Instructor Interview Philosophical Approach to Language Teaching
MIN-MIN LIANG: So my philosophy of teaching Chinese-- well it's a very interesting process because when I started, I knew one method. And I thought that was the best in the world, to do drill instruct-- drill the students all the time, make them repeat. But throughout the years, I realized they can say certain things, but they could not have a conversation. So they can do well on tests. It doesn't mean they can go and have a conversation. So I think I've evolved, and right now I think the main philosophy for me is to have a welcoming environment to help students to speak the language, not to talk about the language. So that's my current philosophical idea. So everything I do is to carry this out and create an environment for this philosophy. So I did a lot right for the past few years. I started changing, and I did a lot-- they said scaffolding instructions and very student-centered instruction. I used to be very teacher-centered. Which is very efficient. ...