Language Teaching Methodology: Self-Development and Exploration

taken from: www.theguardian.com

It is impossible to develop our national education without developing the quality of the teachers. As the new globalization era has emerged, the new problems in teaching English as a foreign language appear continually to be more difficult and complex. Therefore, one way to overcome this challenge is enhancing teacher quality. Teachers themselves must become the primary shapers of their own development. Several factors affect teacher self-development.

First, there is no doubt that development takes time. It takes time to observe interaction in our own classrooms and to visit each other teachers’ classes, as well as to write in journal and to talk to others about teaching. Pre-service teachers have an advantage in that the time factor is built into the teacher education program. Teachers in in-service programs or those working independently on their development have less time. Nonetheless, teachers do believe that development is important need to make a commitment to devote time to their development.

Second, development requires an ongoing commitment. Development teaching is not something to do only in a teacher education program or at the beginning of a teaching career. Rather, even the most experienced teacher can learn new things about teaching, and development is enhanced when the teacher makes a commitment to ongoing development. For example, a teacher continues to think about creating more learner-centered classroom that engages students in learning to be communicatively competent in English.

Third, development is enhanced through problem solving. When teachers recognize problems and work at solving them, they can discover new ways to teach and discover more about their role as a teacher. For example, a teacher finds out that applying jigsaw technique gets students to use more English in class and he does not know about it before. It indicates that he continues to generate ways to solve perceived problems in his teaching.

Fourth, development is also enhanced through exploration for exploration’s sake. Teachers can, indeed, discover much by exploring simply to explore, not just to solve a problem. Such exploration ca be based on pure interest-for example, trying an approach that is opposite of one you love simply to see what happens, or trying a new approach/technique simply because it sounds interesting.

Fifth, development is enhanced by paying attention to and reviewing the basics of ESL/EFL teaching. An EFL/ESL teacher is supposed to know the basics of ESL/EFL teaching. By doing so, a teacher is supposed to continue to study ways to create opportunities for students to interact in English; ways to manage classroom behaviour; materials and media used to teach EFL. In addition, he undoubtly will consider ways to teach different skills, such as reading, writing, listening, and speaking.

Sixth, development is enhanced by searching out opportunities to develop. For examples, a teacher will turn out that he talks with other teachers about teaching; he reads about teaching; he attends seminars and workshops; and he participates in other activities that give him chances to reflect on his teaching and see new teaching possibilities. Consequently, the more we experience related to teaching, and the more questions and answers we can come up with through this ongoing process, the more chances we develop our teaching beliefs and practices.

The last, self-development of teaching beliefs and practices requires cooperation of others. It takes others who are willing to observe us, listen to us, and talk with us about our teaching. We need administrators, students, other teachers, and friends to help us succeed with our development. Without their cooperation, self-development is very difficult as there is neither any source for feedback nor any stimulus for ideas.

In conclusion, teacher’s commitment to devote themselves to development may be the prominent way to face the new era of language learning and teaching. Hopefully, Indonesian teachers fully realize the importance of self-development and exploration for the brighter future of their nation.

Reference:

Gebhard, Jerry G. (2009). Teaching English as a Foreign or Second Language: a teacher self-development and methodology guide (Second Edition). USA: The University of Michigan Press

Language Teaching Methodology: Professional Goals of Language Teachers (review)

One of the most invigorating things about teaching is that we never stop learning. The complexity of the dynamic interaction among teachers, students and subject matter continually gives birth to an endless number of questions to answer, problems to solve, issues to ponder. Every time we walk into a classroom to teach we face some of those issues, and if we are growing teacher, we learn something. We will find out how well a technique works, how a student processes language, how classroom interaction can be improved, how to assess a student’s competence, how emotions enter into learning, or how our teaching styles affects learners. One way to discover them is only by learning on and on for a life time. Consequently, as we step into this profession, we need to know some of our major professional goals (Pennington, 1990: 150 as cited in Brown, 2001: 426) as follows:

1. A knowledge, of the theoretical foundations of language learning and language teaching.
2. The analytical skills necessary for assessing different teaching contexts and classroom conditions.
3. An awareness, of alternative teaching techniques and the ability to put these into practice,
4. The confidence and skill to alter our teaching techniques as needed.
5. Practical experience with different teaching techniques.
6. Informal knowledge of ourselves and our students.
7. Interpersonal communication skills.
8. Attitudes of flexibility and openness to change.

These eight different goals can provide continuing career growth for many, many years as we strive to do a better and better job of teaching. But we must be patient! Don’t expect to become a “master” teacher overnight. Right now as we begin our teaching career, set some realistic and practical goals that we can focus on without being overwhelmed by everything you have to attend to when we teach. Be consistent with what we have set! Good Luck Teachers!

Reference:

Brown, H.Douglas. 2001. Teaching by Principles. An Interactive Approach to Language Pedagogy. Englewood Cliffs:  Prentice Hall.