Teach English in Guangyi Jiedao - Shantou Shi

This unit provided an overview of the skills and qualities that make an effective teacher, and the various roles teachers play in the classroom. It also focused on language learners and defined the learning stages of language-learning students, their levels of motivation, and qualities that make good learners. The information on the qualities that make an effective teacher include both innate and learned aspects. This is useful because awareness of these qualities will allow one to use their inherent teaching skills immediately and focus on the skills they do not readily possess but should strengthen to become more effective teachers. The unit?s information on various roles teachers play in the classroom is significant because effective teaching requires an ability to switch roles throughout a lesson to ensure continued motivation on behalf of the students, and to allow the teacher to effectively teach, monitor, and evaluate student progress. Information on the types of learners is very useful because an effective teacher must know which role would work best in different situations. For example, one is far less likely to find a classroom of completely self-motivated adolescent students compared to a class of well-educated adult language learners. The adolescent learners have strengths and qualities that must be understood by the teacher so lessons that will motivate them most effectively are designed and differ from lessons used to motivate adults. Finally, it is critical to understand language learner?s levels of proficiency so lessons are designed to meet the appropriate level and proper assessment tools are used to measure student improvement.