On the Role of Teachers

My inspirational teacher (bottom right corner)

The most important part of EFL, to me, in any country is fulfilling my duties as a teacher.

Thus, in every capability, I am working on improving myself as a teacher. So currently I am doing an EFL course online and tutoring as temporary work. I will publish my essays here. The word limit is 700 words and it feels constrictive at times, maybe I will edit them in my free time.

(c) Malia Autio 2011, please cite if the information is used anywhere

Role of the Teacher

Section 1.2 highlights many of the roles teachers fulfill as well as their positive qualities. In their main functions, teachers are lecturers, counselors, and great organizers who should always be prepared. The avoidance of excess teacher talking, interrupting students, and over-planning for them should is important to maximize the positive traits. To introduce these qualities and potential trouble areas for instructors in a practical manner, I would like to introduce two experiences with teachers I had during my life as a student.

A great teacher of mine was my high school Japanese teacher. She fulfilled her role as lecturer, counselor, and organizer—as well as exceeding these expectations in many areas. I always felt she was wholly invested in educating her students and helping them achieve their dreams. Class was well organized and we learned through many different formats. She integrated lecturing, listening, and reading and she consistently monitored our progress through providing warm-up activities that stressed continuity as they subtly forced us to think about material we had long since finished. She was always personable and organized, and was never overly serious about the subject. Her teacher talking was brief, informative, and made colorful by cultural references that were, from time to time, familiar—such as integrating pop-icons from Japan that had also had some impact in the US, while sometimes she asked us to push our comfort zones by encouraging us to do research on more challenging and unfamiliar topics.

One role of the teacher that section 1.2 does not mention is Integrator, or the trait of being integrative. Japanese did not feel like an untouchable experience to the students in class. Frequently she invited us to take part in community events such as the local Japanese speech contest. She encouraged us to find pen-pals, or go to community restaurants and venues reflecting the culture, and helped guide us to those connections where it may be daunting for students to find those connections alone. She made herself available during lunch-time and played recorded videos, television shows, and music from her home country. These activities I felt made the subject seem real and the subject became engaging to most students who took the class. When students felt like the subject had a connection to their life, they became motivated to continue to study past the two year language requirement for graduation.

College organic chemistry lecture was a completely different experience. I took two courses of it and experienced two poor educators. The situation was much exacerbated by the tremendous class size of upward of 330 students. Our professors tended to go by the book in both lecture and exercises. We prepared for multiple choice tests and had very little contact with our professors. At office hours or test review sessions there could be upwards of 100 students sitting before the teacher. They were not horrible instructors, always seemed as rushed and hurried and their attitudes definitely transferred into my experience in their classes. When the teacher’s attitude is not confident, students lose confidence in the teacher. It also gives them a sense that the teacher is inapproachable, and based on my experience I agree with Section 1.2 that approachability is a key trait for a teacher as it encourages the student to fulfill their duty to engage and ask questions honestly.

The classes also did not offer any sense of community, as students were not actively encouraged to seek one another’s help. This would help them act independently of the professor. I realize how much the sense of community in the classroom and feeling tied to my peers helped me to succeed in many different fields of study in high school. Even in the university, my performance was much better in classes where peer discussion was encouraged.

Overall, my experiences give me a sense of the role I seek to fulfill as a teacher. I may find myself to be 15% lecturer, and definitely incorporate integration of subjects and knowledge into my classes through the role of counselor and guide, approximately 20% of my efforts. The rest of the energy I will invest in uniting students with effective materials and lesson plans.