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When teaching English to foreign language students, the role of the teacher takes on many forms. The teacher must be skilled at many tasks, as well as basic psychology and chief motivator. Teachers must be problem solvers, using real-time data to make mid-flight course corrections or the creatively compress or stretch out course content materials on the fly. Never knowing in advance the levels of the students or their unique learning challenges makes a teacher's judgment and emotional intelligence all the more important as determinants of the success of the classroom experience for students. From the first day of a new class, the teacher's approach determines the success or failure of the lesson and can have a lasting impact on the collective student's motivation levels and drive. It is crucial for the teacher to build rapport with the students from the start — taking the time to interact with the class on a whole by getting to know them, learn their motivations for learning English and trying to delve into their personal interests, backgrounds, and goals. It is the teacher's role to assess the student’s language proficiency levels and structure course content that is suitable for all students and will challenge the advanced students while not leaving slower students behind. It is also important for the teacher’s content to be as interesting as possible to the entire class so as to avoid boring a portion of the students. The teacher must devise clever but flexible lesson plans that follow the E-S-A format (straight line, boomerang, etc.). Skills that must be developed through experience will help the teacher grow accustomed to having the right mix of Engage, Study and Activate content on-hand for each lesson. During a typical lesson, the teacher must fall into many different but equally important roles. The Manager / Controller role involves maintaining pace, order and overall flow of the classroom and lesson. In the role of Organizer, the teacher will alternate between giving instructions, organizing students into groups/pairs, initiating activities, bringing activities to a close and organizing feedback. In the role of Assessor, the teacher will be called upon to give feedback and correction as well as evaluating and grading. Care must be taken with delivering feedback and correction so as not to quell enthusiasm. In the role of Prompter, the teacher's job is to help a student become “unstuck” when answering a question or working on an exercise. It is up to the teacher to gently encourage the student along without giving too much help. If the class has an uneven number of students, the teacher must sometimes take on the role of Participant. In those situations, the teacher becomes equal to the students, while keeping the focus on their contributions. Sometimes the teacher must be a Tutor, getting more involved with a single student. Other times, the teacher serves as a model — demonstrating the correct usage of the English language. Lastly, the role of Monitor / Observer is quite common in most lessons. This is where the teacher must observe from a distance to monitor the class progress and see who is struggling with the material. In summary, the teacher’s job is complex and often very difficult. Many skills are called upon to step into the various roles required to perform the job.
