Teach English in HuangjiAn Zhen - Yancheng Shi

“Good morning class. Get out your text and follow along as I read aloud. On Slide 12 you will see that this passive voice is used correctly and on slide 13 the passive voice is used incorrectly.” We have all been there. Another boring lecture. The transmission of information is presented from teacher to student without inciting creativity or self-discovery. Can this method be effective in receiving the information? Sure. But what is missing in this technique? We will discuss the role of the teacher in the classroom and its importance to the learner. When looking at your past classroom experience, what do you think of when thinking of your favorite teacher? Are they encouraging and helpful? What do you remember about the class? Most people think of interactive, engaging, and upbeat memories. The time when you built a slingshot from household materials to learn angular motion. These are the things we remember because they elicit the student to think for themselves and work with other students to practice the target outcome, no matter the subject. Teachers have multiple responsibilities throughout a course but we are going to focus on three roles that will help us be more effective educators in the classroom; motivator, facilitator, and model. Teacher rapport is imperative in the success of motivating students to use a target language. Students need to feel safe to take risks and make mistakes in their learning. Those who lack confidence in these areas will be less eager to practice the language and engage in conversations. An educator should be kind and encouraging to advocate for the students potential in the language. How can we do this? I find that figuring out the students' motivation to learn the language is the first step. After discovery of motivation, you can then build rapport and engage the student based on their purpose and values. With larger groups, you may have to try many different activities and resources giving the class a bit of diversity. Once you encounter what works, play to those strengths. Be clear about your expectations and incite a positive learning environment. Facilitating is a balancing act in the classroom from giving clear instruction to guiding the course in the right direction when things get a little off-topic. When using the ESA structure given in the ITTT course we will facilitate students learning of the target language from engagement to activation by being organized and flexible at a moments notice. We want students to learn for themselves to self-discover within the target outcomes but we want them to communicate with the teacher and other students also. Part of facilitating is being adaptable during the lesson to fit the different personalities and learning styles of the learners. Through a variety of techniques and teaching tools, we can support learning by encouraging participation in order to harvest and ensure learning goals. Facilitating a classroom, whether online or in-person, focuses on students' participation as the teacher guides neutrally. This will foster critical thinking and self-discovery. Can you think of a role model in your life? Maybe it’s your parents, an athlete, or a friend. These are the people who have an impact on your life. I know for myself I think of my uncle. He is hardworking, sociable, and can build anything with his hands. What do we do if we find someone that we consider the ideal model? We want to imitate the person's actions or mannerisms. We try to be more like them. This same concept is true for students in a learning environment. If we as teachers model positive skills and habits, we can only hope that students will follow suit and practice these similar skills. This is a form of learning through observation. Study behaviors, accents, learning strategies, self-reflection, and stimulating creativity; these are all skills that can be formulated from modeling the teacher. A great teacher will be a model that advocates strategies and communication that help students to feel comfortable using the target language inside and outside the classroom. Ultimately, teachers want their students to leave their classrooms feeling comfortable using the target language freely and skills that will stick with them as they move into higher levels or in public use. Students will feel more comfortable if we motivate with our words or gestures and facilitate engaging activities. If we do these things the students will be empowered to take chances and be confident language learners. This should be a great setup for modeling other skills and language applications. We can all be motivators, facilitators, and models for our students so they have the best environment to learn. Let's be effective teachers, practice these roles and make unmotivating lectures a thing of the past.