Like other practitioners in the field, my basic philosophy of language teaching/learning has evolved‚ and will continue to do so‚ over the years. The guiding principle in my teaching now encompasses the idea that teachers should seek to empower or capacitate students with the necessary skills to take control of their own learning (i.e., the "tricks" of successful language learning), and, at the same time, emulate the behaviors they expect their students to acquire.

Traditionally, language instruction has focused on creating a interactive, intrinsically motivated approach to teaching, i.e., "delivery," but I feel we need to be paying just as much attention to empowering students with the ability to "receive" the language, (i.e., helping our students learn how to learn). Some of the keys to this recipe include the use of self-assessment surveys, activities that require the implementation of clarification questions and conversational repair strategies, multimedia lessons which encourage top-down/bottom up language processing strategies to decipher meaning, and simulations (classroom "virtual reality") that test all of the language skills in action. More recently, the creation of online material for autonomous learners such as my own Randall's ESL Cyber Listening Lab (http://www.esl-lab.com/) will play a greater role in helping students practice English beyond traditional learning borders. Thus, the end goal is that students can learn to function outside of the sheltered classroom environment without the aid of an external evaluator (the teacher), shifting the burden of learning from the teacher to the student.

At the same time, teachers should take charge of their own individual development as teachers, researchers, or administrators. The activities we are engaged in (e.g., learning a second/third language, presenting new ideas at professional conferences, publishing research, participating in professional organizations, etc.) have a significant impact on our work. Rather than view the development of teaching as the mastery of prevailing principals and theories that have been laid down by others, individual teachers can devise their own workable teaching models based on experience as both a teacher and learner of languages. Rather than just keep abreast of changes, we can lead them and find our own "niche" in the field of education. I feel my continual involvement in learning, teaching, training, materials development, and committee work over the last several years demonstrates my attitudes towards our profession.