Foreign Language Teacher Essay

My entire former schooling has revolved around learning foreign languages, specifically Hebrew, Chinese, and Arabic. I decided to continue learning Chinese in my higher education because it is a very useful and important language for international business and communication. My degrees in Elementary Education and Chinese Teaching are very helpful for me in the field of education because they will give me the opportunity to be an elementary Chinese teacher for native English speakers. I believe that as a foreign language teacher, I will be most effective and competent in the classroom by providing the students with a supportive atmosphere, incorporating relevant tasks, and motivating the children to learn the target language.
Since I was in

Research on teacher efficacy has shown that teachers are successful when they engage the learners actively in the subject matter (Lessow-Hurley, 2003). In my experience teaching a “Chinese for Kids” language program, the best way to motivate students to participate in learning the language is to have them do hands-on activities related to the current topic. For example, when the students in the program were learning about Western and Chinese cuisine, they created menus by cutting and pasting labeled pictures of different food/drink items. To make it communicative, the learners gave their cut pictures to a classmate and had to ask for the specific food/drink they wanted using recently learned vocabulary and sentence structures. As a Chinese teacher, I will incorporate craft projects like this into my lessons to keep all the students focused and motivated to learn, as well as to encourage creativity, knowledge application, and communication. To confirm that these activities are beneficial to my students’ learning and enjoyment of the subject, I will implement several reflective teaching methods. By using techniques like Five-Minute Papers or Teacher Assessment Surveys, I will get honest feedback on my students’ perceptions of the class and its affect on them as language learners (Murphy, 2014). It is tremendously valuable for me to know my students’ opinions and suggestions on class activities and their effectiveness, so I can create and adapt lessons that will motivate my students and improve their language