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It is my philosophy that by providing students with a friendly, supportive learning environment, I help reduce their learning anxieties and therefore boost their learning progress. In addition, when they have no fear of embarrassment or negative criticism, they will be more willing to express their creative ideas and participate in class. It is my goal to create an environment in which students feel comfortable to learn.
I engage in several pedagogical principles, whether it be in the linguistics or language classroom. First, I engage students in learning activities that not only foster the development of content knowledge but also courage them with the application of that knowledge to real-world data collection and analysis. In doing so, students actively research language use and language variation. The second principle is to foster language diversity awareness and, ultimately, appreciation by having students interact with communities, collect data on different language varieties, and then analyze the data to find patterns. A third principal is that I endeavor to create a collaborative learning environment for the students with active learning experiences focused on their individual interests.
As a teacher in the Linguistics classroom, I implement all there of the pedagogical principles by having students focus on projects centered on local community varieties or varieties they themselves can relate to. I provide students with one of three activities: (1) students conduct surveys to obtain their own real-word data and then analyze patterns of variation and/or patterns in language attitudes; (2) students record speakers to gain firsthand experience analyzing phonetic data; (3) students conduct interviews to collect explicit attitudinal and discourse data which they in turn analyze through language ideologies and discourse analysis.
In the language classroom, as a teacher of Russian, I implement the three practices by having students work with authentic materials. Although it is important for students to learn the grammar of the target language (TL), it is equally, if not more, important for them to function in a meaningful manner, how to use the language in the social context, and how to use coping strategies in unfamiliar contexts. I help students achieve communicative competence by providing them with opportunities for communicative events that focus on meaning instead of form. For example, I incorporate a variety of meaning-based activities that provide meaningful and relevant, as close to real life as possible, input the students can relate to. If the students relate well to the theme/topic of the activity, they will be more motivated to use the TL to participate in communicative activities. It is therefore very important to select a theme/topic that is relevant to the students.
I would also consider student interest and needs so as to include opportunities to develop them through TL use. Drawing from my knowledge of teaching Russian and personal experience as a Russian student, I have come to the conclusion that, regardless of one’s teaching background, a teacher needs to keep an open mind about the different teaching approaches, methods, and techniques. I believe that as I gain more knowledge and experience in teaching Russian, my teaching philosophy will continue to evolve for the better.