Teach English in Dizhixincunjie Jiedao - Wuwei Shi

This unit focuses on teachers and learners During a typical lesson a teacher will have some of the following roles; a) Manager or controller. When teacher take on the role of controller or manager they are effectively in charge of the class and of the activity in a way that is quite different from an activity where the students are working on their own. In pairs or as a group. The the teacher would normally be standing at the front of the class reading aloud , explaining etc. b) Organizer: This role seems to be the most important because teachers are very frequently , find themselves having to organize students to do various activities . Here he gives instructions, organizes, students into groups , pairs ,initiating activities, and organizing feedback. c) Assessors : Here the teacher gives feedback and correction as well as evaluation and grading for students are usually very keen to find out whether or they are producing correct English d) Prompter : The teacher here encourages the students to work along when they are typing to say or become truck for ideas. e) Participant: At certain stages of the lesson, the teacher may wish to participate as an equal , not as a teacher. This can be for some reasons; i) Being able to liven activities up from the inside group as opposed to prompting from outside the group ii) Evening the number of students for pair work activities in classes with an uneven number of students. f) Tutor: This implies to a more personal role for the teacher. He employs this role when student are working individually and needs support. g) Resource or facilities : The teacher devises activities that allow the students simply to get on with the process of learning a language for themselves. h) Model : Here the teache especially a native of the language (English, is often the only source of real live English the students has ever encountered. He has all knowledge on English such as grammar, vocabulary and pronunciation i) Observer or monitor : Normally during the course of a lesson, a teacher will wish to monitor what is going on in the classroom. This enables him to know the length of time on activity takes and how successful it has been. j) Which role and when: A teacher will employ a role depending on the type of activity and what the student wish to achieve in the course of or at the end of the lesson. A learner on the hand is considered good based on the following factors ; ? Age ? Culture ? Language level and motivation for learning. However, successful students posses some characteristics which include: i) A willingness to listen to the language ii) A desire to learn iii) A desire to experiment with the language a. Age: It is important to define the difference between young and adults learners. Adults are those who are 18 years above. There are three categories of young learners i) Post puberty or early teenage learners i.e 13 plus. This group is the most difficult group. ii) Pre-puberty learners:Corresponding to primary school i.e 8 to12 years. This group is often unmotivated iii) Finally the very young learner i.e the pre-school aged 7years and less. Here the learners are more receptive to the new language. b. Learning experiences: Adult learners usually have a long history of learning experiences due to their number of years schooling. This enables them to have a fix view of how teaching should be carried out. c. Motivation: Adult learners will usually have made their own decision to attend classes by so doing are quite motivated unlike young learners. d. Nervousness: Adult learners are usually more nervous about new learning experiences than young learners. e. Language awareness: Here adult learners usually want to match their native language to a new language of which can lead to problems unlike young learners. f. Behaviour problems: Adult learners maintain discipline more than young learner. g. Life experience: Adult learners normally have more life experience than young learners. Culture and first language. Different cultures have different approaches to learning. - Language level: Distinction between different levels of ability in English language are clearly have to be made which include; - Beginners: From zero level of English language to a very base knowledge which cannot be easily activated. - Elementary: Here, students are likely to form basic sentence structures and communicate on simple topics. - Low/ pre- intermediate: Able to communicate and understand a greater variety of topics but lacking general fluency and dept of language awareness. - Intermediate: Able to communicate many issues using limited vocabulary store by still lacking in accuracy and fluency. - Upper intermediate: Should actively communicate in almost all topics using a range of language but still lacks accuracy. - Advanced: Students should have a good knowledge of the English language and study more. The Common European Framework recently established by the council has the following 6 levels; a. Breakthrough, Basic user A1 b. Waystage, Basic user A2 c. Threshold, independent user, B1 d. Vantage, independent user, B2 user C1 e. Effective operational Proficiency, Proficient f. Mastery, Proficient user, C2. I have personally learnt the role of both the teacher and learners in the teaching/ learning process.