The language teacher is one of the most crucial factors affecting learning in the language class. Since He/she is the focal point in the teaching process , he/she makes the difference whether or not language learning takes place. Hardly has any classroom – oriented research investigated the teacher –variable in language learning , describing the teacher’s behavior and teaching style.
What is a good language teacher ? How does he/she facilitate classroom learning Hayes, Lambert, and tucker list the characteristics of successful foreign language teaching, namely , patience ,agreeable manner, encouragement of students , tact, when correcting , prevention of ridicule, and rapport with students .Ramirez and Strowquist’s (1979) finding revealed that high achieving teachers did more modeling ,correcting and questioning while low achieving teachers did more overt correction of grammatical errors . On the other hand , Flander (1963) , in his study ,described superior teachers to be speaking less and are more direct . He further revealed that indirect teachers accepted feelings by encouraging class ideas , extending more questions, and receiving longer class answers. Direct teachers tended to lecture , repeat more frequently , be critical and have more disciplinary problems.
On the other hand, Reiss (1983) wrote that good language teachers use the target language for an ordinary purpose- to establish relations and to seek and give information. They also create a classroom climate where students are eager to speak motivated by personalized and creative teaching Omaggio(1981) reported that personalized verbal interaction significantly correlate with teachers effectiveness ratings obtained from superiors and students,
On teaching styles studies reveal that formal teachers emphasize a high level of academic attainment and an acquisition of numeracy and reading skills. Informal teachers , like the humanistic language teachers, stress social and emotional development and the importance of self – expression creativity and enjoyment of school.
A number of case studies (e.g. Tayao 1984) describe the verbal behavior of L2 teachers to distinguish between effective and ineffective teachers. Findings show a difference in the structuring moves of these teachers. The input of effective teachers is syntactically complex. They likewise employ strategies such as specification of referent, repetition to focus attention on significant points and rephrasing to make language input comprehensible to students . Ineffective teachers , on the other hand , use less syntactically complex utterances and few low frequency words , but the unfocused digressive style adopted makes it difficult for students to follow their trend of thought
Indeed all good language teachers have always felt accountable for their teaching . They believe that if a learner fails to learn, it is partly their fault. Hence a number of them resort to using comprehensibility
Strategies which include translation statement and or paraphrasing and the like to make their input optimal: they use comprehensible, relevant, interesting, and sufficient material and strategies and make sure there is successful and meaningful negotiation of meaning.
By: Susan S. Bamba | Teacher II | Pagalanggang Elementary School | Dinalupihan, Bataan
