英语教师在课堂中的角色

Teacher’s Role in Middle School English Teaching

in Classroom

1. Brief Introduction of the Subject

Teaching in class is the main form of teaching in our middle schools. It is in the classroom that an English teacher is to cultivate the listening, speaking, reading and writing abilities of the students, give knowledge of phonetics, grammar and vocabulary and train the mind of students and get them educated morally, intellectually and physically. So, teachers playing proper roles in the classroom is of vital importance.

The roles of the teacher will depend to a large extent on the function he performs in different activities. A lot of efforts have been devoted to researches on teacher’s roles. For example, from Richards’s (1990) understanding, the following are among the kinds of roles teachers may see for themselves in the classroom: 1) monitor of student learning; 2) motivator; 3) organizer and controller of pupil behavior; 4) provider of accurate language models; 5) counselor and friend; 6) needs analyst; 7) materials developer; 8) evaluator. Based on the function the teacher performs in different activities, Harmer defines the teacher’s role s as controller, assessor, organizer, prompter, participant and resource-provider (Harmer, . The latter are the most common roles that teachers play in present-day foreign language teaching and are the ones we talk in this paper.

2. Definitions of Role and Teacher’s Role

The word “role” derives from the drama. In 1934, G. H. Mead used it firstly to refer to a part a person play in the performance of social life. Later, Ellis& McClintock (1990) defines the role as the participant in any act of communication which involves his particular status, identity and behavior. They involve different kinds of work, levels of responsibility, kinds of relationships, patterns of interaction and communication, and power relationships.

In education, according to Nunan (1993), the role refers to the social and interpersonal responsibility assumed by teachers and learners as class participants and the part teachers and learners play in fulfilling learning tasks. The role of teacher is primarily an occupational role, predetermined by the nature of schools and of teaching. Teachers interpret their roles in different ways depending on the kinds of schools in which they work, the teaching methods they employ, their individual personalities, and their cultural background. Classroom teaching is the teaching behavior happens in the classroom. Teachers can use a variety

of classroom activities to achieve the teaching objectives and many of their roles can be seen directly in classroom teaching.

3. Teacher’s Roles in Classroom

Controller

An appropriate degree of control of the teacher over the class is vital in formal language teaching. The teacher controls the pace so that activities run smoothly and efficiently. For instance, when students do skimming and scanning tasks, it is very important for the teacher to control time. When doing lockstep activities, the teacher controls the whole class so that everyone has equal chance. When students do reproduction activities, the teacher’s control can make sure the students use certain target language items and their reproduction has a degree of accuracy.

When we talk about the advantages of teacher control, we stick to appropriate degree of control. Over-control will do no less harm to students than no control at all. Besides, different activities needs a different degree of control. Some teachers use terms like controlled practice, half-controlled practice, and free practice to indicate where control is needed and where control should be relaxed. We believe that the more communicative an activity is, the less control it needs.

Assessor

It is generally believed it is a major part of a teacher’s job to asses s the students’ work. According to Harmer, as an assessor, the teacher does two things, that is, correcting mistakes and organizing feedback. Harmer insists that correcting should be gentle. Gentle correcting involves showing that incorrectness has occurred, but not making a big fuss about. Organizing feedback is an effective way to assess students’ performance so that they see the extent of their success or failure. When organizing feedback, it is very discouraging for the teacher to be critical. Rather, w e believe teachers should focus on students’ success or progress so that a success-oriented learning atmosphere can be created.

Organizer

The most important and difficult role that he teacher has to play is to be an organizer. Nowadays many approaches and methods advocate task-based activities. So one of the teacher’s major tasks is to design and organize tasks that students can perform in the class. It is in doing this that teachers have the most freedom and most challenge, and it is where the teacher can exert creativeness in an unlimited way.

Before organizing an activity in the class, the teacher should