UNIVERSIDADE LICUNGO

FACULTY OF EDUCATION

ENGLISH TEACHING COURSE

2 Year

ARMANDO CASTRO SAMAJO

JAMILA LOPES GUBUDO
JOSÉ CORACIO
MANAI MANUEL BERNARDO

The Roles of Teacher

Beira

2024

1
ARMANDO CASTRO SAMAJO
JAMILA LOPES GUBUDO
JOSÉ CORACIO
MANAI MANUEL BERNARDO

The Roles of Teacher

Assignment submitted for the licentiate

program in the English language teaching
course within the Faculty of Arts and
Humanities, as a mandatory component for
evaluation in the Teaching Practice discipline.

Lecturer: Pedro Sumila

Beira

2024

2
 Table of Contents

1. Introduction.............................................................................................................................................1
2. Objectives................................................................................................................................................2
2.1. General objective..............................................................................................................................2
2.2. Specific objectives............................................................................................................................2
3 WHAT IS A ROLE?................................................................................................................................3
3.1 The teacher’s Roles...............................................................................................................................3
Principles of teaching..................................................................................................................................3
3.2 Some actions of teacher.........................................................................................................................5
3.2.1 Teachers as Controller................................................................................................................5
3.3Teacher as organizer.......................................................................................................................5
3.4Teacher as Prompter.......................................................................................................................6
3.5Teacher as Participant.....................................................................................................................6
3.6The Teacher as Resource................................................................................................................7
3.7Teacher as Assessor........................................................................................................................7
3.8Teacher as Tutor.............................................................................................................................7
3.9Teacher as Investigator...................................................................................................................8
4 ROLES OF TEACHERS AND LEARNERS...........................................................................................8
4.1 Interpersonal factors:.............................................................................................................................8
4.2 TEACHING STYLE IN DIARY OF A LANGUAGE TEACHER BY JOACHIM APPEL.................9
4.3 MOTIVATION....................................................................................................................................10
4. Students Grouping.............................................................................................................................10
4.2 Pair Work........................................................................................................................................10
4.3 Group Work.....................................................................................................................................11
5.2 Action in Case of Indiscipline......................................................................................................12
9. References.............................................................................................................................................15

3
1. Introduction
The role played by teachers becomes a very important component and in fact it can be
said that they are in way our nation builders. For any student, education and character are the
basic foundations and it is laid by teachers as well as parents. They tend to instill values,
attitudes and behavior in children right from childhood. Today with challenging environment, in
any school or college, everything primarily depends on the teacher. The role of teachers has
become very challenging. It is quite essential for teachers to be social, understanding and
friendly nature so that students feel comfortable to seek any help without hesitation. The basic
role for any teacher is to create a very interesting classroom for students. Students must feel
comfortable with the teacher and at the same time, teacher must encourage students. Students
should be taught the right path and knowledge or matter should be conveyed in such a manner
that students would find it very easy to understand.

In this task, we will examine various facets associated with class control in the language
teaching and learning process. Consequently, we will delve into the theories and approaches
encompassing language instruction and learning, as they play a pivotal role in language
education by furnishing structures and directives for educators to formulate proficient language
guidance. Hence, these are the elements that the reader can anticipate encountering in this
assignment.

1
2. Objectives
2.1. General objective
 To comprehend the diverse roles of a language teacher in the educational context of
language teaching and learning.

2.2. Specific objectives

 Identify analyze the primary responsibilities of a language teacher within the classroom
setting.
 Examine the role of a language teacher as a facilitator of learning and effective
communication.
 Investigate the ways in which a language teacher contributes to the development of
language skills among students.
 Explore the teacher's role in creating a positive and inclusive learning environment that
fosters student engagement.
 Assess the influence of a language teacher in motivating and inspiring students to
actively participate in language learning.

2
3 WHAT IS A ROLE?
Role: actor’s part; one’s function, what person or thing is appointed or expected to do. That is
the definition given by the Concise Oxford Dictionary (1982), but in our daily lives we fulfil
roles that have features of all these defining characteristics. We have roles in society – we play
parts in society. These differ: some roles are hard to avoid (e.g. father); some roles may be thrust
upon us by circumstances (e.g. school pupil); on the other hand, we choose for ourselves many
of the roles we fulfil (e.g. teacher). ( JOACHIM APPEL 1995)

3.1 The teacher’s Roles

First of all it would be convenient to consider this characterization of the teacher’s role by Gerald
Dykstra: “…near automatons who stand up, call roll, talk a lot, give cues, ask simple content
questions, check fro comprehension, check for recall, keep records, discipline students, bestow
grades and generally carry on with clerical tasks far below what their won level of ability might
be.” (Dykstra 1978:4)

Essentially, teachers have two major roles in the classroom:

 To create the conditions under which learning can take place: the social side of teaching;
 To impart, by a variety of means, knowledge to their learners: the task-oriented side of
teaching.
 The first is known as the ‘enabling’ or managerial function, the search for the proper
conditions and means for teaching, and the second the instructional function with the teacher
as the so-called “instructor”.
 They complement each other; the latter would be more or less impossible without the
former. In practice, it is very difficult to separate the two and often one act in the classroom
can perform both functions simultaneously.

Principles of teaching
1: Encourage contact between students and faculty Building rapport with students is very
important. The contact between students and teachers are vital to the students' success. One of
the main reasons students leave school is the feeling of isolation that they experience. The

3
concern shown will help students get through difficult times and keep working. Faculty has
many avenues to follow to open up the lines of communication

2: Develop reciprocity and cooperation among students

When students are encouraged to work as a team, more learning takes place. Characteristics of
good learning are collaborative and social, not competitive and isolated. Working together
improves thinking and understanding.

3: Encourage active learning

Learning is an active process. Students are not able to learn much by only sitting in classes
listening to teachers, memorizing pre-packaged assignments, and churning out answers. They
must be able to talk about what they are learning, write about it, relate it to past experiences, and
apply it to their daily lives. Students need to make learning a part of them.

4: Give prompt feedback- By knowing what you know and do not know gives a focus to
learning. In order for students to benefit from courses, they need appropriate feedback on their
performance. When starting out, students need help in evaluating their current knowledge and
capabilities. Within the classroom, students need frequent opportunities to perform and receive
suggestions for improvement. Throughout their time in college and especially at the end of their
college career, students need chances to reflect on what they have learned, what they still need to
know, and how to assess themselves.

5: Emphasize time on task - Learning needs time and energy.

Efficient time-management skills are critical for students. By allowing realistic amounts of time,
effective learning for students and effective teaching for faculty are able to occur. The way the
institution defines time expectations for students, faculty, administrators, and other staff, can
create the basis for high performance from everyone.

6: Communicate high expectations - Expect more and you will get it. The poorly prepared,
those unwilling to exert themselves, and the bright and motivated all need high expectations.
Expecting students to perform well becomes a self-fulfilling prophecy when teachers and
institutions hold high standards and make extra efforts.

4
3.2 Some actions of teacher

3.2.1 Teachers as Controller

According to Harmer (2009), teachers as controller are in complete charge of the class.
They control not only what the students do, but also when they speak and what language they
use.
Harmer (2009), says that, the teacher as controller is closely allied to the image that
teachers project of themselves. Some appear to be natural leaders and performers, while some are
quieter and feel happier when students are interacting amongst themselves. Where teachers are
addicted to being the center of attention, they tend to find it difficult no to perform the
controlling role and this stage has both advantages and disadvantages. We can recall teachers in
our past who were able to inspire us, frequently this was because they possessed a certain
indefinable quality which attracted and motivated us. Frequently, too, it was because they had
interesting things to say and do which held our attention and enthusiasm.

3.3Teacher as organizer
Brown and Harmer, (2007) say that, perhaps the most important and difficult role the
teacher has to play is that of organizer. The success of many activities depends on good
organization and on the students knowing exactly what they are to do. A lot of time can be
wasted if the teacher omits to give student vital information or issues conflicting and confusing
instructions.

Brown and Harmer, (2007), argue that, the main aim of the teacher when organizing an
activity is to tell the students what they are going to talk about (or write or read about), give clear
instructions about what exactly their task is, get the activity going and then organize feedback
when it is over. This sounds remarkably easy, but can be disastrous if teachers have not thought
out exactly what they are going to say beforehand.

Brown and Harmer, (2007),certain things should not be done when organizing an
activity: teachers should never for example assume that students have understood the
instructions. It is wise to check that they have grasped what they to do, and where possible, the
student’s native language can be used for this. Teacher should never issue unclear instruction; it
is wise to plan out what you are going to say beforehand and then say it clearly and consciously.

5
In lower-level classes with monolingual groups, the student’s language could be used for this if
absolutely necessary.

3.4Teacher as Prompter
Often the teacher needs to encourage students to participate to make suggestions about
how students may proceed in an activity when there is a silence or when they are confused about
what to do next, this is one of the teacher’s important roles, the role of prompter (Brown and
Harmer, 2007:108).

The role of prompter has to be performed with discretion for it teachers are too
aggressive they start to take over from the students, where the idea is that they should be helping
them only when necessary(Brown and Harmer, 2007).

3.5Teacher as Participant
The teacher sometimes wants to join the activity do in teaching and learning process. In
this stage, the teachers are expected to take part during the classroom activities (Harmer, 2003).
A teacher can be a participant in the activities. She/he can join in group or make a pair and when
a teacher plays role as participant students feel comfortable as they can share their knowledge
too.

There is no reason why the teacher should not participate as an equal in an activity
especially ere like simulations are taking place. Clearly on a lot of occasions it will be difficult
for us to do so as equals (since we often know all the material and all the details, etc such as with
information gap exercises, jigsaw listening), teachers might join simulations as participants some
time playing roles themselves(Harmer, 2003).

The danger is that the teacher will tend to dominate, and the students will both allow and
expect this to happen. It will be up to teacher to make sure it does not.

Teachers should not be afraid to participate since not only will it probably improve the
atmosphere in the class, but it will also give the students a chance to practice English with
someone who speaks it better than they do.

6
3.6The Teacher as Resource
Richards (2015) says that, in this stage, the teacher can be one of the most important the
sources in the teaching and learning process. She / he can provide all information needed by
students. In another words, resource acts as students‟ reliable resource when they encounter
difficulties.

Harmer (2003) argues that, the job of teacher in this point answers the student’s
questions. Teacher could be the resource of information for their student. Teacher is helpful and
available for their students. They also answer some questions from the students.

3.7Teacher as Assessor
According to Brown and Harmer (2007: 108),teacher as assessor means provides students
with feedback regarding their performance and grades them in distinct ways. Teachers as
assessor mean giving evaluation about how well students are performing or how well they
performed. In addition, many things should do by teacher such as assessing their students, giving
correction, extending of success or failure, solving problem content, focusing linguistic
performance, recording of errors.

According to Brown and Harmer (2007: 108), clearly a major part of the teacher’s job is
to assess the student’s work, to see how well they are performing or how well they performed.
Not only is this important pedagogically, but the students quite naturally expect it even after
communicative activities. We must make a difference between two types of assessment:

3.8Teacher as Tutor
Acting as tutor, the teacher can combine both prompter and resource role during the
teaching and learning process. In this case, tutor works with students individually or in small
groups if they undertake challenging learning programs, (Harmer, 2003).

We can talk about the teacher as a tutor in sense of someone who acts as coach as a
resource where students are involved in their own work, and call upon the teacher mainly for
advice and guidance. This is the role the teacher adopts where students are involved in self-study
or where they are doing project work of their own choosing. The teacher will be able to help
them by pointing out errors in rough drafts; the teacher can also offer the students advice about
how to get most on their learning and what to do if they want to study more.

7
 This tutorial role – which approximates to a counseling function – is often appropriate at
intermediate and advanced levels. It is a broader role than the other we have mentioned since it
incorporates parts of some of the other roles, I,e. organizer, prompter and resource.

3.9Teacher as Investigator
All the roles we mentioned so far have had to do with the teacher’s behaviors as it relates
to the students, but

4 ROLES OF TEACHERS AND LEARNERS

Many different and complex factors influence the roles that teachers adopt in the classroom. An
appreciation of these factors is essential if we are to understand teaching activities. Although
often the social and psychological factors inherent in the roles are hidden, the process of learning
a language in the classroom is underpinned by the teacher/learner relationship. There are some
factors that influence the role relations between teachers and learners.

4.1 Interpersonal factors:

Status and position: Teachers and learners are accorded social status depending on what we value
in their performances. The relative positions are usually fixed, although types of teaching and
learning situation differ a great deal.

A power relationship exists between teachers and learners in which power is not shared equally.
This fact, combined with perception of status, gives rise to social distance.

Attitudes, beliefs: While teachers have a set of professional attitudes, personal attitudes and
beliefs are likely to differ considerably between teachers and learners. The attitudes may be
towards teaching and learning, the ‘content’ of learning or each other as people.

Personality: All individuals bring their personalities into social encounters. Indeed, social life
is a major factor in shaping personality. In the intimacy of the teaching/learning situation, it is
extremely likely that personalities will be modified.

An additional complication arises in the situation where learners are trying to cope with a
foreign language. The internalisation of the new language may bring about changes in the
personality of the learner. Motivation: Teachers have motivations for teaching and learners for

8
learning, both instrumental and integrative. Teachers and learners also have deeper, more
personal goals. These are linked to

Task-related factors: Goals: Every task has goals or solutions. Individuals’ personal goals may
be activated by tasks. Teachers and learners are engaged in an activity that is very dependent on
goals.

Tasks: As well as the affective, or ‘personal’, side of tasks, there is the cognitive, or mental
side. During group tasks in the classroom, there is an interplay between the two aspects.

Topics: Tasks themselves usually have ‘subject matter’ or skills inherent to them. While
doing a task, an individual may also have to decide on the procedure for doing the tasks. A great
deal of classroom activity is devoted to topics, both procedural and ‘subject’. This
interdependence between teacher and learner roles is well illustrated by the quotation which
follows.

“…in general it might be said that teachers would be expected as a minimum part of their role
to have adequate knowledge of their subject matter, to know something of how children learn
and develop and to be able to devise appropriate learning/teaching experiences in the light of
these two considerations. Pupils would be expected as a minimum part of their role to be
interested in being learners, to develop the skills of listening to a teacher’s exposition of a topic
and to acquire the skills of reading about and understanding subject matter as well as developing
some skill with numbers.” (Cortis 1977:20)

4.2 TEACHING STYLE IN DIARY OF A LANGUAGE TEACHER BY JOACHIM

APPEL
Joachim Appel wrote Diary of a Language Teacher, as a result of his first years and experiences
teaching English. This diary reads out like a guide for a beginer in the teaching world. He is a
German teacher of English who has also written a lot about methodology. Teaching style is a
combination of belief, attitude, strategy, technique, motivation, personality, and control. The
teacher employs all these attitudes and behaviours to create the best possible conditions under
which learning can take place. The teacher’s primary role when setting up learning activities is
more focused to classroom management than discipline or seating arrangements.

9
4.3 MOTIVATION
A primary function of teachers’ management role is to motivate the learners who are
demotivated and to nurture those who are already well motivated to the task of learning a foreign
language. There are several ways in which teachers can achieve this.

4. Students Grouping
4.1 Lockstep
Harmer, J (1991), says that, lockstep is the whole-class grouping, where all the students
are working with the teacher, locked into the same rhythm and pace, the same activity. It is the
tradition teaching situation, where a teacher-controlled session is taking place. The advantage is
that all the class are concentrating, everyone can hear what is being said, and there is a good
language model from the teacher. The disadvantage is that there is little chance for the students
to practice or to talk at all, the teacher is either to slow for the good students or too fast for the
weak students. It is not ideal for communicative work because it involves too much teaching and
too little learning. However, it is very useful for lead-in and feedback stages of a lesson.

4.2 Pair Work

According to Harmer, J (1991), in pair work, the students can practice language together,
study a text, research language or take part in information-gap activity. They can write dialogues,
predict the content of reading texts or compare notes on what they have listened to or seen.

4.2.1 Advantages of Pair Work

Harmer, J (1991), states the following aspects as the advantages of pair work:

 It dramatically increases the amount of speaking time any one student gets in the class.
 It allows the students to work and interact independently without the necessary guidance
of the teacher, thus promoting learner independence.
 It allows teachers time to work with one or two pairs while the other students continue
working.
 It is relatively quick and easy to organize.

4.2.2 Disadvantages of Pair Work

According to Harmer, J (1991), the following aspects are the disadvantages of pair work:

10
  Pair work is frequently very noisy and some teachers and students dislike this. Teachers
in particular worry that they will lose control of their class, and that neighboring classis
will be disturbed.
 Students working in pairs can often veer away from the point of an exercise, talking
about something else completely; often in their first language. The chances of
‘misbehavior’ are greater with pair work than in a whole-class setting.
 The actual choice of paired partner can be problematic especially if students frequently
find themselves working with someone, they are not keen on.

4.3 Group Work

According to Hammer (2015:182), we can put our students in larger groups, too, since
this will allow them to do a range of tasks for which pair work is not sufficient or appropriate.
Thus, the students can write a group story or role-play a situation which involves five people.
They can prepare a presentation or discuss an issue and come to a group decision. They can
watch, write or perform a video sequence. In general, it is possible to say that small groups of
around five students – but perhaps no fewer – provoke greater involvement and participation
than larger groups. Liu Jingxia suggests that ‘the diversity and variety of interpersonal
interaction diminishes’ with fewer than five members, but that with more than eight, ‘the
contributions from some individuals will start to decline’ (Jingxia 2012: 28). Groups of five
work well, because since five is an odd number, it means that a majority view can usually
prevail. But there are no hard and fast rules. A trio of students working together can produce
excellent results (Mak and Mead 2011) and, of course, there are times when activities such as
reordering lines from a poem or a song require larger groups.

4.3.1 Advantages of group work

According to Hammer (2015:182), these are advantages of group work:

 Like pair work, it dramatically increases the talking opportunities for individual students.
 Unlike pair work, because there are more than two people in the group, personal
relationships are usually less problematic; there is also a greater chance of different
opinions and varied contributions than in pair work.

11
  It encourages broader skills of cooperation and negotiation than pair work, and yet is
more private than working in front of the whole class.
 It promotes learner autonomy by allowing the students to make their own decisions in the
group without being told what to do by the teacher.

4.3.2 Disadvantages of Group Work

According to Hammer (2015:182), the following are the disadvantages of group work:

 It is likely to be noisy (though not necessarily as loud as pairwork can be). Some teachers
feel that they lose control, and that the sense of cohesion which has been painstakingly
built up in whole-class activity may dissipate when the class is split into smaller entities.
 Individuals may fall into group roles that become fossilized, so that some are passive
whereas others may dominate.
 Groups can take longer to organize than pairs; beginning and ending group work
activities, especially where people move around the class, can take time and can be
chaotic.

5.2 Action in Case of Indiscipline

Harmer, J (1991:252), says that, there are a number of things a teacher can do when
students behave badly, but in general two points can be made. Any punishment that hurts a
student physically or emotionally is probably dangerous and harmful in many ways. Its affect
cannot be measured and it probably encourages in the student behavior and psychology that we
would want to avoid as educators.

The ability to control a group of students when things get cut of hand depends to a large
extent on the personality of the teacher, and some teachers certainly appear to find it easier than
others. There are, however, Harmer, J (1991:252), say that there is a number of measures that
can be taken:

1. Act immediately: we have stressed the need fo a code. When it is broken the teacher
should act immediately. If the indiscipline involves anti-social behavior in the classroom
the teacher should take steps at once. Where it involves things like not bringing books to
class the teacher should speak to the student either during or immediately after the class.

12
2. Stop the class: where the indiscipline involves disruptive behavior the teacher should
immediately stop the class. This is a clear indication to all the students that something is
wrong. The teacher may then tell the students who are behaving badly what is wrong.
3. Reseating: an effective way of controlling student who is behaving badly is to make the
student sit in a different place immediately. Certainly, where troublesome students are
sitting together, they should be separated.
4. Change the activity: particularly where a majority of the class to be gradually getting
out of control, a change of activity will often quieten students down and at the same time
provide good writing practice.
5. After the class:where the student is continually giving trouble the teacher should
probably take that student to one side after the class is over. It will be necessary to
explain to the student why the behavior is anti-social. At the same time the student should
be given a chance to say why he or she behaves in this way.

13
8. Conclusion

It is unlikely that the teacher and learners will always adopt the same role relationships whenever
they step into the classroom. In the language classroom, as in life outside the classroom, teachers
and learners will adopt a range of roles, although in any given classroom, the teacher or student
may be characterized by a limited set of roles. As we shall see, these roles are not discrete.
Rather they overlap, which can cause complications, confusion, and even conflict. An additional
factor to consider is that roles are dynamic, not static, and are subject to change according to the
psychological factors brought by participants into the classroom and also the dynamics of group
activity within the classroom. Behaviour problems can occur if there is a mismatch between the
perceptions held by teachers and learners about their respective roles. Everyone has different
roles in life. A teacher, for example, has his role as a father, as a worker, etc. Even thought that
now days society and contemporary learning seek from teacher be a partner, associate well with
his students that does not mean disrespect and outrage the authority of the teacher. Therefore I
believe that important task of the teacher, should not be just fulfillment of his profession, but it
should exceed it and become a realization of his mission as a distributor of knowledge and
education of new generations. Anyone who has determined the role of the teacher should
perform with pride, because it is an important task not only professional but also national.

14
9. References
Bognar. L., Matijevic, M., (1993), Didaktika, Skolska knjiga, Zagreb

Brada, R., (1994), Pedagogjia shkollore, Pejë

BROWN and Harmer, (2007) the Practice of English Language Teaching

Cindric, M., (1995), Profesija ucitelj u svijetu i u Hrvatskoj, Persona, Velika Gorica – Zagreb
Glasser, W., (1994), Kvalitetna skola, Educa Zagreb Gudjons,

EARL W Stevick, (1977) Humanism in Language Teaching. In j. w. Oller Jr. & Z. J. Ramsay
(Eds)

Enciklopedijski recnik pedagogije, (1963), Matica Hrvatska, Zagreb Murati, Xh., (2013),
Didaktika e suksesit, Luma grafik, Tetovë

H., (1994), Pedagogija-temeljna znanja, Educa Zagreb

the Teaching and Learning English as Foreign Language-problems and potential

15