I think the best way to win the student's respect is being honest with them 

For instance: If a student asks you something that you cannot remember or you don't know how to explain it it's better to tell him/her you don't know because if you lie maybe they will never trust you again and then there's no way to earn their respect again.   

Hi Dim - sorry at the moment we can only have one vote - for questions where users might want to choose more than one option we are forcing users to choose the one they think most important - often a difficult choice if there are several which you think important.

Admin

Hi All

This is in deed a very good question which made me think. As some of our members suggested the choice is a difficult one when one considers the choices given. Still what one thinks as important, matters in the end.

Before any body made a poll decision, definitely one would have thought of what type of students s/he has. Take my case for example. I always had adult learners. I'm not much bothered about how I appear to them any more (though I keep an eye on it in the beginning). What I'd to do in the beginning is to win their confidence.

Being adults they tend to judge teachers especially on the basis of how much the teacher knows. There are of course genuine doubts; but there are also 'testing water' kind of questions. If a teacher fails to answer one/two times, I think s/he's excused. But if it happens more than that, then there develops a feeling in the mind of the learners that they are not in the right company. So teachers should try to win the confidence of their adult learners by appearing knowledgeable. This points at the amount of preparation and the readiness which a teacher should have ready-made. There is no limit (interms of number as well as scope) to the questions they can bring to the class. Once the testing phase is done you've your learners in your side.

This view is based on my experience with one type of learners. Opinions might vary and I think the reason for that might be the type of the learner. 

Not as easy a question as it first seems.

Honesty is an appealing option, as we all like to think of ourselves as honest. Certainly, being open and honest about ourselves is sure to gain our students' respect, but I don't think being frank about their weak points or contradicting their opinions is the best way to encourage a learning atmosphere.

Instead I would say it depends on the learner group. In older students, particular those with clear goals to their language learning, the teacher's apparent knowledge and his ability to convey that knowledge (or bluff) is very important for their respect. In younger students and students learning as a social activity or hobby rather than with explicit purpose, the teacher's apparent interest in (caring about) them is probably more important. 

Certainly, more of my present high school students are pleased when I care about them than when I show off my knowledge. But then again, I am a University educated native speaker of English. For teachers who are teaching their S2, it's surely much more important to demonstrate their knowledge (form, competence), than for those teaching their S1.

It's probably most important to earn the student's respect by establishing a reasonable purpose of why they're there! By establishing a fluid knowledge or understanding of the subject they're able to gather a greater respect for the reasoning or learning with-in themselves which may last a lifetime.