Introduction
I teach because I love to share knowledge with other people.
Teaching foreign languages (Creole, French and someday Korean and Dutch) is
an engaging experience with the establishment and mastery of knowledge. The
teaching of a foreign language is the best way to appreciate and understand
the rich capacity for language that we are endowed with. As Uchang Kim (2003)
put it, teaching and learning languages and cultures liberates us from
the cage of our native tongue and culture.
Part of my passion for teaching comes from interacting with learners in all their unique degrees of fluency. To facilitate the acquisition of a foreign language through teaching, research and evaluation is tremendously satisfying because it involves the instruction of primary mental and social facets of human experience.
Learning a foreign language opens the mind and experience to new worlds. Teaching a foreign language is the sharing and showing of the linguistic, cultural and societal knowledge required to open awaiting spaces and places. I see myself as providing students with the skills they need to discover the mind and the world anew.
Techniques or practices
I believe that the use of multiple teaching methods makes up
the most successful practice in instruction. The multiple methods approach
has
several strengths. It ensures that every class involves various methodological
approaches. This guarantees that different learning styles are included.
A variety of approaches also helps maintain student attentiveness as the flow
of information and ideas is modulated and variegated. In addition to this,
an
encouraging and fun atmosphere seeks to lower affective filters (i.e. anxiety,
fear, etc.) that unnecessarily hinder learning. Discipline
and conviviality
are essential. Consider just a few basics of this 'multiple
methods'
design:
Form-focused-learning
Students need to practice and acquire the linguistic features that they will
use in communicative activities by means of form-focused activities. Focus
on
form means treating a feature under focus in order to maximize its visibility
or salience (by bolding it, for example). It involves presenting
one form at a time. Forms in focus must be couched in meaningful
context.
Words (grammatical or contenful)
are far
better
understood
in
context.
Humorous and realistic content is successful because it is memorable!
Meaningful activities
Students are encouraged to make use of the form under study in addition
to working with a further grammatical form. While form
is involved here, the task should take place in a more openended, meaningful
context. Provided with structured input, this stage emphasizes the combinatorial
faculty that is fundamental in language learning.
For example,
in a first activity, use
the definite article with the tool nouns in listed in the chapter vocabulary
(note that in Haitian Creole
this
is an ongoing instructional task since phonological allomorphy in the determiner
system is difficult to master); in a follow-up activity, use the tool nouns
+ definite
articles to describe what various craftspeople make or repair. Supply pictures
on an overhead of various craftspeople at work to liven up the activity.
Communicative-learning
Students always have opportunities to interact with classmates in open-ended
activities. Building on form-focus and meaningful activities, students make
use of target material to negotiate a scenario, a notion or a function with
one or more partners. This type of activity cannot appear ex nihilo,
but must grow out of the type of preparatory activities listed above. Thus,
acting out a scene in which a craftsperson, say, a bòs ebenis,
describes and negotiates the crafting and delivery of various pieces of furniture
with a client results from much foundation-laying, namely, form-focused and
meaningful home and classroom work.
What I'm looking for in
a student
When students speak, read and write the
target-language, I know they're getting it. When students talk to each other
before and after class in the target language, I know they're getting it. When
students demonstrate independently motivated learning and discovery in the target
language, I know they're getting it.
What I don't want to see
When students don't attend class, shy
away from participating, insist on speaking their native language, don't turn
in their homework, don't contact me by email, or don't come to my office hours
for help... I get a little worried that they're not getting it!
Future goals
My goal is to teach Haitian Creole, French, Korean and English
languages and cultures for the rest of my life. My dream is to help build
a
minor or degree-conferring academic department devoted to Haitian Creole
linguistics, literature and culture. No such department exists in the world
in spite of
the
fact that some 15 million people speak French-based creoles.
I hope to make a significant contribution to the instruction and research of
Haitian Creole, among other areas of interest.
Ultimately I hope to make my contribution to the welfare of humankind by means
of teaching and publishing on paper and electronically.
Bibliography
Kim, Uchang. 2003. Margins of Indeterminacy: Humanistic Studies Today, East
and West. Patten Lecture, Indiana University, Tuesday, April 8.