditions encouraging participation and motivation I would be creating barriers that raise anxieties that soon would lead to frustration.
For example, by incorporating a variety of meaning-based activities that provide meaningful and relevant input the students can relate to, they would be more motivated to use the foreign language to participate in the communicative exercise and would facilitate the creation of an implicit system. It is therefore, very important to select a topic that is relevant to the students.
But relevant topics require instructors to have basic knowledge about their students. Some information about their careers, their origins, or their habits, helps enrich all the activities.
In addition to provide a safe learning environment and to help the students with input and output activities, a major task is also to open up their minds to a different way to communicate attached to a different culture. Sometimes things have much more sense in Spanish if the some explanation about the culture is also presented.
I also believe that a fundamental part of a teaching philosophy is organization. The instructor becomes a leader of a group and there are many activities to develop during the class time but also out of the class. Being organized helps the instructor take full advantage of that time.
Finally, I believe that the teaching philosophy is evolving in the same way that I am gaining more experience. This semester, for example, leaves me with conviction that the use of Spanish in the classroom is not only possible but necessary to obtain effective results with the students.
