What to do in the classroom—roles and tasks?
Rapport: Teacher – students’ relationship, Teachers as
media in the teaching and learning process. Native and non-native speaker
teachers
The
teacher’s role in the classroom is not only as a teacher who explains the
material but also a controller who deals and be responsible with every single
activity. However, the role as a cotroller is considered ineffective in
cooperative learning because he only stands in front of the class and
presenting the material without engaging the students to participate. The
second role is as a prompter which supports the students for the successful
progress. There are some teachers in Indonesia whose role is as an assessor. He
triggers or appreciate their work by giving score. To balance their academic
and psychology, he must be able to be a tutor by giving some advices and
consultations. The other roles of a teacher are a director who leads the flow
of the activity, a facilitator who bridges their curiousity and the knowledge,
a participant who does not dominate the discussion and groupwork, and a
resource who chooses the appropriate sources. Also, relating to Johnson and
Johnson (2008), in cooperative learning, the teacher’s role is divided into
formal group, informal group, and cooperative base group.
In
maximising the roles, the teacher should create a good relationship with the
students which is known as rapport. Recognising each individual, being a good
listener, respecting them, and being fair or even-handed will support the
rapport.
Teaching
without media or realia is definitely boring. Fortunately, he does not need to
create any if he can facilitate the students through himself such as mime and
gesture. Also, demonstrating them a certain model or doing the activities and
providing understandable examples are also beneficial.
An issue taken by the presenter is native and non-native
teacher where people mostly think a native teacher is the best language
teacher. However, nativeness does not determine one’s ability in teaching.
Commonly Found Questions
The first question is how to develop
teacher’s charm. From the discussion, we can conclude that improving the
knowledge and the behavior are the main points. The teacher needs to acquire
more information about how to behave during the classroom activity.
The second question is the way to avoid bias to improve
objectivity and become even-handed in teaching. The way to be even-handed is
being self-conscious. Also, we need to remind ourselves to always be fair. To
be objective, peer assessment will help individuals to assess their friends and
they also take parts in the process of the assessment itself.
Critical Analysis
The
broad issue of native and non-native teacher misleads the type of a language
teacher where he or she must be a native speaker. This is definitely because
the native is naturally good in mastering his own spoken language. However, it
fact, some are not good teachers. Determining a good or bad teacher is not
based on the nativeness or not, yet on the competence. A good language teacher
is he who is able to teach. How can we say that the native is a good teacher
while he is an uneducated one? Suherdi (2017), in his talk in Textbook
Evaluation course said that not everyone can be a teacher. Those are only they
who are already educated as teachers. It means that, by being a teacher, we
should pass some stages at least taking and graduating from an education major.
Also, this issue is no longer exist since people realize that the ability of
language teaching does not depend on the nativeness yet on competence or the ability
to teach. Although some institutions employ native teachers, they mostly teach
speaking skill where the students can learn how to use the language
communicatively with correct pronouncation and good intonation.
Responding
to the discusion, to behave properly during the classroom activity, there are
some points that the teacher needs to pay attention. The first is the distance
between the teacher and the students. Interacting too close may create
discomfort while making much distance may led into coldness. The next is
physical behavior done by the teacher. Inappropriate behavior like jumping may
cause no respect Also, mobility in the classroom is needed yet too much
mobility will ruin the students’ focus. Awareness is the last important point.
The teacher should observe the students’ activities and feelings and respond
properly to their questions. Relating to the issue of a bias teacher, we should aware that all
students are the same. There is no special one. Although we may have a favorite
student, we should avoid to treat him special especially in front of the other
students. One of the ways which can be done is by paying attention to the poor
students and give them more chances to participate. Also, it is beneficial for
we can encourage the poor students to be active.
References
Harmer, Jeremy.
2007a.
The Practice of English Language
Teaching. Malaysia
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