Teachers and Learners

Teachers and Learners

1. Good Teacher

   • A teacher that cares about his teaching, but cares more about the learning of his students
   • Qualities
     • A good teacher should be: Kind and patient a lover of teaching able to motivate his students entertaining and lively able to have good interaction and rapport with his classroom knowledgeable about the subject able to know the weaknesses of their students and give help and individual attention where neccesary. able to involve all of students equally. able to correct students without offending them
     • Roles
       • Depending on the kind of activity that we are teaching we should adopt a different role to enhance our effectiveness as teachers.
       • The role that we employ is going to depend of the type of activity and what we wish the students to achieve. Some will require a more dominant role while others will require a passive and withdrawn role. Its important that the teacher knows how to switch between these roles and how to execute them well. Also, a good teacher will have the 
       • Managers or Controllers
         • This is classic role where the teacher is the one in charge of the class and of the activity in a way this is quite different from when students are working on their own, in pairs on in a group.
       • Organizer
         • This is one of the most important roles since it involves telling instructions, organizing students into groups/pairs, giving a close to the activity and organizing feedback. Teachers should feel comfortable with this role, otherwise it could ensue chaos while organizing activities.
       • Assessor
         • Students are very keen to fing out whether or not they are producing good english. This involves giving feedback and correction as well as grading and evaluating. It its vitally important in this role that the teacher is fair and consistent with all the students and is sensitive to the reaction of the students and providing neccesary support
       • Prompter
         • When a student lose the thread of what they want to communicate or become stuck for ideas, as teachers we can choose to allow the student to work it for himself or gently encourage him along. If we choose the latter, then we are acting as a prompter. When prompting we want to help but we must be careful not to take the initiative away from the student. A great deal of sensitivity and encouragement is required. Example: Prompting our students to use English and not their native language
       • Participant
         • At ceratain stages of the lesson the teacher can choose to participate as a student instead of a teacher. This way you could liven the activity from the inside instead of prompting from the outside or evening a uneven numbers of students for the creation of pairs.  Its important to not dominate or focus the attention of the activity on oneself when acting as a participant
       • Tutor
         • This role implies a more personal role for the teaching. Often employed when students are working individually or in pairs and we briefly stop to give them encouragement. Suggestions for this role include giving equal attention to all students and not intruding too much.
       • Resource or Facilitator
         • In this role the teacher will devise activities for the students to simply get on with the process of learning the languages for themselves. In this process the teacher will let the students work on their own but will be present as a resource in case the students needs assistance or guidance. In this role we want to be helpful and available without having to spoon-feed
       • Model
         • The teacher, particularly a native-speaker of English is often the only real, live English source of grammar, vocabulary and pronunciation that the student has ever encountered. The teacher is the fount of all knowledge in these fields and have particular responsability and authority in the eyes of the learner. Many adult learners want to benefit from the speech and pronunciation model that the teacher offers
       • Observer or Monitor
         • Often during the course of a lesson the teacher will wish to monitor how an activity is doing, this will tell him how successful the activity was or how long will it take. During speaking activities the teacher normally will take notes regarding correction or praise at a later stage. While observing is important to not intrude too much so the students dont distract themselves from the activity they are doing, but there will be occasions where the teacher may need to move in a little to hear what is being spoken or to look at writing in progress, in order to monitor effectively.

2. Good Leaner

   • Normally good learners share the next set of qualities and its the responsability of a teacher to foster and nurture them: Willingness to listen to the language Willingness to ask questions Desire to learn Desire to experiment with the language Ability to think about their learning process and methods Acceptance of correction
   • Factors
     • There are different factors that affect the disposition to learn from a student.
     • Age
       • When taking about age we have adults(+18) and young learners. In the young learners category we have 3 subcategories: Post-puberty or early teen age learner(13+) which are often unmotivated, self-conscious and unwilling to experiment with the language. Pre-puberty learner(8-12): They are normally more receptive towards the new sounds, words and grammar of a new language. Very young learners(-7): They normally have very short attention spans ,and in the case of very young ones have not dominated the grammar of their mother tongue, but all are generally amenable to fun games, drawing, singing, etc.
       • Learning Experience
         • Adults will normally come with a long history of learning experience (both good and bad) which will fix their views of how teaching should be imparted. Also they will have their own history of succeses and failures, which can influence their belief that they can succed with the language.
         • Young learners on the other hand could have some learning experience but will not have their views as fixed and will be more open to news experiences and methods.
       • Motivation
         • Adult learners will usually have made the decision to attend classes themselves so they will be quite motivated. On the other hand, young learners rarely choose to attend themselves so it will be the teacher's duty to make the class lively and entertaining
       • Nervousness
         • Adults are normally more nervous about a new learning experience than young learners. Loss of face and anxiety about success are major factors here. It is important for the teacher to be gentle and encouraging while helping build confidence
       • Language Awareness
         • Adults normally try to match the new language to their native language which can lead to problems. Young learns are far more likely to absorb the new language from context and usage in much the same way as they did with their native language.
       • Behaviour Problems
         • Adults have a greater attention span and as result present less of a problem regarding behaviour and discipline.
       • Life experience
         • Adults have more life experience which can make the lessons more varied and interesting. It is also usually easier to build rapport and have interesting discussions with adult students of similar age.