Suh 1

I see my 11-year old self, tears streaming down my face, shocked at what had occurred.

During recess, a boy had spat on my face after making ridiculing gestures, his index fingers

elongating his blue eyes. I see my teacher, a tall Argentine woman in white guardapolvo. She

made me understand, with gesticulations and sincerity, that “You know two languages now. You

are better than they are.” Her name escapes me, but the feeling of worth is imprinted on me. My

language teaching philosophy is rooted in that feeling of worth. In my language class, English is

an additional language that can assist students accomplish their personal goals, whether that is

for academic pursuits or entrepreneurship.

Since I teach ELD 1 Lab in middle school and ESL Beginning Level in adult education, I

do not implement the “English-only” rule because I understand that my students need to use

their primary language to communicate personally and to take a break from the cognitive toll of

functioning in additional language. With the gift of trilingualism, I sympathize with my students

who face the daunting task of acquiring a new language. Thus, I break down lessons into

digestible units and review previously learned materials so students can integrate language into

their daily conversations.

My language lessons are not merely vocabulary and grammar lessons. Nor are they

comprehension questions on unrelated texts. To show how language works, I create hilarious

short stories with students’ input. Students are the main characters of these stories, and we

create farfetched scenarios with learned vocabularies and grammatical features. So far, we

have penned “Jorge’s Girlfriends,” “Lesli’s Wacky Day,” and “Elham’s Terrible Son.” These

stories are then used to create opportunities for my students to solve challenging and

meaningful problems in a collaborative learning setting. Students engage in blind retell, walking

dictations, and reorganizing the sequence of events. These class stories serve the purpose of

learning language by contemplating them, playing with them, and discussing them.

I know that assessments provide valuable information about learners' progress, offer

guidance for improvement, and inform curriculum and instruction. To formatively assess my
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students’ learning, I plan for small group or peer interactions so I can informally evaluate

students’ learning in real time. As I monitor the room, I notate on common misconceptions and

provide timely intervention. Also, when students in small groups, they are more likely to voice

what they don’t understand. That way, students can assist each other or pull me aside for

further discussion on the topic. For summative assessment, I utilize ELPAC for middle school

students and CASAS for adult learners.

As I approach my 16th year in education, I have assumed several alternative monikers,

but my favorite is “school mom.” Like a parent, my priority is the students’ overall well-being, not

just their grades. To encourage my middle school students, I share how difficult it was for me to

acquire English at the age of 14, without the magic of Google Translate. I host tutoring sessions

before school and during lunch. If I see struggling students, I pull them from their elective

classes to provide one-on-one intervention, and sometimes, counseling. Like a parent, I support

them and scold them because I believe in their potential. To encourage my adult learners who

are embarrassed of their clumsy tongue and fleeting vocabulary, I remind them that phonemic

agility is not a marker of “good English.” In my adult education class, I emphasize

communicative competence and the ability to adapt English to different contexts. Thus, besides

informal and formal English, I also provide lessons on pragmatics, as they focus on how

language is used in real-life situations and how meaning is conveyed through context and

nonverbal cues.

Google Translate made languages are available in a few clicks. However, nobody

considers accessing Google Translate as being a polyglot. It shows that acquiring a language

involves students actually using language to create meaning in social context. It is my language

teaching philosophy to assist my students to effectively communicate in a multilingual world by

encouraging active peer interaction and equipping them with language skills that are

transferable beyond the workbooks.