Describing Teachers (Harmer) What is a teacher? Teachers say they are like an actor, orchestral conductor, or gardener Mehdi Sufi t.m/IELTS_Council t.m/IELTS_Council

1. Describing Teachers
What is a teacher?
Teachers say they are like an actor,orchestral conductor, or gardener.
Zoltan Dornyei and TimMurphey see the business of teaching as the exercise of group
leadership
One of our principal responsibilities, in other words, is to foster good relationships with the groups in
front of us so that they work together cooperatively in a spirit of friendliness and harmonious creativity.
Two things need to be said about this view of the teacher's craft. In the first place, being democratic and
letting students participate in decision-making takes more effort and organization than controlling the
class from the front. Furthermore, the promotion of learner autonomy (where students not only learn on
their own, but also take responsibility for that learning), is only one view of the teaching-learning
relationship, and is very culturally biased. In some situations both teachers and learners (and society in
general) may feelmore comfortable with a more autocratic leadership style, and while this might not suit
the preferences of some,especially methodologists, it is highly attractive to others.
In the classroom
'Students can pick up much from the way their teacher walks into the room at the start of that first lesson,'
writes Rose Senior (Senior 2006: 93). The way we dress,the stance we adopt and our attitude to the class
make an immediate impression on students. In this sense we need to make some kind of distinction
between who we are, and who we are as teachers.
THE ROLES OF A TEACHER
Many use the term facilitator to describe a particular kind of teacher,one who is democratic rather than
autocratic, and one who fosters learner autonomy through the use of group work and pair work and by
acting as more of a resource than a transmitter of knowledge. However,since we can say that the aim of
all committed teachers is to facilitate learning, however they go about it, it makes more sense to describe
different teacher roles in more detail and say what they are useful for, rather than make value judgments
about their effectiveness in terms of their 'facilitator' credentials.
CONTROLLER, ORGANISER,ASSESOR,PROMPTER, PARTICIPANT, RESOURCE,
TUTOR, OBSERVER
Teacher as a CONTROLLER
The most common teacher role.

2. Teachers in charge of the class and of the activity.
They have teacher-fronted classrooms.
Givers of knowledge from themselves to their Ss
Teachers take the roll, tell students things, organize drills and read loud.
Advantages of a CONTROLLER:
Announcements need to be made
Explanations are given
Order has to be restored
Teacher is leading a question- answer session
Disadvantages a CONTROLLER:
Denies students Access to their own experiential learning.
Cuts down on opportunities for students to speak.
Lacks on variety in activities and classroom atmosphere.
Denies teachers and students many other possibilitiesand modes oflearning.
Teacher as a PROMPTER
• Teachers adopt a prompter role when students lose track of what they are doing and they give them a
boost in a discreet way.
• When we prompt we need to: Do it sensitively and encouragingly, but with discretion.
Pitfalls:
• If teachers are too adamant they risk taking initiative away from the students.
• If teachers are to retiring they may not supply the right amount of encouragement.
Teacher as a PARTICIPANT
• Teachers may want to join in an activity not as teachers,but as participants in their own right to liven up
ss or as a prompter.

3. • Participating in an activity, for the teacher,is more enjoyable than acting as a resource.
• Students will certainly enjoy having the teacher with them
Downside:
• Teachers can easily dominate the proceedings and students, who still see them as teachers,tend to
follow only what Ts suggest.
Teacher as a RESOURCE
Teachers tend to be helpful and available for students.
Teachers can be one of the most important resources students have when they:
Want to know what a word or phrase means
Want to know information in the middle of an activity about task or where to look for something.
Ask how to say or write something,
No teacher knows everything about the language.
No need to answer each question, instead encourage students to use resource materials for themselves
NB
Teachers should act as a resource for students and not as a controller of the task or as spoon-feeding
Teacher as a Tutor
This role is a combination of prompter and resource
Teachers are expected to work with individuals or small groups
Pointing students in directions they have not yet thought of taking.
Teachers will allow more personal contact and real chance for students to feel supported and helped
The term implies a more intimate relationship than that of the controller or organizer
Downside:
• Teachers have to make sure that they do not intrude too much, hindering learner autonomy, or too little
which results in the teacher being unhelpful.

4. (Organizing students and activities) Teacher as a ORGANISER
1-Engage
The first thing we need to do when organizing something is to get students involved, engaged and ready.
2- Instruct
Once the students are ready for the activity, we will want to give any necessary instructions, saying what
students should do first, what they should do next, etc.
3-Initiate
Then it is time for us to start or initiate the activity. At this point students probably need to know how
much time they have got and exactly when they should start.
4-Organize feedback
Finally, we stop the activity when the students have finished and/or when other factors indicate that it is
time to stop. This might be because the students are bored or because some pairs or groups have already
finished before the others (see Chapter 10, B4). Perhaps the lesson is coming to the end and we want to
give some summarizing comments. At this point it is vital to organize some kind of feedback
To sum up:
Engage > instruct (demonstrate) > initiate > organize feedback
THE TEACHER AS PERFORMER
• Different teachers perform differently.
• Each teacher has many different performance styles, depending on the situation.
We should describe also how teachers should play their roles and perform them in each situation or
activity.
Activity How the teacher should perform

5. Team game Energetically, encouragingly, clearly, fairly
Role-play Clearly, encouragingly, retiringly, supportively
Teacher reading aloud Commandingly, dramatically, interestingly
Whole-class listening Efficiently, clearly, supportively
Rapport
Rapport is T S
To develop a good learning environment we need to appropriate relationship with our students.
We need to make sure that teacher-student rapport is positive and useful.
Successful interaction with students depends on four key characteristics:
1-Recognising students:
Students want their teachers to know who they are. They would like their teachers to know their names, of
course, but they also appreciate it when teachers have some understanding of their characters.
2-Listening to students:
Students respond very well to teachers who listen to them. Although there are many calls on our time,
nevertheless we need to make ourselves as available as we can to listen to individual students' opinions
and concerns,often outside the lessons themselves. we need to listen properly to students in lessons, too.
And we need to show that we are interested in what they have to say. As far as possible, we also need to
listen to the students' comments on how they are getting on, and winch activities and techniques they
respond well or badly to. We need to show that we are listening and paying attention to our students, and
this will mean approaching them, making eye contact and generally looking interested. As Hongshen
Zhang points out, 'eyes talk'.
3-Respecting students:
Correcting students is always a delicate event. If we are too critical, we risk demotivating them, yet if we
are constantly praising them, we risk turning them into 'praise junkies', who begin to need approval all the
time. Students need to know that we are treating them with respect,and not using mockery or sarcasm - or
expressing despair at their efforts! Teachers who respect students do their best to see them in a positive
light. They are not negative about their learners or in the way they deal with them in class. They do not
react with anger or ridicule when students do unplanned things, but instead use a respectful
professionalism to solve the problem.
4-Being even-handed:
Most teachers have some students that they warm to more than others. For example, many teachers react
well to those who take part, are cheerfuland cooperative, who take responsibility for their own learning,

6. and do what is asked of them without complaint. Sometimes teachers are less enthusiastic about those
who are less forthcoming, and who find learner autonomy, for example, more of a challenge. Yet,as a
teenage student once told me, a good teacher should try to draw out the quiet ones and control the more
talkative ones', and one of her colleagues echoed this by saying that a good teacher is... someone who
asks the people who don t always put their hands up.' The reasons that some students are not forthcoming
may be many and varied, ranging from shyness to their cultural or family backgrounds. Sometimes
students are reluctant to take part overtly because of other stronger characters in the group. And these
quiet students will only be negatively affected when they see far more attention being paid to their more
robust classmates. At the same time, giving some students more attention than others may make those
students more difficult to deal with later since they will come to expect special treatment, and may take
our interest as a license to become over-dominant in the classroom. Moreover, it is not just teenage
students who can suffer from being the 'teacher's pet'. Treating all students equally not only helps to
establish and maintain rapport, but is also a mark of professionalism.
THE TEACHER AS TEACHING AID
• Mime and gesture:
The ability of using our body to convey meaning and atmosphere
The teacher as a provider of comprehensible
• Teacher as a language model:
Through the reading of materials, from audio and videotapes Reading passages aloud can capture
imagination and mood like nothing else.
• The teacher as providers ofcomprehensible input:
(STT) Student-talking time ( production) VS (TTT) teacher-talking time (exposure)
Teacher as a ASSESSOR
It consists of:
Offering feedback and correction
Grading students in various ways
Indicating whether or not students are getting their English right
Giving reasons what students are been assessed for and how.

7. Drawbacks of ASSESSOR:
Misuse of fairness
We should not make them feelthey are being unfairly judged.
A bad grade can be made far more acceptable if it is given with sensitivity and support.
Teacher as a Observer
Teachers observe in order to give useful feedback both individual and as a group.
They need to be carefulnot to be too intrusive as it will distract them.
Teachers not only have to observe what learners get wrong but also praise their achievements.
Observing for success often gives us a different feelfor how well our students are doing.
Even when acting as other roles, we need to be observing at the same time, being alert to the effect our
actions are having: trying to tease out feelings and reactions in the classroom.
Teachers also observe to judge the success of the different materials and activities so they can, if
necessary,make changes.
WHICH ROLE?
Teachers need to be able to switch between the various roles, judging when it is appropriate to use one or
the other.
It depends on the objective teachers want their students to achieve.
Teachers need to be aware of how they carry out the selective role and how they perform it.
THE TEACHER AS LANGUAGE MODEL
• Dialogues
• Draw on the board
• Animate the performance.
• Poems.
• Reading circles, primary school.
• The content and the way that it is

8. handled will be significally different.
• Reading passages aloud capture
students imagination.
What is a teacher?
Cambridge International Dictionary of English: “teaching means to give (someone) knowledge or to
instruct or train (someone)”.
Longman Dictionary of Contemporary English: “to show somebody how to do something or to change
somebody’s ideas”
Teachers and learners
• TEACHER-CENTRED TEACHING:
• Teacher as the giver of the knowledge, the authority, the controller.
• Is teaching about the 'transmission' of knowledge from teacher to student, or is it about creating
conditions in which students learn for themselves?
LEARNER-CENTRED TEACHING:
• Learners’ needs and experience are centralto the educational process.
• students’ needs should drive the syllabus, not some impose list.

9. • The heart of language course: students’ learning experiences and their responses to them.
• In a good lesson: the student activity taking place, not the teacher’s.
• Teachers are no longer the giver of knowledge, but the facilitator and the resource for the students to
draw on.
LEARNER-CENTRED TEACHING
special qualities are required for teachers:
Maturity, Openness to student input Intuition, Educational skills, Greater tolerance of uncertainty
Mehdi Sufi
t.m/IELTS_Council