TEFL Monroe Oregon

Teaching represents a demanding and complex task. teachers are no more the people who come to the class, give lectures and walk out. In recent years there have been changes in education because of the increasing emphasis on students expecting to take more responsibility for their own learning. The gravity moved from the teacher closer to the student. In place of having only traditional teacher-centered lessons there has been a change to student-centered lessons what caused the teacher to have new academic roles. Firstly the student-centered approach brought problems to the traditionalists used to provide only teacher-centered lessons. The increased attention to the learner they understood and some of them still do as a loss of their control and power which now gives them a feeling of uncertainty, inadequacy and anxiety. It is difficult for them to accept their new status of a classroom chum or a counsellor. The only teacher´s role was to be a primary information giver and a primary evaluator while students as learners passively received the information. Emphasis was on a direct acquisition of knowledge outside the context in which it would be used. There was a passive relation between the teacher and the student. In reality the student was an outsider of the teaching process lacking action and motivation. The only connection between teacher and student was on the level of teacher´s giving information and primary evaluation. There was nothing more behind it. Nevertheless the teachers still appreciate the teacher-centered approach. They use it separately or in combination with the student-centered approach. It can be useful in a variety of ways of teaching such as grammar teaching, vocabulary drilling or article reading drilling. The teacher is an effective model of the target language and an important source of information on how the learners are doing what is beneficial for the student. On the other hand the student-centred approach gives focus on the learner rather than the teacher. Students construct knowledge through gathering information, communication or problem solving. Students are actively involved in the teaching process. Emphasis is on using the language and communication skills in real life situations. Professor's role is to coach and facilitate. Professor and students evaluate learning together. Culture is cooperative, collaborative, and supportive. Professor and students learn together. It is an absolutely different approach to the teacher-centered one and we may say it is much more effective. The student has a very strong position in the teaching process but the teacher is always there fully responsible for the class and the lesson. The position of the teacher may be quite difficult but effective for the student and teaching process. The teacher may transfer a lot of his own responsability to the student who may do a maximum usage of it but the primary responsability is still on the teacher. This approach is very creative, motivative, full of active work but very demanding for the teacher. With this approach the teacher has obtained a lot of new roles that hadn´t been there before. And it is up to the teacher how he is able to deal with them. The teacher except of being a teacher takes on himself a role of a manager, organizer, assesor, prompter, participant, tutor, facilitator, model or monitor as well. It is a big responsability to him and it is necessary that the teacher feels a real passion for his job and really enjoys doing it otherwise it can cause an inner conflict to him. Finally, teachers play a significant and valuable role because they influence lives of our children who are the future of tomorrow. Nowadays there are too many impulses in our lives and every human being needs to be fully involved in his life not excluding the teaching process. With the student´s involvement new teacher roles arise what is very motivating, creative and challenging to both the teacher and the student. The teacher gets the student engaged in learning activities and helps the student to learn. As K. Patricia Cross says: "The task of the excellent teacher is to stimulate 'apparently ordinary' people to unusual effort. The tough problem is not in identifying winners: it is in making winners out of ordinary people." Source: o Eric Hoyle – The Role of the teacher o Richard P. Lipka and Thomas M. Brinthaupt - The Role of Self in teacher Development o http://www.cambridge.org/other_files/downloads/esl/booklets/Jones-Student-Centered.pdf o The Role of the teacher by london Deanery, Faculty Developmnt., E-learning for clinincal techers o http://wikieducator.org/images/e/e3/Twelev_Roles_of_a_Lecturer.pdf o What is the role of a teacher? By http://www.csun.edu/~meq75037/paper1.html o Geeta Dhavale Published: 10/7/2010 o http://assessment.uconn.edu/docs/teacherCenteredVsLearnerCenteredParadigms.pdf o http://assessment.uconn.edu/docs/teacherCenteredVsLearnerCenteredParadigms.pdf o ITTT material