Isabelle

What is your teaching philosophy?

I am a multilingual, who believes that exploring cultural, linguistic, and literary topics when studying a foreign language is a significant part of foreign language education. I believe that learning a language comes with the potential of helping students to develop sophisticated ways of thinking about the world around them. My teaching style revolves around speaking the language (French, Spanish) to my students. My priority is for the students to be comfortable in genuinely learning in a target-language only environment. This helps students develop interest in learning more about the language, developing collaboration skills with classmates, and understand the overall grammatical forms and lexical terms that are being introduced. I believe student motivation is the single most important aspect in learning, therefore I hope to inspire my students with my enthusiasm.

What might you do in a typical first session with a student?

On a typical first session with a student, what I might do is make sure there's a proper introduction where I get to know the student's interest in the topic he/she is learning. Then I would start by defining the course goals, set high, but realistic expectations for student learning and achievement. Whether it is teaching, or tutoring, I would set the course policies to ensure that clarity and fairness to all students is my goal.

How can you help a student become an independent learner?

​My idea of helping students become independent learners is based on three strategies. First, I have found useful to incorporate​ ​intriguing ways to disseminate information to promote​students’ sense of language learning. Second, I help students recover from their mistakes by having them revise papers they've already written, and be their own proofreaders. Finally, I help students set goals they want to achieve while learning the new language, and guide them through goal setting and success. ​​​​

How would you help a student stay motivated?

I believe that to help a student stay motivated, it is important to instill autonomy, and praise their efforts. Also, what I have found rewarding for the students and myself is assigning a 10-minute writing activity on values, interests on the topic; this helps enormously to build students confidence.

If a student has difficulty learning a skill or concept, what would you do?

When a student shows difficulties to comprehend a skill or concept, I target the core problem. First I monitor the student's comprehension and identify what the student understands from what he or she does not understand. Then I give a purpose for reading, while encouraging them to monitor their own progress and comprehension. Finally, I teach the student to generate its own questions, and recognize a text structure, which will help stay focus and draw constructive summaries.