ESOL Teaching Philosophy

Teaching English to speaker of other languages in school is more than teaching a linguistic subject or communicative tool. It is a way to discover the world and to get and produce knowledge. My job as an ESOL teacher requires linking English to learners' daily life, facilitate their communicative interactions, help them to build their perspective about life and knowledge and assess their learning for more improvement and feedback.

My five years experience enlightens me a lot about teaching especially after passing some courses in my M.Ed TESOL program. Helping students to grow intellectually is something worth to work on. With keeping in mind, that the process of this growth should be parallel with the general objectives and their needs. English teaching differs from other subject teaching as it touches upon all the other subjects due to the objectives and settings of a single lesson. i.e. as an English teacher I need to be up-to-date specially in relation to methodologies and other teaching issues.

In terms of teaching methods and other related aspects like planning, designing materials, evaluation…, in my opinion, integrating in every aforementioned aspects is the best way to fulfill learners' needs and society expectations. Integrative approach ensures continuity of teaching/learning process as feedback keeps flowing. However, electing approach might be my choice in some cases. On the other hand, teaching issues emerge from now and then and some of them draw my attention such as teacher's autonomy that encourages me to be independent in determining extra materials to facilitate teaching and learning.

My relationship with my students is a kind of partnership. They are not passive in teaching. They have knowledge that can be developed to help in peer or group discussion and evaluation. still, this knowledge needs a good deal of improvement, directing, assessing and correcting.