n Copyright © 1999– Joăo Sedycias. All rights reserved. The information below is current as of .

A. Introduction –

I consider myself very fortunate to be a college professor, working in a field that is both challenging and exciting, and to be doing something I love. From 1980 to the present, I have taught over forty different courses in Spanish, Portuguese, and English to students with a broad range of needs, preparation, and cultural backgrounds, both in the United States and abroad. Based on my professional experience and the pedagogical research and guidelines advocated by entities such as ACTFL (American Council on the Teaching of Foreign Languages) and the MLA (Modern Language Association of America), to which I subscribe and endorse, several important principles that have informed and shaped my teaching philosophy emerge.

B. Guidelines for language classes –

I believe the objective of most students in a foreign language class is to master (i.e., attain communicative competence in) the target language. The teaching method I use in my Spanish, Portuguese, and English language classes centers on this premise. Therefore, I try to make sure that the following guidelines are observed in any language class I teach, independent of its level. The class should be:

  1. Student centered, focusing on the needs, abilities, and objectives of the students and giving them ample opportunity to practice and experiment with the target language;

  2. Proficiency oriented, with well-defined communicative objectives in the target language – guidelines from the American Council on the Teaching of Foreign Languages; and [ ACTFL Proficiency Guidelines – Speaking – Writing ]

  3. Content based, with materials taken from real, authentic contexts in the target language – information from the National Standards for Foreign Language Education.

The student-centered component of my language classes refers to my conscious effort to spend as little time as possible lecturing. The focus should not be on the teacher but rather on the students. Therefore, I try to get my students to use most of the class time to practice and experiment with the foreign language. When students use the target language to communicate in a meaningful way (active setting), they tend to master it faster than they would if they were merely given the opportunity to hear it spoken (passive setting). This situation also greatly facilitates fluency. Much like learning how to swim, the students will only master the target language if they actually use it. If the instructor is the one doing the “swimming,” they will benefit much less than if they do the “swimming” themselves. They learn the foreign language by actually putting it to use. I focus on student activity, both in the classroom and out, making sure they use every possible opportunity to practice the target language with me, other professors, or their fellow students.

The proficiency component of my language classes, in which communicative language teaching is used, is based on the ACTFL guidelines for learning foreign languages and refers to real, usable skills in the target language, as opposed to the more traditional view of number of years spent studying it. Since they were devised and introduced in the early l980s in the U.S., the ACTFL Proficiency Guidelines (revised in 1999) have become the de facto linguistic gauge with which to measure students’ functional competency in foreign languages, i.e., their ability to assess, negotiate, and accomplish specific real-life tasks at different levels of proficiency. [ ERIC History of ACTFL Proficiency Guidelines ].

The content component of my language classes is also based on the ACTFL guidelines (National Standards for Foreign Language Education) and refers to authentic materials that provide the students with topics to explore that focus on real, relevant, and current themes. This aspect of language teaching is also referred to as “thematic instruction.”

As the product of an international milieu myself, I am a firm believer in the philosophy advocated by ACTFL and the MLA, and I try to incorporate these as much as possible in all of my Spanish, Portuguese, and English language classes. The method described above, which involves communicative language teaching and learning, comes very naturally to me because that is the way I learned the foreign languages I know today (English, Spanish, French, German, Hebrew, and Norwegian).

Structure of language classes –

I believe a foreign language ideally should be taught in the context of its culture and history, and the teacher should be well informed about this aspect of the target language. Also, whenever possible, the foreign language should be approached and studied in a contextualized manner, both linguistically and in terms of the social customs and mores of the countries where it is spoken. Foreign language learning can and should be dynamic, lively, pleasurable, and stress constant student participation and self-expression. Research has shown that a student’s motivation to learn a foreign language is greatly influenced by his or her desire to communicate in meaningful ways about relevant topics.

This does not mean that there is no room for grammar in my classes, especially – in the case of U.S. students learning Spanish – when we are dealing with topics that are particularly difficult for English speakers such as “ser/estar,” “por/para,” the preterit/imperfect, the subjunctive, etc. In class, I make a point of answering concisely any grammar questions my students may have by way of examples in context, always using the target language. If the students do not have any questions, then I make sure they understand the assigned grammar points by engaging them in short conversations using the structures under study, going over their homework, or by giving them a short quiz. That is the time – when the focus is primarily on grammatical accuracy – when I correct any errors or doubts they may have.

One way to get around the problem of addressing grammar questions – which the students will invariably ask – in a proficiency-oriented class, in which communicative language teaching is used, is to deal with these questions always using the target language. This way we are able to meet the main requirement for communicative competence, since we will be producing a contextualized situation in which students and instructor interact and communicate in a meaningful way about a relevant topic using the foreign language under study.

When engaged in a conversation in the target language with a student, I never try to correct grammatical errors explicitly, unless the errors make his or her message unintelligible. If that is the case, I try to correct the student with “sympathetic feedback,” by responding in a positive and supportive way to him or her and rephrasing correctly what he or she has said. Needless to say, being a patient and careful listener is a very useful skill for a foreign language teacher. I constantly try to talk less and listen more. I am aware that the method described above is not the only efficient way to teach a foreign language, and, as long as they are effective, I am open to new ideas and approaches.

The Internet as a tool in the teaching of foreign languages –

I began studying the programming languages of the World-Wide-Web (HTML, DHMTL, Java and CGI Script, etc.) in 1996, and from 1999 to the present I have used the Internet as an important component in my foreign language classes. The Internet holds many promises, and thus far has proven to be an excellent forum and teaching aid for me and my students as we discuss and devise ways to master certain problematic aspects of the Spanish, Portuguese, and English languages. I believe we have made significant strides in our production of foreign language teaching material for the World-Wide-Web, and as a result of increasing demand, I am currently seeking funding from a number of sources in order to continue and expand our work and production in this field.

In order to house the teaching material that I have produced thus far, I designed, wrote the entire HTML source code (hand written as opposed to machine produced), and generated all the graphics for the personal/professional website found at the following Internet address: http://www.sedycias.com/

The procedure used in my foreign language classes is fairly simple and straightforward. From suggestions made directly by the students or from my becoming aware of difficulties they may be having with the target language, I post information on my site dealing with a specific problem area of the Spanish, Portuguese, or English language. The material posted is read and analyzed by the students at home, discussed and practiced in class in a proficiency-oriented context, and from their feedback I make any necessary changes or additions. The students go back to the same material, and we move on from there, following the same basic steps as outlined above until communicative mastery of the structure in question is attained.

The idea behind my use of the Internet in the classroom is twofold: 1) To deal directly and specifically with the immediate academic needs of my students; and 2) To impart a sense of self-determination and empowerment to the students by having them take part and help shape the teaching-learning process itself, one in which they are active participants.

By using the model described above, I have been able to meet the needs of my students in a way that is pedagogically sound, fully interactive, and speaks directly to their academic needs and aspirations. Instead of getting most of their information from a textbook that may or may not have been written with them in mind, these students now have at their disposal formal language information that actually reflects their own input, expectations, and goals. The improvement in morale and disposition on their part is significant and noticeable. This happens, I believe, because these students are actually able to see something of themselves in what is being presented in class. They tend to take more pride in the project of the course and generally perform much better when this teaching model is used.

In addition to my personal website, I also use other resources found on the Internet such as chat rooms (for live practice of the target language), newsgroups, foreign-language penpal organizations, online newspapers and magazines, and other language-oriented sites. For more information on how computers and the Internet can be used productively in the teaching of foreign languages, please refer to my online article (in Portuguese) on the subject: http://www.sedycias.com/evolucao.htm

C. Guidelines for literature classes –

Regardless of the subject matter, I believe that learning is a collaborative and creative process for both teachers and students. As a teacher of literature, my primary role is to provide opportunities for my students to share in the analysis of literary and cultural texts of the target language and in the production of literary and cultural criticism of the foreign civilization under study in ways that foster imaginative and critical thinking. At its best, this pedagogical situation encourages all participants to be curious, to contribute actively to the project of the course, and to value their own contributions and those of others. When I teach literature, I teach with these goals in mind.

My objective, in addition to developing in my students an aesthetic appreciation for the literature under study, is to foster their ability to read closely, think critically, and critique in a well-informed manner the literature and culture of the target language. I encourage them to apply these skills (i.e., close reading, critical thinking, and well-crafted writing) not only to the assignments in my class, but also to the cultural and social matrices in which they live, especially as these are compared and contrasted with the course’s subject matter. As the product of an international environment myself, I know from firsthand experience that one of the most rewarding ways to learn about one’s own country, culture, and literature is to study the literature and culture of another civilization in a comparative context. Both in my literature and language classes, I am constantly trying to impart to my students my own sense of wonder, excitement, and respect for the world, different lands, cultures, and peoples.

The teaching method I use in my literature classes centers on the premise that certain fundamental tasks need to be performed before one can attain a reasonable understanding and appreciation of a literary text, especially one from a foreign literary tradition. The text under study must be closely examined from three basic perspectives:

  1. Textual analysis – This involves perhaps the most fundamental and important task in literary analysis, i.e., the close reading and explication of the text itself.

  2. Cultural analysis – This involves placing the literature under study in the appropriate cultural context and deriving from this premise relevant information to our understanding of the subject matter.

  3. Historical analysis – This involves the study of the historical circumstances (personal, social, and literary) surrounding the production of the literature at hand, the intellectual and artistic movements that preceded and followed it, and the influences it may have suffered.

Structure of literature classes –

I see myself as a mediator-facilitator in the above process, and to that end I structure my classes in such a way so my students can play an important role in shaping class direction. My literature classes are invariably discussion centered, usually in the form of a seminar.

In addition to addressing relevant textual, cultural, and historical questions pertaining to the literature under study (especially as these are informed by post-structuralist approaches such as Deconstruction and the New Historicism), I see my role as a teacher of literature as facilitating the growth of students’ writing and intellectual abilities as they become mature and independent thinkers and critics. I strive to provide them with skills and attitudes that will serve them in many different areas of their lives, especially when these involve different ethnic, linguistic, and national groups, in their own country or in a foreign land. As they master these critical skills and learn to apply them both to the literature and culture of the target language and to their own lives, I believe they become not only better students but also better individuals.

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