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Abguel Silva
Dezembro Pedro Faustino
Dinércia Jonasse Francisco
Domingos Fernando
Edgar Joaquim
Irene Francisco

TEACHERS CHARACTERISTICS
(Licenciatura degree in English course)

Universidade Rovuma
Nampula
2020
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Abguel Silva

Dezembro Pedro Faustino

Dinércia Jonasse Francisco

Domingos Fernando

Edgar Joaquim

Irene Francisco

TEACHERS CHARACTERISTICS

Essay to be presented the faculty of

Letters and Social Sciences, English
course in fulfillment of the subject: DI
III

Lecturer: MBA. Samuel Canda

Universidade Rovuma

Nampula

2020
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CONTENTS PAGE
INTRODUCTION.................................................................................................................iii

1. TEACHERS CHARACTERISTICS...................................................................................4

1.1. ADEQUATE CLASSROOM COMMAND OF THE LANGUAGE BEING TAUGHT5

1.1.1 Classroom language.......................................................................................................5

1.1.2. How can classroom language be taught........................................................................5

1.2. PRESENTATION SKILLS AS A TEACHER................................................................6

1.2.1. Adequate presentation skills for teachers......................................................................6

2. ROLES OF TEACHERS AND LEARNERS.....................................................................8

2.1. The teacher as controller.................................................................................................8

2.2. The teacher as motivator..................................................................................................8

2.3. The teacher as facilitator..................................................................................................8

2.4. Teacher as resource..........................................................................................................9

2.5. Prompter...........................................................................................................................9

2.6. Evaluator..........................................................................................................................9

2.7. Guide................................................................................................................................9

2.8. Organizer..........................................................................................................................9

2.9. Assessor............................................................................................................................9

3. THE FACTORS INFLUENCING TEACHERS AND LEARNER’S ROLES...............10

3.1. Interpersonal factors.......................................................................................................10

3.2. Task-related factors........................................................................................................11

4. CLASSIFICATION OF THE LEARNERS ACCCORDING TO THEIR ROLES..........14

CONCLUSION.....................................................................................................................16

BIBLIOGRAPHY.................................................................................................................17
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INTRODUCTION

In the past, teachers were seen as the center of knowledge and the roles played by them were
few in comparison to now. Today teachers are not the center of the knowledge; students can
study even in the absence of the teacher. This paper will merely talk about teacher’s
characteristics, roles and factors which influence these roles.

The main of this paper is to help the future teachers understand what qualities they must have
and how they have to act in each role. Therefore the present paper is organized, as follows: (i)
teachers’ characteristics, (ii) adequate classroom command of the language being taught (iii)
classroom language, (iv) how classroom language can be taught, (v) presentation skills as a
teacher, (vi) adequate presentation skills as a teacher, (vii) roles of the teacher, (viii) factors
influencing the roles of the teacher and finally (ix) classification of learner according to their
roles.
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1. TEACHERS CHARACTERISTICS

According to WALKER (2008:65) the characteristics of the teacher are the following:

 Prepared: the most effective teachers come to class each day ready to teach and it is
easy to learn in their classes because they are ready for the day;
 Positive: the most effective teachers have optimistic attitudes about teaching and
about students, they give praise and recognition not only that they communicate with
students about their progress;
 Hold high expectations: the most effective teachers set no limits on students and
believe everyone can be successful. These teachers hold the highest standards and
consistently challenge their students to do their best;
 Creative: the most effective teachers are resourceful and inventive in how they teach
their classes. They use technology effectively in the classroom;
 Fair: the most effective teachers handle students and grading fairly. They allow all
students equal opportunities and privileges and understand that not all students learn in
the same way and at the same rate;
 Display a personal touch: the most effective teachers are approachable. They connect
with students personally share personal experiences with their classes;
 Compassionate: the most effective teachers are concerned about students’ personal
problems and can relate to them and their problems.
 Have a sense of humor: the most effective teachers do not take everything seriously
and make learning fun. They use humor to break the ice in difficult situations and
bring humor into the everyday classroom;
 Respect students: the most effective teachers do not deliberately embarrass students.
Teachers, who give the highest respect, get the highest respect. They respect students’
privacy when returning test papers and show sensitivity to feelings and consistently
avoid situations that unnecessarily embarrass students;
 Forgiving: the most effective teachers do not hold grudges. They forgive students for
inappropriate behavior and understand that forgiving attitude is essential to reaching
difficult students.
 Admit mistakes: the most effective teachers are quick to admit being wrong. They
apologize to mistakenly accused students and make adjustments when students point
out errors in grading or test material that has not been assigned.
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1.1. ADEQUATE CLASSROOM COMMAND OF THE LANGUAGE BEING

TAUGHT

1.1.1 Classroom language

When teaching a second language the goal of a teacher is to use as much of the target
language as possible. When reviewing a day in a classroom, one of the most frequent ways
that language is used in the daily routines; these are referred to as classroom language. So the
question may be what is classroom language?

Classroom language is the routine language that is used on a regular basis in classroom like
giving instructions of praise, for example, take out the books or please sit down. This is
language that teachers use and students hear, but when teaching a language it takes a while to
learn this part of the language. However, knowing these language basics reduces the amount
that students are forced to use their mother tongue and increases the amount of the target
language they are using; it makes the classroom language environment more authentic.

1.1.2. How can classroom language be taught

Classroom language can be taught in different ways, as follows:

 Teach your students the classroom language in a scaffolded way. Start with short
commands, maybe just one word such as sit. Then the teacher can progress to a longer
command, like sit down please and eventually students can learn alternate phrases that
mean the same think, for instance, the other way round to say you say sit down can be
have a seat
 Make sure the students know what this language is for. Don’t leave them out of the
learning process, they should know that the more they use the language , the more they
will develop and these forms are meant to help use the language in the most natural
way possible
 Once you introduce the concepts use them and employ them as much as possible so
the students become accustomed to them and eventually are able to use them as well.
 Use prompts such as visuals to help students learn and remember the classroom
language.
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Example of classroom language commands

 Sit down
 May I go outside?
 Open your books. Please

1.2. PRESENTATION SKILLS AS A TEACHER

Your success as a teacher is largely determined by your ability and skill in communicating
your message. We have all experienced teachers who were clearly experts in their field but
lacked the skills to convey their knowledge and understanding to a group of students.
Presentation skills are integral elements of the complex craft of teaching. (CANNON, 1988)

1.2.1. Adequate presentation skills for teachers

According to DOMINICK (1991) the effective presentations skills for teachers are:

a. Variety or variability

It is extremely important to vary all aspects of your performance as a teacher. Reliance on any
one part of your repertoire as a teacher may lead to monotony and loss of student interest.
Consider variations in use of teaching strategies, voice, questioning, techniques, and feedback
to students, assessment, and space in the classroom.

b. Audibility

Students must be able to hear you. Projecting your voice is not a matter of yelling, it is a
technique to throw your voice to the back of the room to ensure that all can hear you.
Remember that you may have to increase the amount of voice when your lecture is full of
students, because a mass of student bodies tends to absorb the sound.

c. Articulation or pronunciation

Attempt to pronounce words correctly, proper nouns, emphasis, sequence and form vowels
and consonants that makes up words, correctly.
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d. Emphasis

McCARTHY (1996) believes that the use of emphasis in your voice will:

 Give signal to your students that you are mentioning important concepts in your
lecture
 Use verbal markers to signal things of importance to students, for example: now this is
important
 Changes in emphasis can assist to create more varied and interesting presentations
e. Pause

When presenting skill, pause to give your students time to think about what you are saying
and for you to check notes or prepare for the next point. Students also need time to write
adequate notes from your presentation, so make sure that you pause long enough to allow
note-taking. Silence can also be used as an effective method of capturing student attention.

f. Eye contact

Maintain eye contact with your students so that you can establish a relationship with them.
Eye contact invites them to listen to you. However, do not focus your attention on one spot in
the lecture; allow your eyes to look into individual students’ eyes.

g. Gestures and movement

When presenting your skills don’t be afraid of using gesture and movement because
nonverbal behaviours have a powerful impact in the classroom. Use them in a natural way to
assist in conveying meaning of your oral message. In addition, use nonverbal communication
to complement, not contradict, your verbal communication.

Don’t be afraid to move around the teaching pace, so as long as students can still hear what
you are saying. However, do not pace nervously from one side of the room to the other. Use
movement in a purposeful manner to enhance the presentation, not to distract your students.
Use facial expression to bring your presentation to life and don’t be afraid to smile, if you
smile your students may feel comfortable and may assist you in reducing nervousness.

h. Stance and confidence

 Maintain good posture
 The value of appearing confident or not confident cannot be overemphasized.
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i. Use of notes

Some lecturers read their entire lecture, often without lifting their head to look at the
audience. Note that students can read if all you are going to offer them is a reading of notes or
text, and then they are better off doing that in their own. Tear yourself away from notes; speak
to points on overheads or points in your notes.

Keep in mind that spoken language is not the same as written language. It is therefore more
appropriate to prepare notes or a skeleton for delivery in a presentation, than a long written
piece, that is more suitable for publication in an academic journal.

2. ROLES OF TEACHERS AND LEARNERS

Role is the position or purpose that someone or something has in a situation, organization,
society or relationship.

A teacher can play many roles in the course teaching and they cannot be satisfied with only
one role. Some of these roles will be more prominent than others, especially on the eyes of
your students. (BROWN, 2000:200)

HARMER (2007:108) and BROWN (2000:166) suggest the following roles of the teacher,
namely:

2.1. The teacher as controller

When teachers act as controllers, they are in charge of the class and of the activity taking
place and are often leading from the front. Controllers take the register, tell students things,
organise drills, read aloud and in various other ways exemplify the qualities of a teacher-
fronted classroom. The examples of a teacher as controller are: giving explanations,
organising question and answer work, lecturing, making announcements.

2.2. The teacher as motivator

The primary role of the teacher is to motivate the learners who are demotivated and to nurture
those who are already well motivated to the task of learning a foreign language. There are
numerous of ways in which teachers can achieve it:

 Adopting a positive attitude towards the learners;

 Giving pupils meaningful, relevant and interesting tasks to do;
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 Maintaining discipline to the extent that a reasonable working atmosphere is

established;
 Being motivated and interested themselves;
 Involving the learners more actively in the classroom process in activities that demand
inter-student communication and co-operative efforts on their part;
 Giving positive feedback.

2.3. The teacher as facilitator

When a teacher acts as facilitator he or she offers support and advice when needed and
provides the necessary scaffolding and teaching skills when necessary.

2.4. Teacher as resource

Students might ask how to ask, how to say or write something or what a word or phrase
means, they might even want to know information in the middle of an activity about that
activity or they might want information about where to look for something like a boor or a
web site for example. This is where you can be one of the most important resources they have.

When a teacher acts a resource he has to be helpful and available, but at the same time he has
to resist the urge to spoon-feed his students so that they become over-reliant on him.
(BROWN 2000:16)

When students are working on longer projects, such as process of writing, preparation for a
talk or a debate, you can work with individuals or small groups pointing them in directions
they have not yet though of taking. In such situation you are acting as tutor

2.5. Prompter

The teacher acts as a prompter when he encourages students to speak English rather than their
mother tongue.

2.6. Evaluator

The teacher is evaluator of learners’ efforts and contributions. The teachers judge whether
learners’ contributions to the teaching or learning process are valid, relevant or correct.
(WRIGHT 1987:63)
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2.7. Guide

The teacher is a guide to the subject under consideration and the way in which it is learnt in
the classroom and he is also the curator of the rules for acquiring knowledge. (WRIGHT
1987:63)

2.8. Organizer

The teacher is organizer when he organizes classroom activities, sets up learning tasks and
assists the learners in doing these activities. (WRIGHT 1987:63)

2.9. Assessor

One of the things that students expect from their teachers is an indication of whether or not
they are getting their English right. This is where you have to act as an assessor, offering
feedback and correction and grading students in various ways. Students need to know how
and for what they are being assessed. When you act as assessor, you should tell your students
what are you looking for and what success looks like so that they can measure themselves
against this.

3. THE FACTORS INFLUENCING TEACHERS AND LEARNER’S ROLES

Classroom language learning is a group activity. The nature of the activity will vary according
to several factors. These influence the roles individuals are given in the classroom language
learning process and how they interpret their roles. (WRIGHT 1987:11)

WRIGHT (1987:12) suggests two sets of factors influencing teacher and learner’s roles are
closely related to:

 Interpersonal factors
 Task- related factors

3.1. Interpersonal factors

The interpersonal factors involve:

 Status and position

 Attitudes and beliefs
 Personality
 Motivation
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a. Position and status

Status depends on what people think and feel about an individual’s performance of a role, for
instance, society has deemed that exams results are the criteria for success and therefore high
status. Status thus depends on a social group’s norms and values.

In other words, status depends on what a social group regard as normal behaviour and what
they regard as having positive worth. Position on the other hand, is almost the equivalent of
the title of the job. Thus, teacher is a position with a certain amount of status.

b. Attitudes and beliefs

While teachers have a set of professional attitudes, personal attitudes and beliefs are likely to
differ considerably between teachers and learners. The attitudes may be towards teaching and
learning, the content of learning or each other as people.

The way in which you interpret your role and the role of another individual depends on your
attitudes and beliefs about the roles themselves and the individuals who occupy them.

Attitudes can be expressed both verbally and non-verbally. For instance, if you say that some
event is a good thing, it means that you are expressing a good attitude towards it but if you
don’t show a willingness to do something you have been asked to do, you may be said to have
a negative attitudes.

On the other hand, beliefs differ from attitudes. A belief can be verbalized while an attitude is
hidden, an attitude can be expressed by certain behaviour; a belief can only be expressed
verbally. Both attitudes and beliefs are influenced by values.

c. Personality

The personality is fundamentally affected by how you react under different circumstances. It
is believed that “your personality is stable and constant”, that is to say that you are the same
basic person no matter if you are in the role of a teacher, learner, father or son. (WRIGHT
1987:25)

WRIGHT (1987:25) believes that the “personalities shaped only by experiences, in much the
same way as attitudes are formed”.

A typical description of personality types might include the following:

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 Authoritarian: shows tendency for liking authority and exercising power

 Affiliative: shows tendency for preferring to form close relationships with others.
 Conformist: shows tendency for wanting to think and act as others do.
 Aggressive: shows tendency towards aggressive behaviour in order to achieve aims
 Co-operative: shows tendency to work closely with others in performing tasks;
 Achieving: shows tendency towards wanting to achieve status, power and success.
d. Motivation

Teachers have motivations for teaching and learners for learning, both instrumental and
integrative. Teachers and learners also have deeper, more personal goals. These are linked to

3.2. Task-related factors

Before understanding how task-related factors influence in the teachers and learners role it is
important to ask a question like: what is a task?

Generally, task is more than just an activity, more than doing something. In the context of
classroom language learning, there are ranges of tasks which teachers and learners have to
perform. They must be seen as goal- both in a short term and long term.

According to WRIGHT (1987:33) the task –related factors involves:

 Goals
 Topics
 Tasks
a. Goals

Every task has goals and solutions. Individuals’ personal goals may be activated by tasks.
Teachers and leaners are engaged in an activity that is very dependent on goals.

b. Tasks

There are two elements of a task, namely: the cognitive or thinking aspect and the affective or
feeling aspect. When a group of people work on a task, they take up roles which bring
together the cognitive and affective aspect of the task. (WRIGTH 1987:34)

WRIGTH (1987:34) argues that “any learning task involves the learning group into two way”
namely:
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 task- related activity or interactivity

 Interpersonal activity or interpersonality.
c. Topics

WRIGTH (1987:40) argues that “in any social interaction, you deal with two main topics, as
follows:

 The way the social interaction proceeds – procedural topics

 Subject matter or knowledge – content topics
d. Procedural topics

In the forming and storming stages of a group’s existence, a large number of topics will be
procedural, these may include:

 The right of an individual to change topic

 The right of an individual to introduce a topic
 The right of an individual to close a topic

If the group leader takes sole rights for running the group and thus control of the procedure,
then he controls the topics. In the storming stage, members may dispute this claim. Only when
the procedural rules for running the group are established can this source of conflict be
removed.

There is a clear link with role expectations here: if you expect one group member to be in
control of topics, this is part of the role behaviour. If the leader does not control the
procedure, a free-for-all may result. Our expectations will have been disappointed. You too,
join the free-for-all.

In classrooms, there may also be similar processes. Teachers often decide which learner is to
answer a question by nominating individuals by name. Some teachers prefer to let their class
bid to give answers, picking seemingly at random an individual from the group. It is clear that
there are conventions for topic control in classrooms- these derive partly from the teacher’s
authority and partly from the social conventions operating in a particular place.
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e. Knowledge

Managing knowledge

The second type of topic may also be understood as the subject people are discussing. This is:

 Related to the task you are engaged in

 Related the behaviour expected of us in our various roles
 Related to what you, as individuals, actually know.

The combinations of teacher behaviour, learner behaviour, and learning materials produce
different ways of managing knowledge.

Walker and Adelman (1975) cited by WRIGHT (1989:41) differentiate three ways in which
teachers manage knowledge. These depend on the level of focus on the content and the role of
the learner. If learner’s role is defined closely, it is the teacher who has control over the
knowledge; a low-definition learner role gives the learner more flexibility. In this relationship,
the teacher is a guide than an instructor.

Focusing: the content of the lesson is paramount and teaching or learning process resolves
around evaluation of the knowledge possessed by the learners. The teacher is in a position of
dominance and controls the exchanges of information.

Cook’s tutor: the content is again the focus of the lesson, but this style of management is on
the surface, more open-ended than the focusing style. The style is based on the achievement
of content goals, but the teacher is more open-ended tasks for the achievement of these goals.
Correct answers are discovered rather than directly elicited

Freewheeling: lessons are extremely discursive, and to an outsider may seem unstructured
and fragmented. There is a free flow of talk between teachers and learners and many different
subjects may be covered in one tour. The outcome is highly unpredictable.

4. CLASSIFICATION OF THE LEARNERS ACCCORDING TO THEIR ROLES

WRIGHT (1987:117-118) assumes that there are four learners style within a group, namely:

 Enthusiast: looks to the teacher as a point of reference and is concerned with the
goals of the learning group;
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 Oracular: focuses on the teacher but is more oriented towards the satisfaction of
personal goals;
 Participator: tends to concentrate on group goals and group solidarity;
 Rebel: refers to the learning group for his or her point of reference, is mainly
concerned with the satisfaction of his or her own goals.

On the other hand, KEITH working with adult students in Australia suggests four learner
categories:

 Convergers- these are students, who are by nature solitary, prefer to avoid groups and
who are independent and confident in their own abilities. Most importantly they are
analytic and can impose their own structures on learning. In other words, they tend to
be cool and pragmatic.
 Conformists- these are students who prefer to emphasise learning about language
over learning to use it. They tend to be dependent on those in authority and are
perfectly happy to work in non- communicative classrooms, doing what they are told.
A classroom of conformists is one which prefers to see well-organised teachers.
 Concrete learners- although they are similar to conformists, they also enjoy the social
aspects of learning and like to learn from direct experience. They are interested in
language use and language as communication rather than language as a system. They
enjoy games and group work in class.
 Communicative learners- these are language use oriented. They are comfortable out
of class and show a degree of confidence and a willingness to take risks which their
colleagues may lack. They are much more interested in social interaction with other
speakers of the language than they are with analysis of how the language works. They
are perfectly happy to operate without the guidance of a teacher.
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CONCLUSION

Soon after accomplishing the present paper, it was concluded that when your talk about
teacher’s characteristics is the same to say teacher’s qualities. An individual who is a teacher
has got many characteristics such as positive, creative, good sense of humour and others and
as they are teacher, they also have many roles to play in the classroom depending on the
lesson these roles played by teacher as follows: facilitator, organizer, assessor, guide, resource
and others and for them to apply these roles it is extremely important to look at the factors
which influence the roles.

The factors which influence the roles are: interpersonal factors which may include position
and status, attitudes and beliefs, personality and motivation. On the other hand, task-related
factors, these factors involves: goals, tasks and topics.

In relation to the classification of learners according to their roles, it has been discussed by
many authors and the conclusion was that learners can be: participator, rebel, convergers, and
conformist, communicative, enthusiasts, oracular and concrete
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BIBLIOGRAPHY

BROWN, D (2000) Teaching by Principles. An Interactive Approach to Language

Pedagogy. 2nd edition: Longman.

CANNON, R. (1988). Lecturing. HERDSA Green Guide number 7. Sydney:

HERDSA.

DOMINICK, J. (1991) Making effective presentations: managing design and delivery.

New directions for adult and continuing education, 51. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass
Inc.

HARMER, J. (2007). The practice of English Language Teaching. 4th edition,

Cambridge: PEARSON Longman.

McMARTHY, P & HATCHER, C. (1996). Speaking persuasively: making the most of

your presentaions. Sydney: Allen and Unwin

WALKER, R. (2008) Twelve characteristics of an effective teacher. Educational

horizons

WRIGHT, T. (1987). Roles of teachers and learners. Oxford University Press