Teaching Philosophy

My Vision for Language Learning: Learning that is Deep and Wide

Big Idea: For students of English to embrace the vision of deep and wide learning in order to develop lifelong training in language and cultural

How do you know when you’ve learnt something? How do you know if that knowledge fully belongs to you? Very recently, I’ve been re-reading the history of Canada, and although I was raised in the Canadian school system, I realized that I remember almost nothing about what I studied back in elementary school and high school. (By the way, I was a straight-A student in High School, yet there’s a whole section of knowledge in my brain that seems to be functionally non-existent! 😝) So, did I really learn Canadian history in school even though I did well in the assignments and exams? In the West, Asian people/Chinese people have a reputation for doing very well in school, but I wonder how many of us even remember what we’ve learnt in high school (for example, those of you from China, how many of you remember most of what you studied from your 高考, or equivalent if you come from Taiwan or Hong Kong)? I suspect many of you share my experience. You just can’t remember. And I also guess that many of you who learnt English as a second language did pretty well in school for passing the English tests such as the TOEFL, but after you immigrated to the West, the real “test” begins and you find that your English level was not as good as you thought especially when it comes to social conversations.

My vision of language learning comes from my philosophy towards learning in general. In English, sometimes we describe this philosophy of learning/teaching with the word, “pedagogy.” My learning vision is to see learning as deep and wide; this broadens our motivation/goal and shapes our learning for the rest of one’s life. Let me explain what I mean.

Deep Learning

I want to start by explaining deep learning. What I described in my high school experience can be called “superficial learning.” It does achieve a few things like obtaining knowledge, memorizing it, and completing knowledge-based exams. But:

A) Deep learning means that the knowledge impacts you holistically - This learning transforms: 1) your thinking (what you know) and 2) your worldview/perspective. I differentiate between Knowledge and Perspective in this way: Knowledge is the information you can recall and talk about. But Perspective is the way in which you perceive the world; it is your underlying value system, fundamental convictions. To use an analogy, knowledge is like the things that you see (here’s a table, there’s a guitar – you can talk about it, you are aware of it). But perspective is like glasses/contact lens that you wear. It determines how you interpret the world and it helps you select what information is important to you. So deep learning changes you both in WHAT you think and HOW you think.

B) Deep learning also impacts you on an emotional level - By emotion, I mean both the natural emotion we have everyday (what means you happy, sad, angry or excited), but the deeper emotions that arise based on conviction and what’s important to you such as your anxiety when you are thinking about possible failure in school, or happiness when you can see success in school or in your career.

C) Deep learning also impacts your heart - Your heart is the deepest part of who you are, your deepest motivation in life. Your heart is the part of you that determines what you live for, why you work, what you want for your future, what you want for your kids, what your life’s purpose is.

D) So, because deep learning impacts the whole of who you are, it allows for greater retention of knowledge –

I can think of some cases where deep learning happened when I was young and that still impacts who I am today. I remember there were times when I was corrected by a teacher or a sports coach and felt unhappy, my mom would tell me (in Cantonese) “that person is putting money in your pocket”. To this day, when I am corrected by people, even if that person is not intending to help me but simply to criticize me, I still remember what my mom said and I patiently try to improve based on that person’s comment. I have another example, this one related to language learning. When I was learning French in Quebec (Eastern Canada), I will never forget the “subjunctive form” of the French verb. I was trying to ask my co-worker, “If she wanted me to go to the other room,” but because I didn’t use the correct form, I ended up communicating something close to “do you want me… romantically” [你要得到我吗？!! 😳] Because this learning was knowledge PLUS holistic experience, it impacted me deeply and I will not forget what I learnt.

E) Deep learning enables adaptability in different settings –

Deep learning in English means that you would have done well on the ESL language tests in order to qualify for immigration to the States or Canada or qualify for university here, but it should expand beyond exams. It means that you should easily adapt to having conversations with English speakers, reading road signs or the English newspaper, or interacting with the servers at a Western restaurant, or reading various documents for your school or workplace outside of your training.

F) Deep learning for English means that you yourself have changed because you have internalized the language –

You are able to think in English so that your communication sounds natural – One of the marks that a new language has not been deeply internalized is that you are still doing translation in your head (e.g. When you hear English, you are translating it into Chinese so that you can understand the meaning. Conversely, to speak English, you are translating from Chinese into English.). The problem with this is:

• It’s too slow. You can’t catch up with what everyone is saying and you don’t get to say what you need to say to be effective at your job or be natural in a social setting.

• It’s bound for misunderstanding. You misunderstand what the other person is saying. For example, let’s say you are chatting casually with your Western classmate or co-worker and you are speaking about a recent movie (let’s say 《Avatar 2》). And then they ask you, “How did you find it?” If you do a translation in your head and you start thinking “哦，他问我的是: ‘我怎么找到这部电影的呢？’” You might answer, “Oh, it was at the movie theatre.” Or you might say, “My friend told me about it.” But what they are actually asking you is, “How do you feel about the movie? Do you like it?” (你对这部电影有什么的感触或感想?)

You are able to “feel” the language - One of the Chinese YouTube Channels I watch to learn Chinese is 《Shuoshuo Chinese》– The speaker in that video explains that when you are learning a language you “Get the feeling of the word” (not merely the translation); she is absolutely right. In order to internalize a language, you need to feel the language.

You need to retrain your brain so that you are thinking and feeling that language and that language becomes a part of your personality. What does that practically mean?:

• When you listen to English, you not only understand the information that is said, but the feeling and nuance (微妙意思) of what is said. For example, let’s say you offer to share your snack with a friend, and she says, “I’m okay.” You should feel her response as trying to politely and gently saying ‘no.’ (Similar to “不要了，谢谢”)

• When you speak English, you not only convey information, but you convey your feeling and personality like you would when you speak Mandarin. I was talking to my student who is in high school and I think I was telling her one of my experiences about fighting against bullies when I was a kid growing up in Canada, and she said, “Handsome!” in English. I knew she was doing a direct translation of “帅!”.

a. She was right in engaging emotionally in the story that I was sharing with her. This is one of the strategies in achieving deep learning.

b. So, I simply encouraged her to take that feeling, but use another word like “Sweet, awesome, cool!” (Because these are the ordinary words to express that same emotion)

c. So my suggestion for you is engage in conversation emotionally, and express what comes out of your heart. It may be the wrong word, but that’s okay; making mistakes is part of the learning process. But to spontaneously respond like you would in a Chinese-speaking setting is the way to develop deep learning. Afterwards, you can figure out the exact English phrase that is more accurate to what you want to express.

*So, deep language learning means that you have so internalized the language to the degree that you think in English (not Chinese) and you feel and experience life in English. If you can achieve this, you will be able to do well in your academic and vocational goals, and you will have a true and firm grasp of the English language.

Wide Learning

While deep learning refers to letting what I’ve learnt transform my thinking, feeling and heart, wide learning refers to applying what I’ve learnt to all aspects of my life. When it comes to language learning, my learning goal should be not just doing well on the exam, or getting that job, or being able to immigrate to the West, but to be able to live successfully in all of Western society.

My guess is that for many of you, your learning goal is mainly academic or vocational success. I totally understand that motivation, whether it’s the international student’s desire to succeed in school, absorb good education and return back to Asia, or be able to continue one’s career and life here in the West. However, I want to encourage you to expand your scope of success from being limited to education or career, to aiming for success in all of life here in the West. Success means that you function as natural as possible as you would in Asia when you are interacting in mandarin.

Because if you do this (apply Wide Learning), one advantage is that you will become even more successful in school and work. One of the reasons why many of you feel a disconnect when it comes to interactions outside of school and work is because of a lack of rapport and interpersonal connection with English-speakers. And why you lack that rapport is probably because you have not internalized the English language for contexts outside of school or the workplace. As a result:

- You are restricted in the amount of vocabulary in other contexts (I call this the “What”/The “content” of language learning) I’ll use myself as an example. I have work experience as a Christian pastor at churches here in Greater Vancouver. And I remember when I first started to learn Chinese in order to interact with Mandarin-speakers at church. When it comes to topics about religion (关于宗教的话题，比如圣经、属灵生活、祷告等等), I could understand what people were saying and I was somewhat able to communicate my opinions. But to talk about all the other topics in life like the news, or hobbies like watching movies, or even when they were talking about furniture (I once said to myself, “What’s a 柜子? Oh, they’re talking about cabinets…” 😆), I was lost. And as a result, I was not able to effectively minister to the Mandarin-speakers in that church because there was a disconnect. I couldn’t understand a lot of what they were saying (although they appreciated my efforts), and they didn’t feel fully comfortable talking with me about every part of their life. So, for your English learning, if you primarily learnt English in a classroom or even if you took a course, say, “10-week Business English course”, you are limited to those vocabulary; however, you may not know:

a. The contextual words and expressions in an actual work place (because every company and work culture is different)

b. Natural topics that come up according to personality, interests and their personal life (like their family or their past experiences). Wide learning means aiming to learn vocabulary and phrases (the “content”) for all of life.

- To have Wide Learning in English is more than just vocabulary; it also involves natural communication for relationship building (I call this the “How”, the “Feel” in language learning) This is basically having the feel for language in all the settings in regular life in the West. When you achieve this, you are able to build the relationship and trust like you would in a Mandarin-speaking setting. But what this requires is that you have Deep learning widely, in all areas in life.

- If you can achieve this, you can see why you would have a competitive edge over your peers in school or work – This is because:

A) Your overall English level is higher - You are able to do your work more efficiently with less language misunderstandings here and there, you spend less time trying to do your assignments in English (school) or complete a work report for work more efficiently and with greater accuracy.

B) More importantly, you are better able to develop a personal relationship with your teachers/team and managers (in the West, that interpersonal relationship is very important; does your manager like you and like having you around? That will at least make your work environment more pleasant, your manager will be more understanding to your needs and requests, and may consider you for an internal job transfer, a promotion, or if you move on from that workplace, to write you a good reference letter.).

I want to speak about one more advantage for why I recommend Deep and Wide Learning, and I want to speak to those who start and/or raise a family here in the West (when children come into the picture). Having worked in church ministry for over 10 years and having interacted with many Chinese families, I notice a trend of many immigrant parents not being able to communicate with their children. Now, of course, in every generation, parents and children will always have a disconnect because of a generation gap. But the additional challenge for immigrants is if their children are born, let’s say in the United States, they are ABCs (“American-Born Chinese”) or ARCs (“American-Raised Chinese). The disconnect between immigrants parents and children is not only because of age and generational gap, but because of LANGUAGE AND CULTURE. If you embrace deep learning of English, to think and feel the language, and if you apply this “WIDELY”, to all areas of life in the West, you increase your chance to be able to understand and communicate better with your children as they get older.

So what can you do with this information?

I) Change your mindset about learning English – And I have a few questions to help you with this reflection:

A) To what degree have I internalized English so that I think and feel in English (1-5)?

1. I have lots of trouble communicating in English and so I struggle even in a school/work environment

2. I can communicate on a basic level within a school/work environment, but I am often doing translation in my head

3. I sometimes need to do translation in my head, but mostly I can communicate naturally in school/work environment

4. I feel quite comfortable thinking in English and can somewhat adapt to different social contexts

5. I have a good feel for English and can adapt to many social settings outside of school/work

*If your answer is less than 5, then you are aware of the improvement that you need. This is to help you gauge your learning goal. From your answer, which level do you realistically hope to achieve?

B) What is my current goal/motivation in learning English? How would you like to expand your goal in English learning in light of what I have shared? - This question is meant to help you reflect on how to develop a wide language learning goal. Specifically speaking:

1. Which social contexts in the West do you want to begin to work on? Which specific areas do you feel less comfortable because there’s a disconnect in language or culture?

2. (For those who have or want to have children and raise them in the West) What are my hopes for my raising my children in the West in terms of:

• My communication with them in English and understanding their Westernized mindset

• Raising them in a Western society according to the experiences that they’ll go through here

*The answers to the above questions is the start of how to change your mindset to embrace the vision of Deep and Wide Language Learning.

II) Don’t feel overwhelmed, but keep on learning day by day

A) There’s a saying in English, “How do you eat a whole elephant? - A bite at a time…” Now I don’t know where this saying came from and I am not sure why anyone in the West would want to eat elephants, but the wisdom behind the saying is for that when we are facing an enormous task, the way to achieve it is to do so bit by bit, day by day. So, don’t feel overwhelmed, and don’t worry so much about how much more you need to achieve. That gap may be very large (I actually feel this gay with my Mandarin learning!), but think through the next steps in what you need to grow in, and work on it.

B) For practical suggestions for how to learn, watch my video on “The Immersion Language Learning Method”. But I’ll just mention two quick suggestions:

a. Imitate English language-speakers – You start off this way, and progressively develop your own expression, but you need to learn the set-expressions in each social setting before you can be creative in your self-expression.

b. Learn by redeeming your time:

• Learning while you drive/do household chores/do physical exercise – listening to English music/podcasts

• Learning while you relax – my example is watching a Mandarin-language show with my family (with English subtitles)

III) Slow down (give yourself time for reflection)

A) Give yourself time to think back on one English conversation (each week). If they were sharing with you that they were not comfortable in a certain situation, think about why they said that, why they chose to express their discomfort in those words. Reflection doesn’t even have to about a conversation, if could be from watching American television, but you need to give yourself time to process the meaning and nuance of what is being said.

B) Because English is not your mother tongue, you need time to think about how to express or even how to pronounce certain words and phrases. Slow down and give yourself that time and plan how you want to express something in English the next time a similar social situation comes up. Imagine the next time you are in a social situation and what you want to say. Practice speaking it when you’re alone, and then next time you’ll be ready.

IV) Get a tutor who can coach you – Actually, before finding a tutor, the first thing you need to do is to clearly write down your language goals based on some of the reflection questions I mentioned earlier. Then you find a competent tutor who has skill to coach you in achieving those goals. This was certainly my experience in learning Chinese. I wrote down my goals: 1) Communicate about academic subjects in Mandarin and 2) To be able to read academic books in Chinese like I would in English. Then I found a competent tutor to coach me, and after 1 year, she greatly enhanced my language learning in Chinese. In this way, my tutor helped me save a lot of time. That’s my suggestion for those who have the time to invest and want to effectively improve in English. There are many good tutors out there (although you need to do a lot of research), and if you are interested in my tutoring services, please contact me via the contact information below.