Роли учителя на занятии

Teacher roles

Marina Kuznetsova

What are teacher roles?

Teachers need to behave in different ways at different stages of a lesson to manage the classroom and to successfully guide learners through the lesson. These different ways of behaving in and managing the class are called teacher roles.

Here are some roles teachers often adopt.

The teacher roles we adopt have to be appropriate for

• the teaching and learning context,
• the teaching approach,
• the lesson aims,
• the stage of the lesson,
• the type of activity
• the age, level and attitude of the learners.

Effective classroom management

organising the classroom and the learners, is dependent on the teacher adopting appropriate roles. For example, when learners arrive late in class or misbehave, the teacher needs to deal with the situation appropriately to ensure that the learners understand that this is not acceptable behaviour.

If, on the other hand, the teacher adopts inappropriate roles, this can have a negative effect on their classroom management. Imagine a situation where one learner is dominating the interaction in the classroom, resulting in other learners becoming annoyed and being unwilling to participate. If the teacher lets the learner continue in a dominating role, he or she could lose the respect of the other students and will be less able to facilitate their learning.

The needs of the learners

With young learners, we might take on the role of a parent or a friend when a young student is unwell or unhappy. With teenage or adult learners, two of the key teacher roles are those of motivating students and maintaining discipline (establishing a clear system of rules and codes of behaviour). With adult students the teacher's roles are often those of facilitator, language resource and diagnostician.

Key concepts and the language teaching classroom

•  What we say, how we say it and what we do make our teacher roles clear to learners. When planning lessons, it is useful to first identify the roles we are going to take on during the lesson and then to think about what we are going to say and do to convey that role clearly to the learners.

•  It takes practice and experience to know which teacher roles are appropriate with which classes and for which activities.Less experienced teachers may feel comfortable using a limited number of roles at first and then gradually extending their range.

•  Some problems with classroom discipline, classroom management and facilitating learning are a result of teachers not adopting appropriate teacher roles.

• Learners take time to get used to the teacher working in different roles. For example, learners who are more familiar with a teacher in the role of manager might be confused by a teacher who takes on the role of facilitator. It is useful to provide some learner training and to introduce the new roles slowly so that learners get used to new ways of working.

•  It is important to be flexible in teacher roles. Sometimes roles need to be changed because of circumstances in the lesson. For example, when we are monitoring a task and realise that learners have not understood the key language, we take on the role of language resource to clarify the language point so that learners can continue with the task.

•  It is sometimes necessary to take on roles we do not always feel comfortable with. When learners do not complete homework tasks, for example, teachers have to be firmer in managing the learners than they usually are. The ability to take on appropriate roles in class is important for establishing class rapport and maintaining a positive and effective learning environment in the classroom.