Critical Reflection on Future Teaching

Running head: CRITICAL REFLECTION ON FUTURE TEACHING
CRITICAL REFLECTION ON FUTURE TEACHING
Name of the student
Name of the university
Author note

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CRITICAL REFLECTION ON FUTURE TEACHING
ESSAY 1: Future Teaching English Language Profession
In this essay, I shall reflect on the topic of teaching English language profession in the
future. The topic encompasses teaching English to foreign or second language learners. I will
focus mainly on the given article titled Principles of Communicative Language Teaching and
Task-Based Instruction in order to understand the techniques of teaching world language
(Brandl, 2018).
The chosen essay deals with communicative language and its principles along with task-
based instructions. In the essay, the author talks about the changing landscape of teaching
especially the world language teaching in the past few decades. While going through the
introduction part of the essay, I found that the author has touched important points related to
language teaching like communicative language teaching (CLT) methodologies, the changing
paradigm of teaching language profession and so on. He also highlighted the use of different
methodologies in the past that included the Audio-lingual method, the Total Physical Response
(TPR), the Natural Approach amongst others. One important statement that caught my attention
was that there is no one single best method for teaching English language profession. In the later
sections of the essay, the author describes the historical perspective of communicative language
teaching and task-based instructions. Then, he delves upon the alternative methods of language
teaching followed by a thorough explanation of communicative language teaching. The author
also provided an explanation of the tasks and task-based instructions and its significance.
As an aspiring teacher of English language, I found the explanations to be very enriching
as the author had provided clear examples along with the explanations making it easier to
understand. Burke (2011) in his essay Rituals and Beliefs Ingrained in World Language

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CRITICAL REFLECTION ON FUTURE TEACHING
Pedagogy: Defining Deep Structure and Conventional Wisdom, also talks about the CLT
methodology and its importance within the learning environment. The essay gave me a further
better view of the importance of teaching methodologies. In the essay by Burke (2011), he raises
the question as to the reasons why most teachers do not make use of the communicative methods
of teaching even today. I think it is a valid question from the author because many teachers do
not use the CLT methods in teaching world language. However, as I went through the chosen
article, I found that the article talked about the shift towards communicative language teaching in
the contemporary setting. The author mentioned that there has been a rise in the studies of
research in applied linguistics that has provided several new insights and a better understanding
of second language learning and SLA. Studies have shown that learners pass through several
stages of development. Further, they develop an essential language structure that develops in a
series that does not reflect every time, the series of things taught within the classroom. I must say
that the author has made a valid point regarding language teaching for SL learners.
The essay, I found, has provided a succinct description of CLT methodologies and task-
based instructions by giving practical examples. the critical reflection has thus helped me in
understanding the important facets of teaching language profession to students in the future.
ESSAY 2: Teaching English
I will focus mainly on the program planning essential for teaching English to students
while presenting a discussion on the chosen essay titled Short-term programming and lesson
planning with the Australian Curriculum: Languages (Kohler, 2017).