Teach English in ZhitAn Zhen - Wuwei Shi

This unit covered the roles and expectations of both the instructor and learners. It covered the qualities of an effective teacher. I believe all the qualities that were listed in the material are important, but it starts with building trust, credibility and rapport with the learners. When that relationship is built the learners are more willing to take risks and the transfer of learning increases. The qualities all go under that ?umbrella? to help build that solid foundation. An effective teacher wears many hats during the course of teaching the lessons. Each role that was described has a purpose. It depends on the culture, age, level of proficiency and dynamics of the specific group of people in a particular class, but in general, the roles that resonated with me were: 1. Organizer - an effective instructor needs to be organized with the specifics of course, logistics of class, materials, attendees, how learning is being transferred, how feedback is being given to all learners consistently and fairly, and how any progress or issues are documented. 2. Assessor - most learners love to know how they?re doing; most love feedback so they can feel good about their progress and know which areas they need to focus on. More than that, they need feedback to feel encouraged and motivated to keep learning and improving. In addition, the instructor?s employer needs to know the instructor is fully aware of the status of each learner. 3. Participant - a great way to build rapport is to get involved with the class and teach by doing not talking. Instructors need to keep the focus on the learners and not themselves, for the most part. 4. Resource - at times, the best way for the students to learn is to teach, or demonstrate. A good instructor will know when it?s appropriate to ?get out of the way? and let the learners run with a subject or concept. 5. Model - It?s important to model what you?re teaching throughout the entire course. Learning happens indirectly as well as directly when the instructor models subject matter, communication skills, demeanor, level of patience and respect given, etc. Just as there are qualities that make a \"good\" teacher, there are those that help identify a \"good\" learner. Everyone has been a learner at sometime in their lives; all of the qualities listed made sense as I reflected on my own experiences as a learner. When I was interested in the topic, willing to take risks, open to embracing new ideas and concepts, not afraid to ask questions when I was unsure, open to hearing feedback about what I was doing well and what I could do differently, and when I took responsibility for my own learning and performance improvement, it was a successful and memorable experience. I learned how the factors of age, learning experience, motivation, amount of nervousness, language awareness, behavior problems, life experience, and cultural norms impacted a learner's experience. The next section described the different levels of ability, from Beginner to Advanced; and stated some positive and negative aspects of each level. For example, success can be more clearly measured in the Beginners and Elementary groups and the learning is more visual, but activities and interaction may be restricted because the learners don't have the knowledge to communicate to any great extent. The unit concluded by covering a key component to any learning effort: motivation. A learner has a greater chance at success with some kind of motivation, such as having an interest in learning different languages or learning the language to live or travel to an English-speaking country, A good teacher will help the learner find their motivation. A good learner may already know what it is.