University of the PACIFIC

“Give me a fish and I eat for a day. Teach me to fish and I eat for a lifetime.” Like the author of this proverb, I view teaching as guiding students along the path of learning to become independent and lifetime scholars. In order to maintain a certain level of proficiency, students must continue to learn over a life-long period. However, since the classroom environment is no longer available to most students after graduation, they must be taught the methods they need in order to foster their own learning. In this respect, students should be taught both explicit and implicit independent learning methods.

This core teaching philosophy has manifested itself in many of my teaching techniques. In my language classroom, both explicit strategies such as drills and implicit strategies like contextualized exercises have proven effective in guiding students. For example, I teach various skills of self-practice that should be adopted by students as tools to be used throughout their language-learning journey. I also implement contextualized exercises and use visual methods which guide students to adapt and respond to a given context. I am convinced that practicing such realistic tasks trains students to become independent explorers of foreign languages. Although linguistic or cultural knowledge acquired during lessons is stored in short-term memory, such knowledge remains in long-term memory when learners undergo situations where they engage in self-adaptive linguistic judgment and cultural application.

I teach students to stand on their own feet. As I anticipate my future as a teacher and new opportunities to teach a broader range of courses, I am thrilled to explore new possibilities to educate independent lifetime scholars.