THE ROLES OF A TEACHER

Different definitions of teachers: like actors/orchestral conductors/gardener. Different

functions are ascribed to teaching, which makes it necessary to examine the teacher’s role not
only in education, but in the classroom itself.
In recent year under the influences of humanistic and communicative theories, great emphasis
has been placed on ‘learner-centred’ teaching, i.e. teaching which makes the learners’ needs and
experience central to the educational process. The measure of a good lesson is the student
activity taking place, not the performance of the teacher; in classrooms where learners are given
tasks to work on, and in the process of performing these tasks, real learning takes place. In these
situations the teacher is no longer the giver of knowledge, the controller and the authority, but
rather a facilitator and a resource for students to draw on. Teachers in such learner-centred
classrooms need special qualities including maturity, intuition, educational skills (to develop
students’ awareness of language and learning), an openness to student input, and a greater
tolerance of uncertainty.
The Learner-centred teaching has not been accepted by all methodologists. Some say that it
might amount to a form of neglect and it could be tantamount to an abdication by the teacher of
the knowledge-given role. There are many occasions when the teacher will be at the front of the
class to motivate, instruct, or explain something to the whole class. But there are also many
activities where encouraging students to solve their own problems on their own in pairs or
groups, will have enormously beneficial effects both on learning, and on the dynamics and
atmosphere in the classroom.
Our behavior will depend on how we feel about teaching and what we are comfortable with, on
the type of activity our students are involved.

THE ROLES OF A TEACHER

Within the classroom our role may change from one activity to another, or from one stage of an
activity to another.
To describe the different roles a teacher may have in the classroom, different terms are used:
facilitator (in learner-centred lessons), prompter, resource or tutor. Yet any role which the
teacher adopts- and which is designed to help students learn – is to some extent facilitative.
All roles aim to facilitate the students’progress in some way, so it is necessary to adopt more
precise terms than facilitator.

1. Controller

When they act as controllers, Ts are in charge of the class and of the activity taking place.
Controllers take the roll, tell Sts things, organize drills, read aloud in a teacher-fronted class.
Ts who view their job as a transmission of knowledge from themselves to sts are usually very
comfortable with the role of controller.

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Disadvantages. 1. It denies Sts acces to their own experiential learning by focusing everything on
the teacher; 2. It cuts down on opportunities for Sts to speak; 3. over-reliance on transmission
teaching can result in a lack of variety in activities and classroom atmosphere.
There are times when a teacher must act as a controller: when announcements need to be made,
when order has to be restored, when explanations are given, or when the T is leading a question
and answer session. In many educational contexts this is the most common teacher role and
many Ts fail to go beyond it since controlling is the role they are used to. By sticking to one
mode of behavior we deny ourselves and our sts many other possibilities and useful and
enjoyable ways of learning.

2. Organiser

One of the most important roles that Ts have to perfom is that of organizing Sts to do various
activities. This often involves giving Sts information, telling them how they are going to do the
activity, putting them in pairs and groups and finally closing things down when it is time to stop.
It is vitally for Ts to get this role right when it is required. If the Sts do not understand what they
are supposed to do they will not get full advantage from an activity.
The first thing we need to do when organizing something is to get Sts involved, engaged and
ready. In most cases this means making it clear that something new is going to happen & that the
activity will be interesting and enjoyable. The teacher must also offer some rationale for the
activity Sts are to be asked to perform. Say sth like: ‘Now we’re going to this because.’ T
prepares the sts for an activity whose purpose they understand.
Once the Sts are ready for the activity, T gives them the necessary instructions. It is important to
get the level of lg right and to present the instructions clearly & in a logical order. To check the
Sts understanding of the instructions, we may ask the Sts to give the instruction back.
An important tool in instruction is demonstration. T can organize a demonstration of what is to
happen (get a St up to the front to demonstrate the activity)
Then the T starts/initiates the activity and sets the time for it.
Finally the T stop the activity when Sts have finished or when other factors show the T&Sts that
it is time to stop. At this point T must organize some type of feedback (a simple question or a
more detailed discussion). Teacher should think about ‘content feedback’.
When organizing feed-back we need to do what we say we are going to do (prompt return of
homework or our responses at the end of an oral activity). Sts will judge us by the way we fulfil
the criteria we offer them.
We can summarise the role of organizer as follows:
Engage -> instruct(demonstrate) – > initiate – > organize feedback

3. Assessor

T acts as assessors when he offers feedback and correction; offering feedback on performance,
handing out grades, saying whether Sts can pass to the next level.
Some important things to know for the T when he acts as an assessor.

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Sts need to know how and for what they are being assessed; we should tell them we are looking
for so they can measure themselves against this.
Another important issue is that of fairness. Most sts want credit for good performance and
constructive criticism for poor performance; they don’t want to feel that they are unfairly judged.
When we act as assessors (whether in the matter of instant correction or grade giving) we must
be always sensitive to the Sts possible reactions. A bad grade can be made more acceptable if it
is given with sensitivity and support.

4. Prompter
Sometimes when the Sts are involved in a role-play activity, for ex., they lose the thread of
activity or they can’t go on because of lack of vocabulary. They may not be sure how to proceed.
T may offer them discrete support, and thus adopt a kind of ‘prompting role.’ Thus we will
occasionally offer words or phrases, suggest that the Sts say something, or suggest what could
come next in a paragraph a student is writing. Often we have to prompt sts in monolingual
groups to speak English rather than using their mother tongue.
When we prompt we need to do it sensitively, encouragingly and discretely so as not to take
initiative away from the sts.

5. Participant

During student discussions, role-play or group decision-making activities, teachers often stand
back from the activity, letting the learners get on with it and only intervening later to offer
feedback and/or correct mistakes. There are also times, when Ts might want to join in an activity
not as a teacher, but also as a participant.
There are Several reasons for a T taking part in a discussion: to enliven things from the inside,
instead of always having to prompt or organize from outside the group. Sts enjoy having the T
with them and for the T, participating is often more enjoyable than acting as a resource.
Disadvantage. Ts as participants can easily dominate the proceedings, because we have more
English at our disposal than our Sts do, and because of the status of the teacher (even in the most
egalitarian classroom, the T tends to be listened with greater attention than his/her Sts).

6. Resource

In some activities it is inappropriate for Ts to take part, or to try to control them, or even turn up
to prompt them. (Supposed that the Sts are involved in a piece of group writing or they are
involved in preparation for a presentation). However, the Sts may still have need of their teacher
as a resource.
Sts may ask how to say or write sth, or what a word/phrase means. They might want to know
info in the middle of an activity or they may want to know where to look for sth (a book or web
site, for ex.) We can be one of the most important resources they have.
However, no teacher knows everything about the language. In this role, we should be able to
offer guidance, as to where sts can go look for that information. Encourage sts to use resource

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material for themselves and to become more independent in their learning – direct sts to a good
monolingual dictionary instead of answering every question about what a word/phrase means..
When we act as a resource we will want to be helpful and available, but at the same time we
have to resist the urge to spoon-fed our Sts so that they become over-reliant on us.

7. Tutor

When Sts are working on longer projects, such as pieces of writing or preparation for a talk or
debate, we can act as a tutor, working with individuals or small groups, pointing them in
directions they have not yet considered taking. In such situations we combine the roles of
prompter and resource, acting as a tutor.
It is difficult to be a tutor in a large group, since the term implies a more intimate relationship;
however, when Sts are working in small groups or pairs, we can go round the class and offer
some sort of general guidance to a particular group or individual. T has to take care to ensure that
as many individuals or groups as possible are seen.
It is essential to us to act as a tutor from time to time, because in this more personal contact the
learners have a real chance to feel supported and helped, and the general class atmosphere is
greatly enhanced as a result.
However, as with prompting and acting as a resource, we need to make sure that we do not
intrude either too much (which will impede learner’s autonomy) or too little (which will be
unhelpful).

8. Observer

T will want to observe what Sts do (especially in oral communicative activities) so he can give
him useful group and individual feedback.
When observing Sts, T have to be careful not to be too intrusive by hanging on their every word,
by getting to close to them, or by writing things down all the time. We should avoid drawing
attention to ourselves since this may well distract them from the task they are involved in.
It is useful, when taking notes on students’ performance – either as a role class, or for individual
sts – to have columns not only for what sts get wrong but also for what they do right, either in
their use of actual lg or in their use of conversational strategies – observing for success often
gives us a different feel for how well our sts are doing.
But when we are acting as controllers, giving feedback or organizing sts, we need to be
observing at the same time too, constantly alert to the effect our actions are having. We need to
be able to work and observe simultaneously, listening, watching and observing so that we can
create the best rapport between ourselves and our Sts.
Ts do not only observe sts in order to give feedback. They also watch in order to judge the
success of the different materials and activities that they take into lessons, so that they can, if
necessary, make changes in the future. One area of teacher development involves just such
observation.

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Which role?

The role that we take is dependent on what it is we wish the Sts to achieve. There are times when
we will need to act as a prompter, or as a resource.
It is important to be able to switch between the various roles, judging when it is appropriate to
use one or other of them. We need to be aware of how we carry out that role and how we
perform.

The Teacher as performer

Teachers are all performers in the classroom at some level. They have different performance
styles depending on the situation.
Different teachers act differently and individual teachers vary their behavior depending on what
they are doing. Instead of just saying what role teachers should be playing, we can also describe
how they should be playing it.

Activity how the teacher should perform

1. Team game energetically, encouragingly, clearly, fairly
2. Role-play clearly, encouragingly, retiringly, supportively
3. Teacher reading aloud commandingly, dramatically, interestingly
4. Whole-class listening efficiently, clearly, supportively

While we need to be aware of the different roles, we also need to be able to use each of
these different roles, and to consider how we actually behave during their performance.

The Teacher as teaching aid

Apart from the roles which we adopt in the classroom and the way these roles are performed, we
are also a kind of teaching aid ourselves. In particular, we are especially useful when using mime
and gestures, as language models and as providers of comprehensible input.

1. Mime and gesture

We can use mime, gesture and expression to convey meaning and atmosphere (e.g. pretend to be
drinking or pull a sad face).
Mime and expression work best when they are exaggerated since this makes their meaning
explicit. However, gestures do not necessarily have universal meanings. We need, therefore, to
use them with care.
We can also use gesture to express or demonstrate meaning (fingers can be used to show verb
contraction, and arms to ‘conduct’ choral repetition. Stress can be shown through clapping an
clicking fingers, and intonation through a kind of drawing in the air).

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Pointing to sts – to ask them to participate in adrill or give some form of response – though it is
quick and efficient, it may seem aggressive. Teacher should employ it with care.

2. Language model

Sts get models of lg from textbooks, reading materials of all sorts, and from audio and
videotapes. But Ts can also make model language themselves. This not only means the giving of
a clear language model as in the PPP procedure, but also for ex., the saying of a dialogue or the
reading aloud of a text.
Reading aloud of a particular exciting or interesting excerpt can be extremely motivating and
enjoyable for a class, especially when sts have been encouraged to predict what they are going to
hear.
Story telling and story/poem reading can work with adults too, though with a different content
and way of narration.
Reading passages aloud to Sts can capture imagination and mood like nothing else, but in order
for this to work, we need to perform the reading in an interesting and commited way.

3. Provider of comprehensible input

How much Ts should talk in classrooms?

A distinction is made between Student talking time (STT) and Teacher talking tome (TTT). It is
the concern to maximize the former that leads many Ts to use pairwork and groupwork. It has
been assumed that on the whole we want to see more STT than TTT, because Sts need the lg
practice.

However, it is widely accepted that a vital ingredient in the learning of any lg is exposure to it.
The best kind of lg that sts could be exposed to - ‘comprehensible input’, that is lg which sts
understand the meaning of, but which is slightly above their own production level. Such
language input can be provided by the teacher ( language which has been ‘roughly-tuned’ to be
comprehensible to them.’
Teachers are ideally placed to provide comprehensible input because we know the sts in fornt of
us and can react appropriately to them in a way that a coursebook or a CD, cannot. We know
how to talk at just the right level so that even if our sts do not understand every word we say,
they do understand the meaning of what is being said.
However we need to be aware of how much we are speaking. If we talk all the time, the sts are
denied their own chance to practice production, or get exposure through other means (from
reading or listening) and they also may become bored of listening to the teacher all the time.

Basing a lesson on what we can do ourselves has the enormous advantage of not being
susceptible to technical malfunction, power cuts or unavailability. However, an over reliance on
what ourselves can offer, places excessive demands upon us. It is hard to be permanently
motivating and amusing and to have to offer a perpetually varied diet of voices, gestures and
expressions.

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Nevertheless the way in which we use our voice, the way in which we model language and
employ gesture and expression are all basic and important teaching skills.

THE ROLES OF THE TEACHER IN INTENSIVE READING

1. Organiser
2. Observer
3. Feedback organizer
4. Prompter (Controller)

THE ROLES OF THE TEACHER IN INTENSIVE LISTENING

1. Organizer
2. Machine operator
3. Feedback organizer
4. Prompter

THE ROLES OF THE TEACHER DURING WRITING ACTIVITIES

1. Motivator
2. Resource (tutor)
3. Feedback provider

THE ROLES OF THE TEACHER IN SPEAKING ACTIVITIES

1. Prompter
2. Participant
3. Feedback provider