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Summarizing ‘role of the teacher’ isn’t an easy task, and was probably at the bottom of my list of choices as a title for this summative task. I’ve decided to go with this topic as it closely fits with questions that I myself have been contemplating for quite some time -- ‘How to make lessons relevant and appealing to students?’, ‘What makes an effective teacher?’ and ultimately ‘What’s my role as a teacher?” Sharing my thoughts on them would hopefully bring me closer to solving these questions, and while the answers may seem elusive, they don’t always need to be. To add an illustrative element to our work, let’s assume we are given a class of Japanese students studying English for a specific purpose - to join the fleet of medical administrators at local hospitals. The students’ average age is early 20s, and level of English language proficiency ranges from young to adult beginner. Let’s also assume that the chosen textbook for the course is far beyond the reach of even the most aspiring students. At this point we can sort out possible teaching methods to address the issue from a number of possible techniques, but the one method that has emerged as the most effective over the years is based on the Engage-Study-Activate principles . The Engage stage of the lesson is primarily allowing students to make the switch from using their native language to using English. Without overcomplicating it, the teacher can introduce a fun and easy to do activity. This stage serves a second purpose as well -- getting students’ attention while brainstorming ideas that can be later applied in the lesson. Given that the textbook is too advanced for the group, jumping onto it as part of the Study stage is obviously not the greatest idea. Therefore, certain excerpts from the book could serve a better purpose. Choosing the Boomerang method (Engage - Activate - Study - Activate) in that case could be more befitting to our situation. Eliciting the key vocabulary through a role play activity would encourage teamwork and help students discover new vocabulary on their own. It can also serve as a good entry point for a particular grammatical structure, hence the Study phase. The advanced nature of the course textbook presents the teacher with a choice to omit certain parts and transition to the second part of the Study stage. Setting up a controlled activity would ultimately reinforce key points of the Activate phase and be supplemental to the introduction of the textbook. This could also be the part where new relative vocabulary is introduced, with the help of various drills or worksheet exercises. Board work is suitable as well. Another role-play activity at this point would provide students chances to verbally practice what they've learned in the lesson. Consolidating ideas and receiving feedback from students would serve as an indicator to the teacher on how well the lesson has been understood and what areas need further addressing. So far we’ve drafted up a lesson plan that helps us find a satisfactory answer to the question ‘How to make lessons relevant and appealing to students? Incidentally, I’d been applying similar methodology to my classes long before I’ve started the ITTT course, and now I find it particularly reassuring that the E-S-A is indeed an effective methodology. We’re still left with the questions at hand -- ‘What makes an effective teacher?’, ‘What’s my role as a teacher?” One can hardly resist the contentious desire to resort to intangible psychological principles to find the answers. Again, the answers could be very straightforward. Providing relevant content can be achieved by knowing your students’ goals. Passing the ball to the students figuratively means that the effective teacher shouldn’t lecture, but instead open a dialog with students -- ‘demonstrate, not explain!’; elicit the target sentence structures; prompt students to give additional information; reinforce and expand student knowledge, and boost budding English learners confidence through role-play and teamwork. That effectively answers our last question. My role as an effective teacher is to step away from the spotlight, and facilitate students to make new discoveries on their own, by providing . challenging and yet positive atmosphere, relevant topics, stepping in only to usher students in the right direction.
