What would happen if there were no language teachers around ?
This is a tough question whenever you think how necessary all kinds of teachers become in a community. All teachers are important and all of them need to be respected at a very high level. The same level a doctor or an engineer or a lawyer or any other professional activity.
A community with no teachers in not viable. There have to be specialized people teaching other people. Another kind of reality would be out of thequestion.
It is true that we all become teachers while becoming parents. It is also true that nobody can teach you to be the best kind of parent possible. We know that if we happen to be parents and conscious parents as a goal. The teaching experience of becoming a daddy or a mommy has no equal. It is unique. It is wanted and waited or with wit and dreams and anxiety. Nothing compares to that. We have to be teachers and so...we become !
Language teachers, on the other hand...have to be made. They have to be developed by a feeling. On that changes our lives for good. One of the deepest feelings there is. That of teaching for the love of becoming an excellent teacher. A feeling that only a true teacher can experience.
All pupils are waiting for a given teacher to arrive to the classroom. They trust him in a way, unless that given teacher shows otherwise. If the teachers shows no skills for teaching from the very first class...forget it ! He has already lost the attention of all his or her students from that moment on.
So, becoming a good language teacher is not at all a piece of cake. Languages are so vast and complicated if we may say so. Languages are there and it is our will to have a domain towards them...in order for us to DARE and try to teach them. Languages are in the air and only good teachers could "smell" the innest core of them.
The importance of learning a language is given by itself. No discussion about the importance. No doubt about the patience we need to teach one language or, to learn it as far as possible...in a lifetime.
Students, on the other hand, do not have a lifetime to learn only one language and continue learning vocabulary for good. They need teachers to make the path friendly for them. Those students who are really interested in learning a language will realize that they are the luckiest ones whenever they find a Good language teacher on their way.
- George Modilevsky's blog
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Dear George Modilevsky,
I am glad that you have brought up an interesting subject for discussions. To understand the value of good teachers it is enough to mention that teachers have the power to affect their students in many ways, mainly and most importantly, changing their lives towards a better future... Now the world is experiencing a good growth in technology and science but we see less growth in being a good citizen, helpful for our fellow citizens. So well trained, experienced teachers who have a strong personality and good accepted behavior, are just following the paths of prophets who came to save human beings. We have a proverb in Persian which says "It is very easy to become a doctor (PHD) but it is very difficult to become a human being". Teachers who can mix their teaching methods and materials with morals are valuable assets of every society.
The problems that nowadays many societies are struggling with, is partly due to the fact that the people have not realized yet how to value and respect good teachers in the same way as they value other professional activities. Teachers who are able to change and correct the behavior of their students are rather rare and there must be some strategies to encourage them.
Something to mention is that an English teacher must work hard and be consistent in learning as this language is vast and needs profound attention.
Many thanks and best wishes.
Ali asghar Mazinanian
New methodology.........is a MUST !!........George Modilevsky
As a teacher, you realize that a new methodology for teaching languages is necessary. It is 2010 and schools are using the same ways for "trying" to teach a new language and there are not good results with whatever is being done today. Who does really care about this matter ? Noone seems to worry much about it.
All schools follow a pattern for teaching a new language but that pattern is obsolete. The urge to learn a new language should be a priority but most of the methods are provoqued to be slow and boring. This is due to the fact that the teaching of a language is a product and it has to be sold little by little instead of being sold as it should be sold. Fast learning is what should be sold but the reality is not like that. All students get a little bit of real learning out of letting them read obsolete and non-efficient text books. Filled out with lots of images and lines for students to get bored with. Superficial information that is not what a student needs. I guess most of the students are underestimated on purpose and that is where the weak results come from. No student is capable of starting a conversation in his new language in One Month by being taught the way he is being taught. No way !
The purpose of most of the teachers is ,and has always been, to teach their students the best way possible..but..the institution where the teacher works does not allow this to happen. Most of the teachers are being taught how to teach a new language by people who have no idea on how this has to be done. I mean...teacher know how to teach but the principal at a given school or the owner of the school is telling teachers how not to teach that fast because they are running a business which has to be obsolete so they are capable of collecting more money out of every student if a given student do not learn. That is the fact that a good teacher does not really want to get married with. The good teacher wants to teach but the "system" is not letting him do it. The merchandise of "knowledge" has to be given in pellets and little by little for students not to learn as fast as their capacities permit. Every single student is given LEVELS that are completely unnecessary and they have to complete a long way, which is also innecessary before they can reach the point to get a diploma for his effort. This has got to change with the time...but..I am talking about the SHORT RUN and not letting it happen for any longer.
Why does a given student have to cope with a slow pace of learning ? Why not breaking up the obsolete ways and becoming a different person by coming up with something better ? Who can guide the ew student of languages to acquire the necessary information for him to become a polyglot soon ? Who is actually pushing toda for scholar systems to be slow and boring ? Why are most of students quitting instead of enjoying a lesson ? Why are whiteboards still in use for learning a language ? Why not permitting language teachers to give their best in class ? Why do they have to follow a complete semester " by the book " ? Why do we have to follow obsolete techniques for teaching if we know they are not giving good results ? Is money all that matters ? Are teachers being misled by the owners of schools and they are not given incentives to give their best in class ? Why do language teachers have to feel robotic when the owner of the school sets the rules for teaching if he is not even aware of what is going on in class ? Students get bored because the material given does not stand as a threat to them and nobody at top staff levels seem to care.
So, what is supposed to be the future of language teaching if we cannot afford traveling to the country where this new language is spoken ? Shall we just stick to obsolete ways of teaching techniques ? Can teachers take control over what they consider necessary ? Can they be let and permitted to teach in a proper way ?
I do HOPE SO !
George Modilevsky ( Google ). Mexican Multilingual Teacher, Cartoonist and Writer. Mexico City, Mexico.
Thank you George for your insights into what makes a good teacher. I couldn't agree more with
"Language teachers, on the other hand...have to be made. They have to be developed by a feeling. On that changes our lives for good. One of the deepest feelings there is. That of teaching for the love of becoming an excellent teacher. A feeling that only a true teacher can experience"
A long time ago, I was attending a post-graduate course at NILE (Norwich Institute for Language Enducation) and I asked one of our tutors, the reknown Philip Prowse, "how can I become a great teacher?" He said "you'll find the way if you center around your learners' needs and feelings".
I was struck by his simple answer but I understood, in my inexperience at that time, there are no recipes to be good or excellent teachers because there isn't one single student who's identical to the other. It's our duty as teachers to follow a person-centered approach, which will help us teachers tune in to our students' needs and do everything at our disposal to motivate them.
Thank you again George!
www.teachingenglish.org.uk/blogs/georginahudson