The Good Language TeacherLuke ProdromouBritish CouncilThessaloniki, Greece

Teacher centred vs. Learner centred

• The demands on the teacher in a learner-centred methodology are greater, not less, than in conventional “teacher-centred” approaches.

• There was a survey designed to discover students’ views of good and bad language teaching.

The Good Language Teacher

1. Friendly.2. Explained things.3. Gave good notes.4. Group work.5. Played games.6. Told jokes.7. She knew psychology.8. She was forceful, but not strict.9. She made sure everyone understood.10. She was funny.11. She was more like a comedian.

The Bad Language Teacher

1. Very strict.2. Didn’t let us speak.3. Gave marks all the time.4. Shouted (for no reason).5. Didn’t smile.6. Very nervous.7. Talked and talked.8. Avoided answering questions.9. He was the teacher, I was the student.10. He had a blacklist and said “YOU, YOU, YOU”11. No communication, nothing

• It would be not only difficult but counterproductive to generalize from the diverse and often contradictory comments made by students about good and bad teachers.

• Luke’s own experience of observing many teachers at work for many years suggests that both introverts and extroverts, soft-spoken and outspoken people can all hold the attention of a class and make learning enjoyable and effective.

The Sorcerer’s Apprentice• Widdowson (1984) has this to say about the “incentive value”

of theory in teacher education:

No matter how concerned teachers may be with the immediate particularities of the classroom, their techniques are based on some principle or other which is accountable to theory… We have the responsibility of representing teaching as a challenging intellectual enterprise… If adherence to formulae is unnatural, stultifying, and an enemy of incentive, in teaching as in any other human activity, then an over-emphasis on technique in teacher training, without indicating its link with theory, will be ultimately self-defeating.

It is suggested that fostering dependence on technique alone, without at the same time developing awareness of how technique relates to theoretical principles, militates against healthy development in ELT profession. Furthermore, it is argued, teachers who see research as part of their role are likely to view their work more positively than teachers who are exclusively concerned with the practical.

Teacher development• Ways of improving one’s knowledge of ELT and thereby

increasing one’s confidence as a teacher include the following:

1. Subscribing to ELT magazines and journals.

2. Joining professional organisations such as TESOL and attending their conferences when “possible”.

3. Forming local teachers’ groups and holding regular meetings to discuss common problems.

4. Reading teachers’ handbooks published by most ELT Publishers.

Authority, errormania and testomania• Teacher authority is often asserted over a difficult class by

adopting a testing rather than a teaching approach to language learning.

• Power lies in the teacher’s dispensing of marks and in the detection and penalisation of error.

• The failure to distinguish between testing and teaching is a major obstacle to the development of a wider range of teacher roles.

• Both testing and teaching are essential in language learning, but it is vital to distinguish between them.

Testing Emphasizes:

Failure.Impersonality.Anxiety.Marks.Boring content.Judgement.Extrinsic motivation.Competition.Teacher control.Solemnity.Fragmentation.Crime and punishment.Stick and carrot.Product.

Teaching Emphasizes:

Success.Personalisation.Pleasure.Results.Interesting content.Support.Intrinsic motivation.Cooperation.Student control.Humor.Integration.Give and take.Ripeness is all.Process.

The outer circle: The roles of the teacher.• The teacher finds him/herself with many parts to play:1. Friend2. Manager3. Monitor4. Counsellor5. Facilitator of learning 6. Reliable7. Informant on the language8. Social worker 9. Model for the students and so on.

ACTIVITY

The teacher gives instructions for students to get into groups.

The teacher asks students to repeat a sentence after his/her pronunciation practice.

The teacher goes round listening to pairs practicing a dialogue

The teacher advises students how best to approach a task.

The teacher explains when we use the present perfect for recently completed actions.

The teacher provides material and guidance to enable students to work on their own.

The teacher stays behind after class and discusses one of the student’s personal problems which is affecting his/her work.

The teacher chats with students over coffee or arranges a cinema visit with the class.

ROLE

Manager

Model

Monitor

Counsellor

Informant

Facilitator

Social worker

Friend

Classroom management, or how to make a lesson fall apart

The Teacher

Doesn’t use their names

Doesn‘t check or

cross-check

Ignores time

Ignores space

Doesn’t look at

students

Doesn’t use the board

• The use of space.• The use of students’ names.• Eye contact.• The use of the blackboard.• The “togetherness” of a class.

• Space: a mixed-ability class easily falls apart.A badly managed large mixed-ability class not only falls apart very easily but will probably find it difficult to come together again.

What’s interesting and challenging for one learner is boring and too easy for another.

Things the teacher can do to make it more difficult for a class to fall apart

• Open space. A lot of classrooms traditionally look something like this:

Figure 5

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• Figure 5 is militaristic, fine for drilling and testing, but too rigid and fragmentary for the mixed-ability class with its need for flexibility and variety.

• The suggestions that follow are for situations where there is some flexibility in the way the furniture can be arranged.

• Use the space in a way that encourages students to listen to each other and to enable the maximum number of students to see the board and any visual material the teacher may be holding up.

• For general classwork a semicircular formation is best for this:

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• Use a circular formation for general discussion, with the teacher either joining the circle as an equal in the discussion or sitting outside the circle to monitor the discussion or whisper useful language to students trying to express themselves but at a loss for words:

T(T)

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In a large class with desks fixed to the floor, encourage students to work with students behind or in front of them or across a gangway to form groups of four or six.

• The teacher’s position. If the desks are immovable objects, the same cannot be said for the teacher; the way a teacher moves around the room at different points in the lesson can have a significant effect on students’ concentration.

• A golden rule is to vary your position in the classroom depending on the activity.

• To barricade the teacher behind a desk for most of the lesson and for most lessons not only ignores the dynamics of the open space but is asking for apathy and lack of involvement in the learners too.

Teachers often go up close to the student speaking, but this actually excludes the rest of the class from what’s going on.

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• If a student’s voice is not audible from the other end of the room, those students who can’t hear will get irritated.

• The teacher’s position encourages a student with soft voice to speak up, and it allows the teacher to keep an eye on a maximum number of learners at the same time.

BB

T S

Time: Friend or Enemy?

• It becomes conspicuous and often catastrophic when we ignore it.

• In a mixed ability class time is particularly significant because good learners and weak learners sometimes differ not so much in knowledge but in the pace at which they like to apply that knowledge.

TEN WAYS OF TAKING TIME INTO ACCOUNT

1. Don’t plan to do too much in a lesson.2. Tell students at the start of a lesson roughly what you intend

to do and how long it is going to take.3. Tell students how long they have for a particular activity.4. Warn the class one or two minutes before an activity is due

to finish.5. Use the last few minutes to check that learning has taken

place.6. Allow students to copy important information.7. Don’t wait too long for a student to answer.

• Cross-checking. Attention in a large mixed-ability class can be focused and held if the teacher follows a simple routine for involving students in what their fellow students are saying, the technique is one of “cross checking.”

• Students are used to think that only the teacher is worth listening to in class, and that the only reason the teacher asks questions of a particular student is to check up on that student.

• This is all the more true when the student speaking happens to have acquired a reputation for contributing nothing but mistakes to the lesson.

• Checking: The Power of the Written Word. Pairwork should involve written answers.

• This has a number of advantages in the mixed-ability class:1. It encourages reluctant learners to complete the task.

2. It discourages them from using only the mother tongue.

3. It gives better students more to do while you go round helping weaker students.

4. It gives the teacher something to discuss with early finishers if their answers have been written down.

5. When answers are written, the checking and cross-checking process has a greater chance of success.

• The teacher will have to train the students over a period of time to ask as well as answer questions and to learn to interact with each other.

• Paying attention to others and interacting with them should become a normal classroom routine.

Eye Contact or Star Gazing?• Why is eye contact considered to be so important in

interaction between people?

• Numerous studies have shown that people who make higher-levels of eye contact with others are perceived as being:

• More dominant and powerful.• More warm and personable.• More attractive and likeable.• More qualified, skilled, competent, and valuable.• More trustworthy, honest, and sincere.• More confident and emotionally stable.

• Eye contact is one such detail of teacher style that may have surprisingly significant effects, especially in combination with the other factors that were mentioned.

• Try looking at the class as you are speaking, allow your gaze to travel gently round the class, without staring inhibitingly at any one student.

Voice• A sure way of making students switch off is to speak in a

monotone.

From Luke’s experience of observing teachers, points in the lesson where there are significant voice changes include the following:

• Beginning the lesson• Stating the points of the lesson• Interrupting students to point out something important.• Telling students that time is up• Telling the class to copy something from the board.

The Magic Board• Use the board to record grammar, vocabulary, and content.• Use the board as one way of ensuring that instructions are

clear.• Write example sentences of the target structure on the board.• Use the board to jot down points made by all students.• At the end of the lesson, make sure students have copied into

their notebooks any useful information from the board.

It would be wasteful to laboriously fill the board with useful information and almost immediately rub the board clean before the teacher has exploited the material in any way or before the

students have had time to absorb any of it.

Thank you