What is a teacher?

XDescribing what they do, teachers use many metaphors; we will state a few among these:

            ú They say they are like actors because ‘we are always on the stage’.  

ú Others think they are like orchestral conductors ‘because I direct conversation and set the pace and tone’.

ú Other teachers feel they are like gardeners ‘because we plant the seeds and then watch them grow’. 

The range of these and other images used by teachers to describe themselves reflect the range of views that they have about their profession.

XDictionaries also give a variety of definitions of teaching:

ú According to the Cambridge International Dictionary of English ‘teaching’ means ‘to give (someone) knowledge or to instruct or train (someone)’.  

ú The Longman Dictionary of Contemporary English suggests that it means to ‘show somebody how to do something’ or to ‘change somebody’s ideas’.

Bearing in mind the mixed views about who teachers are and the functions of teaching, we need to examine the teacher’s role not only in education generally, but in the classroom itself.

Teachers and learners

‘If (the teacher) is indeed wise, he does not bid you enter the house of his wisdom, but rather leads you to the threshold of your own mind’. (Gibran 1991: 76)[1]

X         Such humanist sentiments raise a problem: is teaching about the ‘transmission’ of knowledge from teacher to student, or is it about creating conditions in which, somehow, students learn for themselves? – i.e. If you were to walk into a classroom, where would you expect to see the teacher – standing at the front controlling affairs, or moving around the classroom quietly helping the students only when needed?

X         Under the influence of humanistic and communicative theories, great emphasis has been placed on ‘learner-centered’ teaching, that is teaching which makes the learners’ needs and experience central to the educational process:

            ú students’ needs should drive the syllabus

            ú students’ learning experiences and their responses to them at the heart of a language course

ú a good lesson is one in which a lot of student activity is taking place – rather than one in which the teacher performs well.  

            This is manifested in classrooms where students are given tasks to work on (with the teacher’s help) during which real learning takes place:

            ú the teacher is no longer the giver of knowledge, the controller, and the authority

            ú the teacher is a facilitator and resource for the students

X         In such learner-centered classrooms a teacher is expected to have certain special qualities: maturity, intuition, educational skills (to develop students’ awareness of language and learning), an openness to student input, and a greater tolerance of uncertainty.

X Some methodologists were critical of learner-centeredness, describing it as a ‘myth’ (O’Neill 1991)[2]. O’Neill finds it a form of ‘neglect’ that we let students do the learning on their own with teachers only intervening when and if needed è the teacher is said to abdicate his/her knowledge-giving role.

X The critics claim that there is nothing wrong with old-fashioned ‘teacher-fronting’; it has always worked well, and many students feel more comfortable with it.

X It is true that sometimes the teacher wants to be at the front of the class to motivate, instruct, or explain something to the whole class. Yet there are also many activities where encouraging students to solve their own problems on their own or in pairs or groups, will have enormously beneficial effects both on learning, and on the dynamics and atmosphere in the classroom.

X Our behavior will depend on how we feel about teaching and what we are comfortable with, on the type of activity our students are involved in, and on who the students are and how they feel about what we are asking them to do.

A teacher’s professional competence

Below is a selection of top tips to help teachers of English develop their professional competence. They cover issues of professional conduct, strategies for dealing with students and their language production, the importance of meaningful communication and the example the teacher sets.

Professional conduct

ú Be prompt and punctual because promptness and punctuality lead to systematic work.

ú You are bound by the virtue of your professional growth to change and modify your approach to fit the ever-changing factors in the fields of learning and teaching. Therefore, seek the best ways to improve and refresh your English.

ú Evaluate your teaching tactics occasionally through self-criticism, which is highly constructive and leads to perfection.

ú Do not lose your temper. To be patient and tolerant means you are able to solve your problems.

ú Visit the classes of your colleagues and respond to your inspectors' guidance and advice for developing your professional competence.

ú Show respect for your students by dressing in a clean, tidy manner.

Classroom management

ú Create a relaxed atmosphere in the classroom to achieve full student participation.

ú Discipline and firmness are of paramount importance especially when students practise group work. The friendly relationship between you and the class has its vital impact on the students' attitude towards learning the language.

ú Concentrate on the low achievers in your classroom. They are always in need of your help and encouragement.

ú Be an observer, a guide and a participant when students practise group activities. Do not be indifferent as this makes the class noisy and spoils the aim of the activity.

ú When students practise activities, appoint group leaders to keep order and direct the work.

Teacher's approach

ú Be creative because much of the teacher's success depends upon his/her imaginative power, originality and creativity. Teaching is more an art than a science.

ú Be an example of a good planner and organizer. By doing so, you encourage your students to develop their planning and organizational abilities.

ú Preparing the lessons regularly and adequately makes you surefooted in the classroom. It sets your mind at ease and makes you realize the main aim of the lesson. Do not over-plan. Make your lesson plan brief, informative, clear and purposeful. Include various activities to suit the individual differences in the classroom.

ú Be active. An active teacher means an active lesson. Avoid being indifferent because this creates a sort of boredom in the classroom.

ú Make your lesson enjoyable because the ability to enjoy is the key to effective learning. Remember that what one learns through enjoyment, one never forgets and its effect on the memory never fades. Lack of interest means lack of response.

ú Tests reveal certain points of weakness. Therefore, it is your duty to analyze the test findings in order to prepare the required remedial work and exercises for uprooting such weakness.

ú Move from the known to unknown gradually and logically, because such a procedure is important from a psychological point of view.

ú Begin the lesson by warming the class up for a short time. Some revision questions or warm up activities create a positive atmosphere for tackling the new lesson.

ú Avoid errors in pronunciation. If you feel any doubt, consult a good pronunciation dictionary. If students repeat a mispronounced word, it will be fixed in their minds. Moreover, it will be difficult to correct in the future.

ú Should the occasion arise when you don't know or are not certain of the answer to a question or grammar point, admit that you don't know, but will find out or check the answer. Don't forget!

Language production

ú Involve your students in authentic communication situations, which encourage a continuous flow of speech. In fact, the acquisition of the language depends on practising it naturally.

ú Give your students every possible chance to use the language. Talk as little as possible to give the students the opportunity to interact. Do not over teach. Make the lesson student centred, not teacher centred.

ú Use the teaching media properly to make the lesson more attractive and perceptive. They save time and effort.

ú Use effective means to eradicate errors. Always look at what they have achieved rather than at what they have failed to achieve.

ú Be accurate in evaluating your students' achievement. The marks given should be in conformity with the real standard of the class.

ú Always present the new material in meaningful situations with skills integration. Linguistics considers the exchange to be the unit of speech.

ú Train your students to speak the language with reasonable fluency. Frequent exposure to authentic recorded materials improves their oral performance.

ú Give the right intonation due attention .The students must know the proper fall and rise in speech because the wrong intonation may change the function of the utterance.

ú An increased number of assignments is highly desirable and the more the better. Remember to check the assignments regularly and give the necessary appreciative comments. The homework assignments should be as short as possible without anything tricky or puzzling.

ú When you communicate with your students, do not insist on getting full answers. Short answers are accepted in natural communication.

ú Do not interrupt your student to correct mistakes while she/he is speaking because it perplexes her/him and makes her/him withdraw from the scene. Remember that fluency comes before accuracy.

The roles of a teacher

Within the classroom the teacher’s role may change from activity to another, or from one stage of an activity to another. If we are good at making these changes our effectiveness as teachers is greatly enhanced.

            The role of ‘facilitator’ encompasses all the other roles; in a sense any role which the teacher adopts – and which is designed to help students learn – is to some extent facilitative.

Controller

X When teachers act as controllers they are in charge of the class and of the activity taking place in a way that is substantially different from a situation where students are working on their own in groups.

X Controllers tell students things, organize drills, read aloud, and as such they exemplify the qualities of a teacher-fronted classroom.

X Teachers who view their job as the transmission of knowledge from themselves to their students are usually very comfortable with the images of themselves as controllers è inspire students through their knowledge and charisma.

X Transmission teaching (less charismatic one) seems to have less obvious advantages:

            ú it denies students the experience of individual learning by focusing everything on the teacher;

ú it cuts down on opportunities for students to speak because when acting as whole group, fewer learners have a chance to say anything at all;

ú over-reliance on transmission teaching can result in a lack of variety in activities and classroom atmosphere.

X There are times when acting as controller makes sense such as when announcements need to be made, when order has to be restored, when explanations are given, or when the teacher is leading a question and answer session è this is the most common teacher role.

X Yet by sticking to one mode of behavior we deny ourselves and the students many other possibilities and modes of learning which are good not only for learning itself, but also for our students’ enjoyment of that learning.

Organizer

X Organizing students to do various activities è this involves giving the students information, telling them how they are going to do the activity (to get full advantage from the activity), putting them into pairs or groups (to avoid chaos), and finally closing things down when it is time to stop. If we do not spend some time engaging the students’ interest and ensuring their participation, the activity may be wasted.

X Organization means:

ú (1) to get students involved, engaged and ready. (See S2)

ú (2) One students are ready for the activity, give any necessary instructions, saying what they should do first, what they should do next, etc. (See S3)

ú (3) Star of initiate the activity; students need to know how much time they have got and exactly when they should start.

ú (4) We stop the activity when the students have finished and/or when other factors show the teacher and the students that it is time to stop – the cause: they are bored or some pairs/groups have already finished before the others. Perhaps the lesson is coming to an end and we want to give some summarizing comments è it is vital to organize some kind of feedback, whether this is merely a ‘Did you enjoy that?’ type of question or whether it is a more detailed discussion of what has taken place. (See S4 for a summary of the role of an ‘organizer’)

Assessor

Teachers usually expect an indication from their teachers of whether or not they are getting their English right. This is where we have to act as an assessor, offering feedback and correction[3] and grading students in various ways.

X Students need to know how and for what they are being assessed. We should tell them what we are looking for and what success looks like so that they can measure themselves against this. (See S5)

X A teacher should be fair – when students are criticized or score poor grades and they then find that other students have suffered less criticism for an equally good or bad performance, they tend to be extremely unhappy. è learners need credit for good performance and constructive criticism for poor performance, rather than unfair judgement.

Prompter

Sometimes when students are involved in a role-play activity, for example, they lose the thread of what is going on, or they are ‘lost for words’ for lack of vocabulary. They may not be quite sure how to proceed. What should teachers do in these circumstances? Withhold and let them work things out for themselves or, instead, push them forward in a discreet and supportive way? If we opt for the latter, we are adopting some kind of a ‘prompting’ role.

X In such situations we want to help but we do not want, at that stage, to take charge because we are keen to encourage the students to think creatively rather than have them depend on our every word:

ú We thus occasionally offer words or phrases, suggest that the students say something, e.g. “Well, ask him why he says that”, or

ú suggest what could come next in a paragraph a student is writing

X When we prompt we need to do it sensitively (with precision) and encouragingly but, above all, with discretion – if we are too obstinate, we may take initiative away from the student; if we are too retiring, we may not supply the right amount of encouragement.

Participant   

The traditional picture of teachers during student discussions, role-play, or group activities, is of people who ‘stand back’ from the activity, letting the learners get on with it and only intervening later to offer feedback and/or correct mistakes. However, there are also times when we might want to join in an activity not as a teacher, but also as a participant in our own right.

X There are good reasons why teachers want to take part in a discussion:

ú they can enliven things from the inside instead of having always to prompt or organize from outside the group.

ú when it goes well, students enjoy having the teacher with them

ú for the teacher – participating is often more instantly enjoyable than acting as a resource.

X The danger of teachers as participants is that they can easily dominate the events – the teacher is still frequently perceived of as ‘the teacher’ and tends to be listened to with greater attention than his/her students.

Resource  

In some activities the aforementioned roles can not, appropriately, be taken on by a teacher. Suppose that the students are involved in a piece of group writing, or that they are involved in preparation for a presentation they are to make to the class. In such situations having the teacher take part, or try to control them, or even turn up to prompt them might be entirely unwelcome. However, the students may still have need of their teacher as a resource.

X This is where a teacher might be one of the most important resources the students have. (see S6)

X No teacher knows everything about the language! A teacher should, however, offer guidance as to where students can go to look for a given piece of information they need. A teacher may further say that one of his/her really important jobs is to encourage students to use resource material for themselves, and to become more independent in their learning generally.

X We need to have the courage to say ‘I don’t know the answer to that right now, but I’ll tell you tomorrow’ è you will need – obviously – to give them the information the next day, otherwise they may begin to lose confidence in you.

X Do not be over-helpful in order to avoid spoon-feeding students lest they become over-reliant on you.

Tutor    

When students are working on longer projects, such as pieces of writing or preparations for a talk or a debate, we can act as a tutor, working with individuals or small groups, pointing them in directions they have not yet thought of taking. In such situations we are combining the roles of prompter and resource, acting as a tutor.

X It is difficult to be a tutor in a very large group since the term implies a more intimate relationship than that of a controller or organizer. However, when working in pairs or small groups, we can stay briefly with a specific group or individual, offer them general guidance, and then move round the class to assist other groups/individuals.

X Care needs to be taken to ensure as many individuals or groups as possible are seen in order for the learners to have a real chance to feel supported and helped, and so that the general class atmosphere is greatly enhanced.

X Yet, we need to make sure that we do not intrude either too much (impedes learner autonomy) or too little (unhelpful).

Observer

We will want to observe what students do (especially in oral communicative activities) so that we can give them useful group and individual feedback.

X When observing students we should be careful not to be too intrusive by (1) holding on their every word, (2) getting too close to them, or (3) by officiously writing things down all the time.

X We should avoid drawing attention to ourselves since it may distract the students from the task they are involved in.

X When taking notes on students’ performance, focus both on what they get wrong and on what they get right. Observing for success often gives us a different feel for how well our students are doing.

X We need to be able to work and observe simultaneously, listening, and watching so that we can create the best kind of rapport between ourselves and our students.

X Teachers do not only observe students in order to give feedback. They also watch in order to judge the success of the different materials and activities that they take into lessons so that they can, if needed, make changes in the future.

Which role?

The role we take on is dependent on what it is we wish the students to achieve. Where some activities are difficult to organize without the teacher acting as controller, others have no chance of success unless we take a less domineering role. There are times when we will need to act as a prompter where, on other occasions, it would be more appropriate to act as a resource.

X We need to be able to switch between the various roles, judging when it is appropriate to use one or other of them. And then, when we have made that decision, we need to be aware of how we carry out that role and how we perform.