I am an EFL teacher originally from Cajun Country-- Lafayette, LA. I taught English for a little over four years in Taiwan, earned my CELTA certification in the summer of 2006, and am now pursuing a master's in Foreign Language Education. Here I would like to generate and evaluate teaching resources that will be applicable to my teaching context.
The students in my language arts class attend a private bilingual Chinese-English high school in Taiwan. They are working to qualify for mainstream, full-English, content classes. There is a mainstream class for each grade level, but this preparatory class is a mix of seventh through ninth graders. Because of the disparity in age and maturity among these students, it’s important for me to make my presentation methods and activity choices relevant. Most of the students speak well and are able to socialize in English, but they have trouble with academic English skills.
My philosophy on language is that it’s similar to music. In an ensemble, each individual has a unique sound to contribute and a different part to play. But, when the members of the group work together, they are able to convey a powerful—almost tangible—meaning. Just as a great song expresses a range of volumes, melodies, textures, and intensities, a successful language class is versatile. My goal is to help this group of students gain enough linguistic competence to succeed in mainstream classes whether at this bilingual high school or at an institution in the United States, Australia, Canada, New Zealand or the United Kingdom.
That's a cool picture. Is that in Taiwan where you taught?
ReplyDeleteI love your analogy of language as music. You're a poet!
ReplyDeleteYep. That's a view from the fifth floor of Washington Bilingual High School where I taught from June 2006 to July 2007.
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