You are on page 1of 3

No 4.

1.What factors influence the roles teachers perform?


-

context in which teacher work, since different teaching settings involve teachers in different kinds of roles,
who make decisions, the teacher or someone above,
what are teachers beliefs about what is the best kind of lesson and what we want to achieve,
how strong they feel responsible for their teaching.
2.How can we define roles and what are their characteristics?

ROLE - part taken by a participant in any act of communication. Roles can be fixed (doctor-patient or teacherstudent), open to negotiation, temporary, spontaneous. For example, within an office, a group of colleagues may have
hierarchical roles whereas in social situation the same colleagues may interact on equal terms.
fixed vs. flexible role
Characteristic of roles:
- they involve different kind of work
- they involve different level of responsibility
- they involve different kinds of relationships and different patterns of interaction and communication
- they involve different power relationships
Teachers interpret their roles in different ways depending on: the kinds of school in which they work, teaching
methods, individual personalities, cultural backgrounds.
3. How are the roles of teachers perceived in different types of schools? Give examples of teacher roles that are
institution-dependent.
Different types of school create particular roles for teacher, because administrative structure is different and teaching
philosophy is different. Teachers would like to have more responsibility to make their own decision about course
goals, syllabus, how should they teach and monitor their own classes.
Teacher roles that are institution-dependent:
- Curriculum developer the teacher develops his or her own course plans and syllabuses based on student needs.
- Professional teacher is expected to continue with professional development by taking part in workshops and
conferences, reading professional journals in the field, and joining professional organizations.
- Team member teachers are encouraged to work together as a team rather than to teach in isolation from other
teachers in the school, and to take part in cooperative activities such as team teaching.
4.What is the relationship between the roles teachers perform and the teaching method or approach they
subscribe to? Give examples.
Relationship between teachers role and teaching method roles may be influenced by approach or methodology
established by institution.
Some teaching methods define very specific roles for teachers:
- Direct Method teacher should never translate and explain but demonstrate and act, correct, make students
speak much, use and follow lesson plan.
- Active Teaching primary role of teacher is connected with management and monitoring of learning. He should
communicate clearly, obtain engagement, monitor progress of students and provide feedback.
- Cooperative Learning relies on cooperative group or pair work. Teacher should divide responsibility for group
work into students, make students cooperate, provide feedback, give motivation, coordinate group activities.
- Audiolingualism teacher-dominated method, teacher should monitor and correct learners performance, give
tasks, control pace of learning.
- Communicative Language Teaching teacher should facilitate communication process between students, act as
independent participant, be a resource, and organize a resources, be a guide, researcher, learner.
- Total Physical Response teacher is director of all student behavior, give commends.

5.What roles can teachers adopt that reflect their personal view of teaching?
-

Planner planning and structuring as fundament to success in teaching and learning.


Manager organize and manage the classroom environment and students behavior.
Quality Controller maintain the quality of language use in the classroom.
Group Organizer develop environment in which students work cooperatively.
Facilitator help students discover their own ways of learning and to work independently.
Motivator improve students confidence and interest in learning, build climate that will motivate students.
Empowerer little control or direction over the lessons, students make decisions what they want to learn and
how.
Team Member teacher + student = team, teacher as a member of team.
6.What aspects of language instruction are influenced by the teachers teaching style?

Teachers style of teaching:


- Classroom management and organization how teacher establishes rules in the class, what kind of
arrangements teachers use.
- Teacher control how teacher maintain level of performance in the classroom.
- Curriculum, content and planning how they plan lesson organization and structure.
- Instructional strategies what type of classroom activities do teachers prefer.
- Motivational techniques what strategies he use to create classroom climate and motivation.
- Assessment philosophy what type of assessment procedures do teachers use?
7.What is the relationship between teachers roles and the culture in which instruction takes place?
The fact where teacher come from, the culture background he is adjusted to has impact on his beliefs and roles, they
have different culture towards learning. It influences the expectations that both parties have about the other. Where
these expectations are in conflict, there is a potential for misunderstanding.
8.The controversy between teacher-centered and learner-centered instruction.
-

teacher-centered teacher is dominant, he tells students what to learn. He is a controller, he motivates, instructs,
explains.
learner-centered teacher delegates some responsibilities to students. Needs and experience of students are in
the center, students are responsible for their learning, students activity takes place. Teacher is rather facilitator
(work in groups, pairs).

Letting students do the learning on their own might bring negligence (zaniedbanie). There are many occasions when
the teacher will want to be at the front of the class to motivate, instruct or explain something to the whole class. But
there are also many activities where encouraging students to solve their own problems on their own or in pairs or
groups will have beneficial effects on learning.

9.What are the different roles that, according to Harmer, the teacher can perform in the classroom? What are
the main characteristics of these roles as well as their respective advantages and disadvantages.
-

Facilitator help students discover their own ways of learning and to work independently. To help students
learn.
Controller - in charge of a class activity, organize drills, read aloud, exemplify the qualities of a teacher-fronted
classroom, they view their job as the transmission pf knowledge to students. Bad points: lack of variety of
activities, no access to experimental learning.
Organizer organizes students to do various activities, it involves giving the students information, putting them
into pairs or groups, telling them how to do the activity. Teachers explanation must be clear, because chaos can
occur.
Assessor offer feedback, correction, hand out grades, correct mistakes. Students need to know the criteria of the
teacher, we must be sensitive to students possible reaction. We should tell them what we are looking for and what
success looks like.
Prompter giving students ideas when he s lost for words and has lack of vocabulary. Teacher should
nudge (szturcha) forward in a discreet and supportive way. Prompter must be sensitive, discreet, not to
adamant.
Participant teacher joins in students activity not as a teacher but also as a participant with equal rights. Bad
side is that we can easily dominate, the teacher tend to be listened more than his students.
Resource teacher is resource of knowledge. When students are involved in a piece of group writing or
preparation for presentation they need teacher as a resource. They may ask how to say or write sth or what word
means. They may want information about where to look for sth (a book, or web site).
Tutor when students are working on longer project we can act as a tutor, working with individual or small
groups, pointing them in directions. We are combining roles of prompter and resource.
Observer we are an observer all the time, we need to be able to work and observe.
10.What stages should the teacher go through when organizing an activity?

Engage saying what activities is good, making it clear that something new is going to happen and that
activity will be enjoyable and interesting.
- Instruct (demonstrate) say what they should do first, what next, giving instructions clear and in a logical order.
- Initiate students need to know how much time they have got and when they should start.
- Organize feedback to give summarizing comments.
Content feedback what is being said. Form feedback how sth is being said.
11.The teacher as a performer.
Different teachers has many different performance styles, which depend on the situation in the classroom. When there
is a team game we will want to behave energetically (game needs excitement and energy), encouragingly, clearly
(rules of game must be clear) and fairly sprawiedliwie (students care about this in a competition situation). We
need to be able to use different roles as far as different activities in classroom are concerned.
12.The teacher as teaching aid.
-

Mime and gesture we use it to express or demonstrate meaning. Using it is helpful for students, it conveys
meaning and atmosphere. It works best when exaggerated. We need to use it carefully because some can be
inappropriate in some situations.
Language model we can model language ourselves. We can do this by saying of dialogue or reading aloud of a
text. But we should be sure that we are heard, enthusiastic, not too fast. By doing this we get students involved in
classroom activities and capture their imagination. It depends on performing reading in an interesting way.
Provider of comprehensible input -

You might also like