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Role of the teacher There have been many changes to the role of teachers over the past few years. Before the teacher used to be the one who was holding all the knowledge. On the other hand the students were submissive to that knowledge and often afraid to ask or question the teacher. My own experience as an English student was frustrating at the beginning. The teachers were only teaching what they had learned and basically in the same way as they had acquired it. For this reason I did not enjoy learning the English language. As a consequence, it took me many years to decide to learn it. The main reason for this was how the English was presented to me. For this reason I can say that teachers hold the power to make a student like or hate to learn a foreign language. Today the teacher?s role is to teach their students to think, to question and to present alternatives to problems related to their surroundings and to attempt to share what they find personally meaningful. Teaching is being changed from a teacher-centred method of teaching into student-centred teaching systems. Holding a diploma with the knowledge that one was supposed to acquire does not make a person a teacher but what really makes a teacher is how this person will use it, encouraging, motivating, participating and making his or her self a permanent student to learn new ways to help the students to progress in the process of learning. A TEFL (Teaching English as a Foreign Language) teacher is not one who has to teach their students to memorize verbs tense and other grammar rules but instead a teacher who acts as: - Prompter: encouraging students to speak, asking questions and help them to express themselves and also encouraging the students to think creatively rather than have them hang on the teacher?s every word. - Participator: Participating in the activities in class, taking part from inside the group instead of always having to prompt or organize from outside the group. In this way the students will be more motivated to participate in the activities. - Organizer: Organising and motivating the students to do activities in groups or pairs, instructing and finalizing the activities with a good performance. - Mentor: Coaching, encouraging, supporting and making an effort to create a relationship with the students on strong foundation of trust and respect. Also serving as a model to help the students to improve their reading, writing and performance. - Resource: Provide the student with guidance on where to find the answer so they will learn to become self-sufficient. The teacher needs to establish an appropriate relationship with the students, which will only be achieved with the students? perception of the teacher as a good leader and a successful professional. Therefore, in the world of TEFL the teacher?s role today is to be a bit of everything by encouraging, leading and motivating the students to learn. In the TEFL world the teacher teaches language, reading, writing, speaking and listening. However to obtain all of this the teacher has to have a passion for teaching, be friendly, have a good knowledge of the subject to be taught, be motivated for what they do, to be a good listener, and disciplinary amongst others. References The Practice of English Language Teaching ?Jeremy Harmer (fourth edition)
