The educator plays a very important role in a student’s life. I believe that educators have a huge impact on students, both on a personal level and the academic aspect. There are numerous teaching methods, but I prefer the three teaching philosophies, that in my opinion fit me perfectly. The three methods I chose are Communicative Language Teaching (CLT), Cooperative Language Learning (CLL), and Learner-Centered Instruction (LCI). I find these methods as the most useful in ASL teaching.

            The purpose of the first method, Communicative Language Teaching, is to develop a communicative competence. The students will sign and discuss amongst themselves, which will improve their communication skills (Richards & Rodgers, 2014). The teacher will present slideshows with pictures and show the students how to sign, using that pictures. In order to be able to communicate the students will support each other and work together as a team. This method allows the teacher to bring a real-world event to the classroom, and stimulate healthy and educating discussion about it (Brown & Abeywickrama, 2010). This considers as teamwork. This concept called communicative competence.

            The objective of second method, Cooperative Language Learning, is to work together and discuss together equally (Richards & Rodgers, 2014). There are no wrong or right answers. The students can feel free to be creative and brainstorm together. They will come to the class and not feel limited. They will feel safe and unjudged by fellow students.

            As part of my third method, Learner-Centered Instruction, I will present in the classroom occasionally. I want the students to involve and present often so that the students’ confidence will improve and they develop high self-esteem (Brown & Lee, 2015). For example, I will tell the students to create their own ABC stories in ASL, and present them in my classroom. They will get opportunities to analyze and observe different teaching methods and signing skills.

            In conclusion, using those three teaching methods the students will learn successfully and their signing skills will improve. It will also help a lot making the, feel more secure with their language (Tamasi & Antieau, 2015). They will feel confident in their signing skills and become more assertive. The students will experience public speaking in my class and they will feel comfortable using ASL. This kind of experience is a great opportunity for the future. My students may go to a deaf event and will be able to approach and sign in front of deaf people without hesitation. They will be able to communicate better and ask more about their deaf experience, culture, and language. They will feel comfortable socializing with deaf people because they developed high self-esteem in the classroom, which I believe is the key.

 

References:

 

Richards, J.C. & Rodgers, T.S. (2014). Approaches and methods in language teaching (3rd ed.). Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press. 


 

Brown, H.D. & Lee, H. (2015). Teaching by principles: An interactive approach to language pedagogy (4th ed.). White Plains, NY: Pearson Education.


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Brown, H.D. & Abeywickrama, P. (2010). Language assessment: Principles and classroom practices (2nd ed.). White Plains, NY: Pearson Education.


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Tamasi, S. & Antieau, L. (2015). Language and linguistic diversity in the US: An introduction. New York, NY: Routledge.