Overall Context

In the future, after obtaining a degree from Wheaton College, I would like to work either at an
international school overseas, focusing on high school students or stay in the Chicago area
teaching incoming international students in a higher education institution. Even though the
setting may vary depending on future opportunities, there are shared common characteristics
within my target audience.
First and foremost, students are coming from various culture backgrounds,
representing cultural diversities.
Secondly, students are falling into the age group between age 18 to 21.
Lastly, students will have some sort of English language proficiency, or
receive some language training.
*Based on WIDA standard, my target group will be ranging from Level 2 beginning to Level 4
expanding.
Retrieved from: https://www.wida.us/standards/RG_Performance%20Definitions.pdf
General language related to the content areas

Level 2

Phrases or short sentences

Beginning

Oral or written language with phonological, syntactic, or

semantic errors that often impede the meaning of the communication
when presented with one to multiple-step commands, directions,
questions, or a series of statements with sensory, graphic or interactive
support
General and some specific language of the content areas

Level 3

Expanded sentences in oral interaction or written

Developing
paragraphs

 Oral or written language with phonological, syntactic or

semantic errors that may impede the communication, but retain much of
its meaning, when presented with oral or written, narrative or expository
Level 4

descriptions with sensory, graphic or interactive support

Specific and some technical language of the content areas
A variety of sentence lengths of varying linguistic

Expanding

complexity in oral discourse or multiple, related sentences or paragraphs

Oral or written language with minimal phonological,
syntactic or semantic errors that do not impede the overall meaning of
the communication when presented with oral or written connected
discourse with sensory, graphic or interactive support
Context for TESOL listening and speaking course

High school students at Zhuhai No.1 High school in Zhuhai City, China.
This is a first-class high school in Guangdong province, also one of the National
Model Senior High Schools of Guangdong Province

Students

About 4,000
(Less than 10% international students)

Campus Area

About 160000 square metres

Spirits

Build Beautiful Individuals through Beautiful Education

The teacher and student ratio is 1: 60; Most classes are over-sized classes.

 Students have received over ten years of English education and can be classified
as advanced students. (WIDA standard: Bridging/ Developing )

Based on these common characteristics, I came up with seven principles that will guide
my teaching. Here are the following.
What do I teach?
Goal: Teaching English as a World English / Lingua Franca
Communication strategies and fluency
The core of my teaching philosophy is that I want to teach communication strategies and
fluency. By showing my students techniques such as listening for the gist/main idea, specific
information, interpreting nonverbal cues, and inferencing the meaning, it will help them connect
with people, participate and deal real-life situation properly. In addition, my teaching style will
involve pre-listening, listening and post-listening activity to help students with their fluency.
Authenticity
While preparing materials, it is crucial to keep an update on whats new in the field as well as
teaching about culture and customs. Therefore, authenticity will be an big emphasize on my
teaching. Here are the three components that I would like to implement in the way how I teach:

1)Inspiring
When I prepare my listening and speaking materials in class, I want my students to be inspired
and to welcome the challenge. I want my content to be something that shows like a Pinterest
board -- full of inspirations. I want to be carefully examining my listening activities, and making
sure with the beginning level TPR (Total Physical Response) activity, the content is fresh and

new. For instance, I will purposely pair up students together and have them to discussions
including culture and personal choice questions as well as challenging questions. Thats what I
was looking for in my classroom.
2)Amusing
Being under the Chinese education system for almost my entire life, it came with great
responsibility and burden. However, I dont want my students to go through such a heavy load of
study with their language learning. Also, I dont want them to be students who can only write and
read but not listen and speak. Thus, I want to create a less stressful environment by making the
content amusing. Theres nothing wrong with learning in a fun and relaxing environment. For
example, I am hoping to create contents that are as amusing as The Big Bang Theory while
bringing authenticity and practical materials in class.
3)Educating
This is another core idea of my teaching philosophy. My role model once told me, the final
goal of education is to give back to the community. From my perspective, language learning has
educational purpose. Its not just a one-way communication. Rather, students are learning from
the teacher, and the teachers are also learning from the students. I want to create classic contents
like what scriptwriter Aaron Sorkin creates -- The West Wing, The Newsroom, The social
network. As teachers, I will not be like a waiter in a restaurant serving students with activities
just the way they like and the way they dont like. Educating content will only work in the
context of humanity.
Working on reaching communicative competence/ Whole-person education
During my study here, we talked about four elements of communicative competence, which
are linguistic competence, sociolingustic competence, discourse competence and finally strategic

competence. This is what I was looking for among students. I want my student to walk out my
classroom and be able to reach communicative competence or at least working on that direction.
Also, reaching communicative competence fits the idea of whole-person education. I am not
expecting the students to be a robot. I want them to be able to socialize and improve themselves
from all areas, not just getting a perfect score on grammar.
How do I teach?
Strategy: Multimedia input
Communicative Language Teaching
In class, we discussed the advantages of CLT and some criticism about the technique.
However, I still want to include that in my teaching philosophy since it emphasizes on
1) Students practice using the language in a variety of contexts
2) Students use the language creatively to express their own meaning,
3) Students practice using the language for a variety of tasks and functions, and
4) The development of accuracy is encouraged through error correction and practice.
I like the idea of fluency is more encouraged than accuracy in the early stage of learning.
Especially if I do teach in an oversea setting, students wouldnt normally have an access to an
English emersion environment. Communicative language teaching will be an ideal way to
encourage students to reach a higher listening and speaking proficiency.
Media-based learning

Living in the 21st century, it is important to implement media in language teaching. Especially
while serving under globalization period, it is a good resource for students to learn authentic
material through video and visuals. One teaching method that I have developed is to use visuals
as warm-up activates to active background knowledge. Also, my teaching structure will be
staring with language points, visuals, then practice and finally tasks. Most of the tasks will be
based on the visual presentation. Not only do I want students to learn in an emersion
environment through multimedia, but also I want students to be able to reflect and answer deep
questions through those tasks.
Meaningful learning
In the lecture, I really enjoyed the principles of meaningful learning, which are A) Activate
background knowledge (schemata), B) Connect new knowledge to background knowledge
(subsumption) and C) Organize new knowledge. Thats why I want to include that in my
teaching philosophy. From my perspective, if students cant relate to you or you cant activate
their background knowledge, it will be a struggle for both the teacher and the students.

Especially students need to produce what they listen and speak in front of the class. Furthermore,
students may have trouble communicating their needs with teacher since they might feel like
they dont have any common language with him or her. As a teacher, I dont want to see my
students memorizing all these vocabularies and at the end of the day, they didnt know what they
are speaking.
Creating low-anxiety environment for oversized class
In class, I learn several principles that can apply to teaching oversized classes. As teachers,
we need to,
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.

Identify our core principles

Survey student needs and interests
Create a lesson structure that suits for a multilevel class
Establish routines
Assessment tools to create backwash

As for me, I personally prefer to create a low-anxiety environment for students. Coming from
Asia, most teachers can be authoritative figures, by using proper games and providing snacks, I
want students to learn how to be motivated in learning. Also, I want not only being their mentor
but also being their friend. I will create one-on-one time with students and track how they are
doing in class and in their lives as well.