Lama Nassif

My approach to teaching stems from my firm belief that learning is a joint instructor-learner responsibility. Accordingly, my foremost duty is to facilitate my students’ learning by empowering them to be active participants in their learning through a learner-centered approach. Therefore, group and pair work is one of the paramount features of my classrooms; it enhances students’ cooperative learning as they draw on each other’s schematic and linguistic knowledge, co-constructing knowledge and developing their interlanguage by means of meaningful interaction. Collaborative work also boosts learners’ motivation by promoting their sense of self-determination and learner autonomy. My endorsement of cooperative learning echoes my embracing of sociocultural aspects of language learning. At the same time, I acknowledge cognitive facets of language learning, engaging my students in tasks triggering cognitive processes in meaning-based classrooms by adopting a Focus on Form approach.

Needless to say, if learners are the focus of the classroom, their needs must be taken into consideration, enhancing my students’ investment and motivation. Accordingly, I address topics of need and interest to my students and work to provide various enjoyable and challenging tasks and activities that appeal to their different learning styles. In so doing, attending to my students’ immediate needs as the lessons unfold becomes a must. Thus, my lesson plans serve as a guide rather than a fixed agenda to which I adhere rigidly. Similarly, I am not be imprisoned by a particular textbook; rather, I exploit different resources to accommodate my students’ various needs and preferences.
Furthermore, I believe that it is my duty to equip my students with the tools for enhancing their communicative competence. Achieving this competence does not only entail improving my students’ grammatical competence, but also involves developing their sociolinguistic, strategic, and discourse competencies, as they gain the ability to put their evolving linguistic knowledge into practice appropriately. As language is inextricably interwoven with the fabric of its social context, I find it a must to introduce pragmalinguistic and sociopragmatic knowledge to my students. Such knowledge could be fostered by introducing them to the target culture(s) using authentic written, aural, and visual materials that expose them to the language as used by native speakers across various sociocultural factors. This practice gains an increasingly significant role in a foreign language context, where the classroom is the major venue for interaction in the target language. I also seek opportunities through which I put my students in direct contact with native speakers in different settings.

All of the above mentioned principles and practices can only achieve their desired outcomes if a friendly environment is promoted in and outside the classroom. I believe that I can enhance my students’ potentials for learning by contributing to making their learning an uplifting rather than a stressful experience. Hence, I constantly endeavor to make my classrooms a setting where my students do not feel inhibited to express themselves freely and are encouraged to take risks. Thus, I value all of my students’ contributions, tolerate their errors as a natural product of the process of learning while offering judicious feedback, and engage them in enjoyable tasks that aim at triggering their interests and igniting their enthusiasm. Giving the students verbal and non-verbal assurance, such as praising comments and encouraging gestures, is also very important in this respect, fostering their motivation and boosting their self-confidence.

Finally, a vital principle to be kept in mind is self-reflection. No matter how much we try to equip ourselves with a sound basis of theoretical knowledge, our classrooms are the venue where our knowledge, ideas, and beliefs are tested. Therefore, I consider carefully reflecting on my classes a vital practice, assisting me in gaining a better understanding of what needs to be reinforced, altered, or avoided to bring about improvements in my performance. In addition, reflection guides me toward successfully realizing more optimal classroom conditions whereby my practices are firmly grounded in my clear understanding of my classrooms and my students.