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In an ideal lesson, students and teachers would have complete mutual understanding , trust and rely on each other, students would participate in activities, games and debates without being intimidated, without any reluctance. But, unfortunately, all that doesn’t come naturally, to gain that, teacher should build a rapport between her/him and students. What is rapport ? I, personally, would call it a special connection, feeling of closeness. But why it is so important ? Why does it matter and what benefits might it have to offer ? It’s is important because it can bring good communication and understanding. It also will help teacher to manage the class effectively, help student to feel more relaxed, comfortable and concentrate on learning the language only. And most of work in building the rapport lays certainly on the teacher. To perform that accurately and effortless, teacher should have specific qualities , such as open-mindedness, fairness, interesting, happy, creative and encouraging. To sum up, I think teacher should be warm, open and caring. Students will notice whether or not you display those qualities and will appreciate you not only as a teacher but also as a good friend. Because that’s what make that special atmosphere, teacher should show that you are not only learners and teacher, but friends also. What are the benefits of rapport? Rapport is associated with positive students’ perceptions. This means that it can lead to higher results of studying and would most likely lead to better classroom interactions and student participating during lesson. Building special rapport gives your students confidence to ask questions, be more brave and certain. Most importantly it gives your students courage to expose their opinions. So, how exactly do we develop rapport with our students ? There are certain strategies, techniques and tips, but it is important to remember Buskist and Saville’s conclusion on rapport :” any one of these actions alone is unlikely to build rapport. Instead, combinations of these behaviors implemented consistently over time provide the synergistic effects necessary for rapport to emerge in tour teaching”. The key to success teaching is to be yourself, good teacher never fakes smiles, good teacher enjoys interacting and connection with students. If you are interested in connecting with students, you should probably get to know them better , you should find their interests and be sincerely curious about their lives. You should learn their names , should ask them about their hobbies and dreams , you should show them that you are not only a teacher but a friend. However, teacher shouldn’t forget to introduce her/himself , share with them about your life also , it can work as an excellent ice-breaker. It’s vital to establish rapport but you should also maintain it. For that , I think , teacher can set office hours, allow students to come and communicate with you outside the classroom, be approachable, be honest and give them reasoned feedback. In conclusion I want to say that creating student-teacher rapport is necessary for best teaching and learning results. In order to be a good teacher, it is not enough to know your subject well. You should know yourself, you should know human nature and you should be able to expose your emotions in front of your students and always keep an open mind. And I’m sure if teacher would maintain that, students will reward him\her greatly with their openness, trust and high results.
