Kristian Wingo

Getting comfortable outside of the comfort zone

 

Language learning is an uncomfortable activity. To learn a language effectively, students must step outside of their comfort zone into the Zone of Proximal Development, where learning occurs. As a teacher, I try to facilitate this gentle push into the intimidating unknown, while at the same time giving them the resources to be successful.

 

Part of my teaching style is to put “good stresses” on students, by assigning them difficult tasks such as presentations, “real world” interactions with native speakers, or materials that are just beyond what they already know. To help them meet those challenges, I create lesson plans focused on helping them master the skills they need to be successful in those specific tasks.  Additionally, I seek to foster a classroom community where students are respectful and encouraging of their fellow classmates.

 

Making learning meaningful

 

Activities and exercises in language classes can sometimes seem useless if they’re done out of context or without a specific goal in mind. Students can quickly lose motivation if they don’t see a reason for doing work in class. On the other hand, students will work very hard if they recognize that the work they do in class will benefit them in the future. To foster this type of motivation, I structure my classes around the meaningful tasks I’ve assigned for that specific unit, so that the language we learn is set in an applicable context.

 

For example, in one class I taught, one of the tasks was to invent an idea for a food truck and present it as a business model to the class. As far as I know, none of the students were interested in starting a food truck business. However, the rubric for the task specified that students needed to use an attention-grabbing introduction, persuade people to invest in their project, and describe their idea in detail. I explained to the students that these types of language strategies (introductions, persuasion, description) were useful in several contexts when they use English in the future. Instead of thinking “why am I doing a presentation about a food truck?”, students responded with enthusiasm and gave great presentations.

 

Personalization and adaptability

 

Identifying and responding to student needs is what drives my curriculum design and lesson planning. Careful assessment, both formal and informal, helps me discover what language skills students have and what they need to improve on. In addition to assessing their abilities, it’s important to discover students’ personalities, interests, and motivation for learning English. Doing so helps me create materials that are both useful and interesting for them. Customizing lessons in response to all of these factors means that I must be very adaptable.  No two lessons that I teach are exactly alike – even if most of the materials are the same from one class to another, the way I present them will change based on the students learning them.

 

Additionally, the unpredictable tends to happen in classrooms. Technology failures, forgotten homework, last minute changes to classroom location, and other such happenstances can all drastically change a lesson plan. Since gaining experience in several different teaching environments, these potential disasters now seem less daunting to me. Instead of thinking, “My lesson is ruined!” when something unexpected occurs, I now think “Well, we’re doing something different today.” This type of adaptability shows my students that I’m engaged in providing them with the best learning experience no matter the circumstances.