Closed Caption Available
Download: Video Description (MPAteachvisual.pdf)
Download: Transcript (MPAteachtranscript.pdf)

[Video Description: the video starts with a close-up shot of a mid-thirty man, Matthew Andersen as the narrator. He’s wearing a maroon red polo shirt. The background is dark and low saturated background of green tropical plants.]

Matthew: “Hello, I’m Matthew”

[As the narrator introduces himself, big, and bold dark green text “MATTHEW ANDERSEN” slides in briefly at top-right of the screen behind the narrator"]

Matthew: “I would like to start by telling you a vision statement of American Council on the Teaching of Foreign Language (ACTFL)”

[Big, and bold dark green text “AMERICAN COUNCIL ON THE TEACHING OF FOREIGN LANGUAGE” slides in briefly from the right of the screen and goes behind the narrator.]

Matthew: “They believe that language and communication are the heart of the human experience. Their goal is to teach using diverse language, included in that goal is teaching through American Sign Language, ASL From my experience, I could say ACTFL vision statement is accurate. Me as a teacher, I go ahead follow their vision by pursing the goal to educate students to be linguistically prepared and culturally aware to function as world citizens.”

Matthew: “My teaching philosophy is Principled Eclecticism…”

[Medium sized, bold and bright yellow/green text “PRINCIPLED ECLECTICISM” appears in the top-right corner.]

Matthew: “… and it is the approach that allows me to create an unique blend of methods, selecting different methods of teaching for different levels and then applying them to the appropriate course, taking into consideration the curriculum and student’s goal.

The goals such as taking sign language course to fulfilled their college credits requirement, major in Deaf Studies, masters in Deaf Education, minor in ASL, major in ASL interpreter or among other reasons. There are core methods that are used in conjunction when teaching ASL: Communicative Language Teaching, Interactive Learning and Cooperative/Collaborative Learning.”

[As the narrator lists hist three core methods, big, and bold dark green text“COMMUNICATION LANGUAGE TEACHING”, “INTERACTIVE LEARNING”, and “COOPERATIVE & COLLABORATIVE LEARNING” in turns, slides in briefly from the right of the screening and goes behind the narrator.]

[Medium sized, bold and bright yellow/green text “COMMUNICATIVE LANGUAGE TEACHING” appears in the top-right corner.]

Matthew: “Communicative Language Teaching (CLT), target language is ASL and focuses on communicative competence. In order to understand the language, it requires the ability to understand the grammar, including structure and non-manual markers. Practice among students will lead to discourse. Discourse allows sociolinguistic connections to be made, students will be able to apply them to the real-world and understand the function of any communicative act.”

[Medium sized, bold and bright yellow/green text “INTERACTIVE LEARNING” appears in the top-right corner.]

Matthew: “To practice communicative competence, students need to acquire the ability to interact with other students and linguistic community. Interactive learning, the teachers’ input using a lesson plan are compromised of interactive approaches, including a significant amount of work in pairs and/or groups discussion in order to apply the lesson to real-life situation, negotiations, and preparation for the actual interaction outside of classroom.”

[Medium sized, bold and bright yellow/green text “COOPERATIVE & COLLABORATIVE LEARNING” appears in the top-right corner.]

Matthew: “With the interactive approach, student’s learning will rely on the use of cooperative/collaborative learning. Work together to achieve goal, be active participants, on projects in pairs or groups, peer-assessments, discussions, practice and feedback sessions. For instance, the students practicing their skills in pairs, if a student does not understand, the other student has opportunity to provide input based on their understanding and knowledge. That type of peer interactive, cooperative, collaborative environment that utilizes peer-learning and discussion to understand language and achieve the goal. In an effort to develop better teaching skills and maintain consistency following the standards set forth by American Sign Language Teachers Association, (ASLTA)”

[As the narrator mentions the organization, big, and bold dark green text “AMERICAN SIGN LANGUAGE TEACHERS ASSOCIATION” slides in briefly from the right of the screen and goes behind the narrator.]

Matthew: “Their mission is to ensure teacher quality through persistent high standards and expectations based on knowledge and competency when teaching ASL in classroom. To accomplish this goal I will have to be able to be flexible by modifying my teaching style and my curriculum to meet students’ ability to learn and process information.

[Medium sized, bold and bright yellow/green text “LEARNER CENTERED INSTRUCTION” appears in the top-right corner.]

Matthew: "Learner Centered Instruction will allow me to supply well fitting inputs and provide opportunities for students to use take charge of their learning process, experience and to portray their true understanding and skills. My teaching philosophy, Principled Eclecticism allows me to accomplish unique combinations of methods and approaches, positive teaching and dedicate students control of their learning in and out of classroom.

Matthew: “Thank you”

[As the narrator shows his gratitude, big, and bold dark green text “THANK YOU” slides in briefly at top-right of the screen behind the narrator.]

Reference:

American Council on the Teaching of Foreign Languages. (2005, May). About the American council on the teaching of foreign languages. Retrieved June, 2018, from https://www.actfl.org/about-the-american-council-the-teaching-foreign-languages

American Sign Language Teachers Association. About the American sign language teachers association. Retrieved June, 2018, from https://aslta.org/about/

Brown, H. D., & Lee, H. (2015). Teaching by principles: An interactive approach to language pedagogy (4th ed.). White Plains, NY: Pearson Education.

Richards, J. C., & Rodgers, T. S. (2016). Approaches and methods in language teaching (3rd ed.). Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

[The video ends.]

Principled Eclecticism: use of various teaching styles in a discriminating manner as required by learner needs and styles.

1. Communicative Language Teaching: learn and practice the target language through the interaction with one another and the instructor, the study of authentic examples and through the use of the language both in class and outside of class.

2. Interactive Learning: incorporates hands-on and real-life experience opportunities into course design.

3. Cooperative & Collaborative Learning: students team together to enhance their skills, and accomplish meaningful project.

4. Learner Centered: empowers students to take over their learning experience in and out of classroom.

Video: Coming Soon

Assessment is an essential part of an effective education process. There must be a variety of methods of assessment to provide diverse learning opportunities for students with different learning styles and requirements (Brown & Lee, 2015)

Assessment should not exclusively be focused on students’ ability to complete tests but should also provide opportunities to guide them to accomplish their academic goals. Assessments have to be aligned with the learning outcomes identified for a specific lesson or unit (Brown & Abeywickrama, 2010)

Authentic assessments provide students the learning opportunities in a real-world context. With authentic language assessment/support, students will learn how to deal with real-life communication situations and tasks as they experience a form of scaffolding through relevant and timely feedback and backwashes (Brown & Lee, 2015)

As an educator, I must specify the criteria in the rubrics so that students will know what will be expected of them (Brown & Abeywickrama, 2010). Students should be given learning opportunities to excel in class and should be allowed to engage in self-assessment so that they will have the chance to understand, reflect and monitor their learning (Brown & Lee, 2015).