Hello!
These past months have been exhausting, but life goes on. I am still trying everyday to keep up with my teaching dreams.
As I reflect on Unit 5, I realize that people have been trying to find the easiest and what they consider the best ways to learn language for a long time. There are so many different methods that I did not even know existed! That is something that really intrigued me this week, just how many teaching methods exist, because before embarking on my TESL journey I had never thought about teaching methods in my life. Personally, I am not sure which methods I would teach my own classroom with just yet, as I am still learning. I started to learn Japanese with the Grammar Translation Method and I enjoyed it, but as I am not fluent in any other language I would not be able to actually teach any students by using it since it is taught in the mother tongue.
This week I realized how much I
just did not know, I was not able to name many methods of English language
teaching, I certainly could not name very many characteristics about them. But
now I know many more methods, as well as some of the key characteristics, so I
will be able to start looking at the methods that resonate best with me. This
is also why I really enjoyed making a methodology quiz, because it let me put
the knowledge I learned to work and helped me memorize the different
characteristics between all of the different methods.
Obviously, many methods did not
always last a long time, as they are not ideal for teaching at all in my
opinion. An example of a language learning method that I find impractical is
Community Language Learning. I like the idea of the students being comfortable
with their teacher and their classmates, but I do not think it would an ideal
way to teach. The teacher must translate every sentence each student or client
wants to say, so I feel many would not use the method because of the slow
progress in the beginning.
What are methods and strategies
that I have learned this week? Well, I have a feeling I would end up teaching
with the Direct Method at first, as there is no translation between first and
second languages, but I am still not the biggest fan of it because I do not
think the method focuses on grammar enough. But I would also need to listen to
my students, depending on what they want to learn they might not to focus on grammar
very much in the first place. I could also use a combination of methods that please
both myself and the students.
But I also need to learn from
other ESL teachers, I need to reach out and connect to learn from their
experiences, because I will not progress as a teacher if I do not learn from
the past. Ideally finding another teacher with a similar teaching environment
to my own, then I could ask them what methods they find useful and what methods
they would not recommend using.
Thanks for reading!!
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Brown, H. Douglas. (2001). Chapter 2. Teaching by Principles: An Interactive Approach to Language Pedagogy (2nd ed.). Pearson ESL.
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