UNIVESITY OF CANBERRA:

FACULTY OF ARTS AND DESIGN ASSIGNMENT COVER SHEET

8095/4: LANGUAGE TEACHING METHODOLOGY/ G

STUDENT NAME: NGOC VUONG DAI DO

STUDENT ID: 3124200

EMAIL: vuongdaingoc.linken@gmail.com

PHONE: 0403162848

TITLE OF ASSIGNMENT: Personal Language Teaching Philosophy

WORD COUNT (Intro to Discussion, but not tables, figures etc.):

In language learning acquisition approach, motivation in second language

learning is a complex phenomenon, which can be described based on two

factors: learning’s communicative needs and their attitudes towards the second

language community. Hence, I believe that students learn best when they are

motivated to learn by understanding the value and importance of the target

language knowledge presented in second language classroom. It is due to as if

students are not interested in the materials, they may not learn actively and

passionately thus the goal of the lesson may not be achieved completely.

Moreover, if learners have favourable attitudes towards speakers of the language

(it may be teachers or tutors), they will desire more contact with them

(Lightbown & Spada, 2013, p.87). Robert Gardener and Wallace Lambert (1972)

classified the term “motivation” in two types: instrumental motivation (language

learning for immediate or practical goals) and integrative motivation (language

learning for personal growth and cultural enrichment through contact with

speakers of the other language). For a long time, the latter was considered to be

the stronger predictor of successful learning, however; in some contexts, the

former was found to be a better predictor. In my opinion, both types of

motivations relate to the success of second language acquisition and it is also

difficult to consider which one is better in different learning environments. In

this reflection, my aim is focus on classroom environment in which teachers are

challenged the most with some fixed factors including both advantages and

disadvantages.

To motivate my students in class, I integrate logical sequence to my

teaching that requires teachers have a big picture of the whole learning process –

how the pieces of each lesson build on the previous lessons and lead to a final

achievement. In nineteenth century, Francois Gouin indicated that people would

memorize events in a logical sequence, even if they were not presented in that

order, so it means that students learn sentences based on an action such as

leaving a house in the order in which such would be performed. In order to get

the main goals I expect from my students are develop and apply their reading,

writing, speaking, listening, problem – solving, and study skills to their full

potential, I always try to prepare lesson plans for a long-term purpose in which

four micro-skills are balance (even though they are taught separately or one is

focused more than others in one lesson) and each activity or task are delivered

by a stepped and sequence instruction. For instance, each lesson should be

divided into four stages: warm-up, introduction, practice and product, and

revision. New vocabulary will be provided before each activity or task, for

example, the vocabulary in the listening records or in the reading texts. Depend

on student’s levels, grammar points can be presented in an explicit way or

implicit way in order to challenge students’ knowledge, but in the end of the

lessons, I always spend time for revision stage in around five minutes to ensure

that students can product the target language in acceptable ways. I also use

transition signals (e.g. overall, first, then, after this lesson, now, etc.), which are the

most important in sequence guidance to help students understand and follow

teacher’s instruction during tasks, activities and to lead students to the final goal

of the lesson.

In teaching methodology, with various different approaches and methods

available, many teachers are unsure of which to select and how to go about

making that choice. To my knowledge, I believe that ‘good’ leaning occurs when

students have more opportunities to apply the target language knowledge

presented in class into real-life situations, which requires teachers to exploit

authentic materials and create a real-life purpose for their lessons. According to

Donovan, S., Bransford, J., & Pellegrino (1999), authentic language learning is an

instructional approach that allows students to explore, discuss, and meaningfully

construct concepts and relationships in contexts that involve real-world

problems, and projects that are relevant to the learner. The basic idea is that

students are more likely to be interested in what they are learning, more

motivated to learn new concepts and skills, and better prepared to succeed in

college, careers, and adulthood if what they are learning mirrors real-life

contexts, equips them with practical and useful skills, and address topics that are

relevant and applicable to their lives outside of school (Authentic Learning. (n.d.)

The Glossary of Education Reform). For language learning in general and English

learning as a second or foreign language, I believe that authentic learning should

be highly concerned and considered to apply. By this way, students will have an

opportunity to learning new language, new culture and sociolinguistic also.

Moreover, authentic learning may help students overcome the disadvantages of

learning second language in non-native speaking environment. Authentic

material, for example, western restaurant or coffee menu, real-life advertisement

pictures, panels or video clips in target language; will motivate student’s learning

attitudes because it may illustrate a real-life context in class besides grammar

books, which may make students tired and bored with studying in traditional

ways.

As a teacher in an ESL classroom, to motivate students, I believe that

learning should be interactive with learner-centre and that students should have

opportunities to produce target language as much as possible. Hence, in my

future teaching plan, I intend to apply communicative approach (also known as

communicative language teaching – CLT). The main methods that I did integrate

into my teaching are task-based teaching for students at pre-intermediate level.

Howatt (1984) claimed that task-based teaching is a ‘strong communicative

approach’ comparing with the traditional CLT that is called ‘weak CLT’ in which

students may lack of accuracy while the approach over focuses on student’s

fluency. Task-based teaching aims not just to teach students communication as

an object (as is the case in the notional-function approach) but also to engage

students in authentic acts of communication in the classroom. It gives primacy

to ‘fluency’ over ‘accuracy’ but also claims that learners can achieve grammatical

competence as a result of learning to communicate while learners treat target

language as a tool (Ellis, 2005). In other words, task-based teaching affords

opportunities for students to ‘focus-on-form’ in the context of attempts to

communicate, thus it will constitute the ideal condition for learning acquisition

to occur (Long & Robinson, 1998). According to this approach, a real task will

have four characteristics: involve a primary focus on (pragmatic) meaning;

having some kind of ‘gap’ such as information gap, reasoning gap and opinion

gap; then learners will choose the linguistic resources needed to complete the

task; and a task will has a clearly defined, non-linguistic outcome. Besides

grammar –translation, CLT is a strongly method that develop my students’

learning process in different skills, especially in dealing with critical thinking and

problem solving with real-life contexts.

To conclude, I think that in order to achieve the ultimate goal of students’

learning, it is important to use a combination of teaching methods and to make

the classroom environment as stimulating and interactive as possible. This will

significantly help students learn and apply the course content to their future

careers.

Bibliography

1. Donovan, S., Bransford, J., & Pellegrino. (1999). How People Learn: Bridging

Research and Practice. Washing, DC: National Academy of Sciences.

2. Ellis, R. (2005). Instructed Second Language Acquisition. New Auckland: The

University of New Auckland

3. Gardner, R. C., & Lambert, W. E. (1972). Attitudes and Motivation in Second

Language Learning. Rowley, MA: Newbury House.

4. Howatt, A. (1984). A history of English language teaching. Oxford: Oxford

University Press.

5. Lightbown, P. M., & Spada, N. (2013). How languages are Learned. Oxford:

Oxford University Press.

6. Long, M., & Robinson, P. (1998). Focus on form: Theory, research and

practice. In C. Doughty & J. Williams (Eds), Focus on form in classroom

second language acquisition (pp. 15-41). Cambridge: Cambridge University

Press.

7. Authentic Learning. (n.d.) The Glossary of Education Reform. Retrieved from

http://edglossary.org/authentic-learning/