Teach English in Maoping HuizuZhen - Shangluo Shi

In addition to having the attributes of a good teacher, to understand what role an effective teacher can employ it is important to firstly identify the different roles a teacher can take. Although there are several types of roles some of the most common ones will be briefly discussed below: To begin, a teacher can take the role of a Manager / Controller where the teacher is mostly in control of disseminating the lesson plan to their students and the teacher has a high talk time compared to the students where the students do not generally have as much talk time, if any. Another role is that of The Organizer where the teacher is to organize students in pairs or group settings initiating activities so the students can function effectively together for the achievement of a common purpose. The role of The Assessor provides feedback through correction and consistent evaluation of an activity. The role of The Prompter is when a teacher will interject and provide probes and subtle support for when students may be stuck during an activity. Determining when to prompt students and keeping a higher student talk time is important to be aware of in this role. Next is the role of The Participant where the teacher partakes in the lesson plan as an equal to the students so the teacher can liven up the activity from the inside as opposed to prompting from the outside, again it is important for the teacher to make sure they are not the centre of attention. The role of The Tutor is when teachers give one-on-one or one on pair guidance to students when students are struggling with a particular task, again important not to linger too long and try to give equal attention to the whole class. The Resource Facilitator role is one where the teacher will take a backseat and allow the students to take charge of the activity but is still available in the background in case the student requires further assistance. Teachers should be mindful not to spoon-feed students when taking on this role. The role of The Model where the teacher is seen as the ideal model themselves to the students and expected to provide proper grammar, pronunciation and overall language when teaching or having a conversation with students. Lastly, the Observer/ Monitor role is where the teacher stands back maintaining a distance from the students, and monitors the students’ activity and progress from afar. Now that the typical roles that a teacher can employ have been discussed it is clear that they vary in what they have to offer with each holding their own virtues and vices. When it comes to which role a teacher should employ it depends highly on the activity that the teacher is administering at the time and what the teacher wants the students to achieve from that activity. Some activities may require high teacher talk time and some may require high student talk time. An effective teacher should be in between a mediator and a conveyor of knowledge. They should be sensitive to the culture they are teaching in while being enthusiastic and motivating to the students; to allow the students to get the most out of a lesson plan. An effective teacher will provide a cultural bridge to teaching new language concepts from the students’ native language. It is also very important for an effective teacher to be mindful of employing different activities because different students may learn differently, and depending on the type of activity teachers may need to be flexible and adaptive to different roles. To conclude, there are various roles that a teacher can utilize when teaching a class but to be an effective teacher it is crucial to be versatile and incorporate these different roles. Knowing when to employ which role depending on the class activity and for the optimal understanding of the class materials for the children, while still engaging and involving the students is vital to what an effective teacher is.