My reflection on Philosophy-of-Language-and-Education Class

 

 

My Reflection on Philosophy-of-Language-and-Education Class

          Reflecting on what I have been doing in Philosophy of Language and Education course, I come to the conclusion that this course is an academic challenge.  It academically challenges because I know that this course for most of us sounds ‘dry’, dull, impractical, and difficult. Due to the negative perception toward it, it is plausible that most of us deny it. I am sure that if this course were an elective one, most of us would not take it. As the person who is in charge in it, I have the responsibility to make up my students’ mind. How to convert the dryness, the dullness, the impracticality, and the difficulty into the opposites is my task. This task is not as easy as having a piece of pie.

          Philosophy is defined as the study of the nature of reality and existence. Using this concept, we can define the philosophy of language and education as the study of the nature of language and the nature of education. In this course, the nature of language is discussed deeply. In language-skill-and-component courses, I defined sentence as a collection of words having a subject and predicate and expressing a full thought. As I am in this class, the concept of sentence which has been widely understood by all my students has to be superseded with philosophical concepts which sound abstract. I know that the abstractness of the concepts makes most my students stay in perplex.

          How did I minimize the perplexity? Requiring or ‘pushing’ them to present the summary of a book that I have selected was my first strategy to drive them read. By reading, I was sure that their horizon would enlarge. As they finished their presentation, I came forward and explained the topic they had presented. In this phase, I tried to simplify the philosophical concepts of language. Making a comparison between the concept proposed by grammarians and the one proposed by philosophers was one of techniques for simplification. Presenting daily examples was my other strategy.

          Did my strategies work? I was not sure. Responding to my presentation and strategies for the simplification, a few of my students were enthusiastic, but most of them were not. Most of them did nothing. They did not share any feedback to me even a single word.  Presenting without comments from my students was not a nice experience. On the basis of this, I came to the conclusion that I had to change the teaching materials.

    

                   Naming: one of the topics discussed in my philosophy of language class 

As all topics of language were done, I proceeded to the philosophy of education. Reflecting on my experience in teaching the nature of language, I did not teach the nature of education. I required my students to present the English language teaching systems in various countries. I was sure that such teaching topics are not as abstract as philosophy of language, so they could be internally driven to be more active in my course. It worked. The discussion on ELT in various countries seemed much more lively than the one on the nature of language. Most students were active; they raised questions, they shared experiences, and they contributed some ideas. 

Despite the students' positive response toward the topic, deep in my heart, I feel guilty because the topics are not in line with the name of the course: the philosophy of education. In this course, the nature of education is the topic should be deeply discussed. Topics related to ELT in various countries was my choice was because of practical consideration. I would like to minimize the dullness and the dryness of my class.  

Despite the difficulties that I encountered in this course, I find this class enjoyable. Meeting students with their various background might sharpen my academic, pedagogic, and social competence. 

Malang, December 10, 2022