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A teacher is a person who helps people learn, who helps people acquire knowledge and know what they did not know before. In this light anyone can be called a teacher; It could be parents, guardians or friends; if they assist someone acquire any knowledge whatsoever then we could say that they are teachers. A teacher for the purpose of this work would be someone who takes teaching as a profession. Someone who earns a living by helping people acquire knowledge in a classroom situation. To do this the teacher takes up different roles in different situations as shown below. Firstly, the teacher is a model in the eyes of the learners. Most students believe more in their teachers than even their parents so the teacher must be a model for the students. Be it in their dressing, walking and talking. In the situation of an English teacher to speakers of other languages, the teacher might be the students’ only picture of an English speaking person. So the teacher’s speech must be of good standard worthy of emulation. The teacher is an organizer. Here we see the teacher putting things in order and organizing the class and equipment. The teacher may have to change students sitting positions depending on the type of activity that needs to be carried out. The teacher may even have to move some classroom equipment like chairs and tables to put them in a particular order for the smooth flow of an activity or game. The teacher could also take the role of a facilitator. Here the teacher guides students to learn the language themselves. The teacher comes up with the activities and tell the learners what to do then let them do it themselves. Although the teacher could to withdraw completely to let the children work on their own, it will be important that they are there to help in case the students need assistance. The teacher takes the role of observer or monitor in the classroom at certain stages in the lesson. The teacher would want to move around during and activity to see how far the learners have gone. Then he/she would know how long the activity is going to take and how successful it could be. In some situations the teacher plays the role of a participant. This is when a teacher has to join in a game or activity as a partner not as a teacher. This maybe in order to liven up from within the activity not like an onlooker but like a participant or to even up the number of participant in an activity. Most often when a teacher is doing a one-to-one lesson they play the role of participant more often as they are the only partner their student will have. Furthermore, a teacher could be a counsellor too at some stages of their job. This is seen when a teacher tries to guide a student on a future career or even gives advice or matters of life concerning the student in question. These are only a few of the many roles that a teacher might have to play during their teaching career. The role that a teacher adopts depends on the situation in which they find themselves and the activity that is taking place at that particular moment.
