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Dairne Hoban - Teaching Philosophy

"The mediocre teacher tells. The good teacher explains. The superior teacher demonstrates. The

great teacher inspires." - William Arthur Ward

There are many different methods to teaching, some better than others, but the main goal

behind teaching a language, in my opinion, should be to inspire the student to enjoy the language. In

my experience, enjoyment comes from the satisfaction of both being able to understand and

communicate in the target language, whatever the level. So that is what my classes usually aim

towards, communication. Every class is different and I believe that every class should be designed

for that specific set of students in every aspect, rate of speech, explicit explanations, use of

colloquial language and activities, to name just a few.

I believe the use of target language should be one hundred percent and this is the way I

prepare my lessons. As a teacher of a language, you do not always have access to the native

language and so must prepared to act, draw and perform in order to explain through the target

language. Group work, tasked based activities and performances, whether it be songs, plays or a

presentations are a constant in my classroom and early on in the course. I let my students know this

from day one and encourage interaction between them by setting up the classroom in a semi-circle

so they can all see and interact with each other. I believe students need goals and objectives and this

is another huge part of my philosophy, setting goals both by the teacher and by the students. To

relieve students from feeling too much pressure from the idea of having to perform or present I

make sure that my classroom is fun and I usually get students to do a mini drama on the very first

day. This alleviates any anxiety that they may have in the future because they have now already

completed their first performance. Having my students feel comfortable to speak and engage in

the classroom is important and so I like to focus on self correction when it comes to errors and I am

also a big believer in giving group feedback so as to not single anyone out yet maintain a learning

atmosphere.
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Communicative Language Teaching or as Brandl describes it, creating real life situations

that need communication, is definitely a main factor in my classroom. Is this activity something

they will do in the real world? If not, how can I adapt this activity to make it functional? This is

where Tasked Based instruction comes in to play, using tasks as a central component to form the

basis of a lesson plan. (Brandl 2008) This is how I look at activities, they should be functional. To

always have the students engaged however, activities must not be boring. Assigning tasks such as

Dragons Den, where the students become entrepreneurs and have to come up with a business plan,

assign and play roles and also defend their idea in front of a panel, is a great way to teach Business

English.

As a language learner I know how important the role of a teacher can be in language

learning. Some of my teachers made the classroom so fun that we never missed a class and we were

actively engaged at all times. This is what I aim to achieve in my lessons. With dedicated time set

aside for more individual difficulties with the language and some more metalinguistic issues I think

my classroom always has a good balance. I like to build a good repairer with my students and get to

know them all on an individual basis. I try to use as many authentic materials as possible in my

class while also keeping it relative. I am happy to spend a day explaining the lyrics of a popular

song to a class so that they can go home and listen and understand the song on the radio, that is real

life! Of course, students that need a more academic focus will be catered for too, which brings me

back to my original point: Classes are unique and so lessons should be designed accordingly.

Reference

BRANDL, K. (2008). Communicative language teaching in action: putting principles to work.

Upper Saddle River, N.J., Pearson Prentice Hall