Becoming a Language Teacher & Teacher Roles PDF

BEING A LANGUAGE TEACHER & TEACHER ROLES Groupwork. Q. Talk to your friends about an English teacher that you enjoyed studying with and why. Q. Complete this sentence. Write your own definitions. Write at least two. A good language teacher …. is someone who knows our names (Harmer, 2007)...

BEING A LANGUAGE TEACHER & TEACHER ROLES Groupwork. Q. Talk to your friends about an English teacher that you enjoyed studying with and why. Q. Complete this sentence. Write your own definitions. Write at least two. A good language teacher …. is someone who knows our names (Harmer, 2007). https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wkT2ECTaKUI People give different views about what makes a good English teacher. Watch the video and write down as many as you can. Q. Read ‘A good language teacher’ (Courseboook, pp.78-83). Are these ‘definitions’ match your expectations? A good language teacher (Harmer, 2015, pp. 114-115) Rapport ‘Interactive decision-making’ A good language teacher (Harmer, 2015, pp. 114-115) Rapport -trust -‘eyes talk’ -how to respond to what SS say and do -welcoming and encouraging positive things about SS. A good language teacher (Harmer, 2015, pp. 114-115) ‘Interactive decision-making’ -Teachers have to ‘think on their feet’ (reflection-in-action) -draw on skills, knowledge, experience, intuition -lesson plans as ‘proposal for action’, rather than as a blueprint to be strictly followed.  How to become a good teacher 1. How should teachers talk to students? Ability to “rough-tune” the language Use physical movement: gestures, expressions, mime 2. How should teachers give instructions? Give simple and logical instructions Check (ask a student to explain / show) 3. Who should talk in class? Maximize STT and minimize TTT Get the right balance 9 How to become a good teacher TTT STT 10 https://www.tesol.org/the-6-principles/the-6-principles? Teacher roles controller assessor organizer prompter participant resource tutor Investigator (Harmer, 2015) (Coursebook, p. 78-83), 1 Teacher as controller Certain stages of the lesson lend themselves to this role well. Introducing new language where accurate reproduction and drilling techniques are used. Instruct-cue-nominate cycle is one example. 1 Teacher as controller The teacher tends to do a lot of talking. This can affect students’ talking time. However, when the teacher talks at the student level of comprehension, this provides an important source for roughly-tuned comprehensible input. It is important that the teacher relaxes this control during communicative activities or even during immediate creativity.  2 Teacher as assessor To assess students’ work, to see how well they perform a given task Provide correction and organizing feedback Correction occurs during reproduction stage where the teacher is totally in control, student error and mistakes will be corrected almost instantly. -The teacher shows where incorrectness occurs, and -Helps students see what has gone wrong so that it can be put right. Gentle correction: the teacher shows a mistake has been made, but not making a big fuss about it. 2 Teacher as assessor Organizing feedback -Helps students see the extent of their success or failure and gives ideas as to how problems might be solved. -Content feedback: concerns how well students performed the activity as an activity rather than as a language exercise. -Form feedback: tell students how well they have performed linguistically, how accurate they have been. Feedback also means telling students what ‘went right’ 2 Teacher as assessor Ways to record errors and organize feedback - Pen and paper - Tape recorder - Video  3 Teacher as organizer organise activities in the classroom -Give clear instructions and check students understand what they are going to do - Get the activity going - Organize feedback Lead-in 🡪 instruct 🡪 inititate 🡪 (demonstrate) 🡪 organize feedback  4 Teacher as prompter encourage students to participate make suggestions about how students might proceed when there is a silence or when students are confused about what to do next. Help students if only necessary. Do not take over from students  5 Teacher as participant participate as an equal in an activity Make sure the teacher does not dominate. 6 Teacher as a resource a kind of walking resource center Be ready to offer help as needed.  Teacher as tutor acts as a coach and as a resource when students are involved in their own work and call on the teacher for advice and guidance. Teacher as investigator Investigates what is going on, observing what works well in class and what does not, trying out new techniques and activities and evaluating their appropriacy.  Roles of a language teacher Definition a. Taking part in an activity b. Completely in charge of Role the class 1. Controller c. A walking dictionary, grammar book, someone to 2. Organiser give advice, etc. d. Encouraging students to 3. Assessor participate, helping with answers. 4. Prompter e. Seeing how well students 5. Participant perform. f. Telling students what they 6. Resource should do next! 22 Identify teacher roles in the following situations. (HANDOUT) 1. The T goes round the class listening to pairs doing pair work. She/he takes notes as she / he walks around. Some ss stop the T as she/he passes and ask for help. ______________ 2. In a whole class activity, the teacher says, "That's not quite right, Long. You should be using the simple past. Repeat after me: She went to the market yesterday”. ______________ 3. A student doesn't know a word in English. He asks the T in Vietnamese, and the T tells him the word in English. ______________ 4. After pair work, the T gives feedback about common mistakes to the whole class. ______________ 5. A group of ss are stuck. They can't continue the task: writing down names of animals. The T says, "Why don't you think about animals you see in the zoo?" ______________ 6. The teacher says, "Now we are going to do some group work, talking about our families." ______________ 7. The teacher sits down with one group and joins in the activity they are doing. ______________ (Adapted from Nguyen Bang et al., 2003)  Teacher roles controlling 🡪 facilitative Which role is more controlling? Which one is more facilitative? Controlling facilitative ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 24  Teacher’s roles – controlling 🡪 facilitative Controlling organizer prompter participant facilitative C----------------------------A----------O---------Pr--------P----T----R controller assessor tutor resource (Harmer, 1991) 25 Q. Do you agree with the following statement? “ The dynamism (or tension) between the planned and unpredictable, and the improvised and unpredictable is essential in the development of true action-based pedagogy, and I would ague, in all pedagogy.” (van Lier, 2007, 54) Teacher roles. Practice Group 1. controller & assessor Group 2. organizer & prompter Group 3. participant & resource Group 4. tutor & Investigator Think of examples to illustrate your group’s assigned roles. Act out the roles in front of the class. Q. Any other roles you wish an English teacher to perform? Why? -What challenges might he/she encounter when realizing these roles? Identify teacher roles (Handout) For more information about teacher roles, watch these videos at home. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aaYh61skBpM https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X4CMeLo0M fo References Harmer, J. (2015). The practice of English language teaching (5th ed.). London: Pearson.  A good language teacher …. provides many choices. lets me teach myself even if it takes longer. talks so I can understand what he or she means to say. can make mistakes and admit it. can show his or her feelings and let me show mine. wants me to evaluate my own work. (Altman, 1981) 32  A good language teacher …. is on my side. lets me be and tries to understand what it is like to be me. accepts me whether he or she likes me or not. doesn’t have expectations of me because of what I have been or what he or she has been. is more interested in how I learn than what I learn. doesn’t make me feel anxious and afraid. (Altman, 1981) 33