The Painstaking Role of the 21st Century English Teacher

8/12/2019 The Painstaking Role of the 21st Century English Teacher

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Ivonne Alexandra Londoo Leudo

THE PAINSTAKING ROLE OF THE 21ST CENTURY ENGLISH TEACHER

The world of English teaching demands better professionals with several skills,

knowledge, motivation and talents to achieve its objectives in education related to

the acquisition, performance and communication in a second language. However,

the task is not a piece of cake; the onus in teaching belongs to the teachers

awareness of different areas in which the learning is being involved such as:

Cross-curriculum, methodology, language skills, learning strategies, psychology,

classroom management, etc. Therefore, the 21st Century world has been

influencing every single stage the human being does and teachers cannot be

oblivious of this phenomenon.

First of all, I was absolutely engaged during the last session when we discussed

about the role of the English teachers in the 21stCentury classroom because is one

of the issues we face nowadays. From autocratic to democratic (Harmer, 2011)

where the student-centered approach is the main goal in our lesson planning and

performance as teachers. This one, clearly demonstrate that the traditional

transmitter role is leaving aside.

Nevertheless, when describing teachers throughout my experience I have found

several roles as well as the adaptability of them according to the students needs

and teachers comfort zone. In fact, Jeremy Harmer provides descriptions about

the teachers character during the class development: Facilitator, controller,


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prompter, participant, resource and tutor. Currently, I reckon the controller ones is

the most common attitude Colombian teachers assume for the reason that is easy

to be the leader, constantly in charge of the class, where its foremost mission is

transferring knowledge rather than allow the pupil discovers the world outside, and

in case of learning second languages denies them to experiment the natural

exploration of the second language through speaking. At this juncture, the

facilitator and participant role are my favorites because they promote the

autonomy, critical thinking, and freedom of thought in the students besides

affording them the opportunity to enhance its self-esteem and character; plus the

teacher takes part of discussions, games, activities as well as encouraging

students to think creatively.

Additionally, the characteristics of the 21st century students encompass a new

challenge, the process of make them understand a 21st

century society based on

collaborative work, communication, creativity, innovation, critical thinking, problem

solving, information and technology literacy, independence, flexibility and

adaptability in the professional and personal life. Indeed, the professor Tony

Wagner mentioned in his book Global Achievement Gap (2009) theseven 21st

Century skills every citizen must acquire, which can be used to promote innovative

practices in learning and teaching being the Effective oral and written

communication skill one of the most influential for me to make my students attain

these days.


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In particular, the spoken discourse named by Cameron (2004) as the meaningful

use of language today is the main purpose in the 21st century school English as

second language curriculum of each either public or private, where the effective

articulation of ideas and thoughts using oral, written, verbal or non-verbal

communication takes place along with considering work as a team to fulfill the

projected outcomes.

From my point of view, the profound study of the four skills (Reading, writing,

speaking and listening) by the facilitators could boost the understanding of its

advantages and disadvantages in encouraging the acquisition, performance and

finally communication in a second language. As a result of, the integrated skills

with their insights will enable process of acquisition and learning.

On the whole, the role of the 21stcentury teachers is based on facilitating learning

using the collaborations of other teachers to improve their own practices; they will

take advantage of technology as a support in the classroom; these facilitator and

participant will use multiple forms of assessment plus guiding their students during

the learning process avoiding teachers talk but cheering students discussions.


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In conclusion, a 21stcentury English teacher must plan heuristic classes where the

student has the freedom to learn from their own experiences besides, at its

learning pace and style, discovering the language rather than be always guiding by

the teacher, encouraging more exposure to the language and also more students

time to build their worlds representations; and the holistic learning of the four skills

is necessary because the language and its usage is a whole in real situations.


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References:

Wagner, T. (2009). The Global Achievement Gap: Why Even Our Best Schools

Don't Teach the New Survival Skills Our Children Need--And What We Can Do

About It. New York, NY: Basic Books.

Harmer, J. (2009). The Practice of English Teaching. New York, NY: Pearson

Longman.

University of Melbourne (2010). Draft White Paper, Defining the 21st Century

Skills. Retrieved from http://atc21s.org/index.php/resources/white-papers/.

Cameron, L. (2004). Teaching Languages to Young Learners. New York, NY:

Cambridge University Press.

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The Painstaking Role of the 21st Century English Teacher