What’s the role of a language teacher?
When we discussed the role of a language teacher during our class, I was exited to hear so many interesting answers and creative metaphors. For me, I think a language teacher is a designer of meaningful instructions, an assessor of language proficiency and also a dream builder.
First of all, just like teachers of other disciplines, a good language teacher should give clear and useful instructions to help students gain knowledge in language learning. Based on my study in Instructional Design and my previous learning experience, there’s no fixed model for how to give correct instructions. However, I think all the quality instructions come from the familiarity with students. Only when the teacher knows the students very well can their needs be fitted. To know students better, efficient and mutual communication is what a language teacher should try to achieve when teaching. An excellent language teacher in the classroom is an effective instructional designer and also a good communicator.
Second, a language teacher is also responsible for assessing the language proficiency since he or she should carry out on-going assessments to monitor students' proficiency and needs, using various forms of assessment and records. Only by assessment can students realize their mistakes and make progress in the future. An assessor is of great importance to a language-learning beginner since he or she may not be able to find out the areas that can be improved with very limited knowledge. Any mistake rooting in the brain at the beginning will be extremely difficult to correct in further study.
Last, a language teacher is definitely a dream builder. Know another language is the prerequisite if someone wants to know about another country and also another culture. The teacher can give the useful tool “language” to students and let them experience and explore the world by themselves, and hopefully realize their dream. In my eyes, helping others chase their dream is one of the best things in the world. This is why I want to be become a Chinese teacher.
Though I don’t have much teaching experience before, I think the ideas above are kind of like my teaching philosophy.