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.
Comments
amazinanian
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