Introduction
For most of my teaching history, I have been a language teacher immersed in EFL and ELL. My own experience of learning the English language has also become the foundation for me to teach this language and design my teaching to best help English language learners. Despite the differences between teaching EFL and ELL, I find my previous teaching experience a great help in my present and future research and teaching practice, since for me teaching is more about being the person who inspires students’ learning than covering the content material in a skillful way, while the latter is something that I am already experienced in over years of practice. I summarize the major features of my teaching as follows:
2) I implement assessment for learning to promote student engagement. Assessment plays a central role in learning. However, in ELL sector, assessment often functions as a gatekeeping device and a summative end point for learners, which dampens student engagement and creates high degrees of stress. In other sectors of higher education, assessment in the form of grading practices can also lead to a narrow focus in learning and harmful competition among students. Therefore, I emphasize students’ collection of and reflection on evidence of their own learning, which facilitates self and peer assessment practices. In addition, I give ample feedback on how to improve their work so that students get a chance to better understand the criteria for quality work. All these assessment practices are done with minimal grading but maximized learning.
I consider my teaching effective and I feel greatly rewarded with positive feedback from students and colleagues. Such modest achievements that I have made in my teaching can be attributed to a strong sense of responsibility and an awareness of the important role teachers play in students’ lives. For me, teaching requires both a mastery of the subject matter and, more importantly, an embodiment of the enthusiasm to achieve such a mastery. I would like to model these characteristics for my students and open the door for them to life-long and life-wide learning.
1) I incorporate community of practice concept in teaching undergraduate and graduate students. My vision is for all learners to contribute to a dynamic and engaging learning community despite different languages, cultures histories, and aspirations. Language and cultural differences would not be barriers but instead would be key assets in supporting the learning process for learners, particularly for ELLs. Further, cultivating a positive identity for ELLs to become legitimate speakers of the English language is key in motivating self-directed learning.
3) I keep abreast with current research in teaching and learning to guide my practice. knowledge mobilizes in two ways between research and practice. My research experience thanks to my connection with the academic community has been extremely valuable for improving my teaching practice. Research helps teaching by providing the underlying rationale of pedagogical practices, while teaching helps identifying gaps in research. More importantly, with an “inquiry mindset” I can set an example for teacher candidates to incorporate research and inquiry in their own teaching and therefore cultivate the same quality in their students. Since university teaching and learning is constantly developing, I pay attention to upgrade my professional skills by taking selective courses and acquiring relevant certification. I realize that both online and face-to-face instruction have been undergoing changes, so there is an urgent need to constantly sharpen my online technology skills and my ability to engage adult learners via such innovative practices as “liberating structures”.