Roles according to Jeremy Harmer:
- Controller;
In charge of everything. T is the one and only centre of knowledge and needs to be extremely inspiring and charismatic to try and make it work. On the other hand, acting as a controller might turn making announcements, restoring order, giving explanations etc. into a task much easier to be handled.
- Organiser;
As the name says, here the teacher's role is to make sure that the various activities done in class are performed smoothly and obviously organised. Requirements: students' involvement, engagement, participation, interest etc.
- Assessor;
T offers feedback and correction and grading in various ways. Students do not want to feel that they are being unfairly judged so a good assessor needs to tell Ss when, how and for what they are being assessed as well as give credit for good performance and constructive criticism for bad ones.
- Prompter;
Basically a human prompt.
- Participant;
T becomes a student, but has to bear in mind that as part of the group he should not dominate the proceedings.
- Resource;
Human dictionary ready to be looked up.
- Tutor;
T combines the roles of prompter and resource giving guidance and direction.
- Observer;
T observes and takes notes for later feedback. T should not be intrusive and wait for the right time to give group and individual feedback.
Roles according to Michael Lewis:
- Psychologist;
blah blah blah
- Dictator;
That's pretty much it!
- Time-keeper;
Organiser
- Counsellor;
Guidance and direction.
- Fount of all truth;
T knows it all.
- Genial Host;
hehehe...
- Cheerful steamroller;
T is the energy source in the classroom.
- Baby-sitter;
Keep students from being independent. However, starters and beginners might need to feel safe in order to develop.
- Language adviser;
A human dictionary, grammar book etc.
After discussing the roles above we had to analyse a lesson plan and identify all 16 roles that a T would have to perform to make that lesson successful. The group did not come up with the same answers as Ts can achieve the same goals through different techniques.
The last part of the session was about the roles of the learner:
- Sponge;
S absorbs the information (e.g. new language presentation).
- Researcher;
S while during his homework or a project or using a dictionary.
- Negotiator;
S in role-plays.
- Obeyer;
S responds to commands or instructions like in a TPR class.
- Explorer;
S takes risks.
- Experimenter;
S tries new things (structures, vocabulary, expressions etc.) heard in life outside the classroom.
- Struggler;
No need to explain.
- Path-follower;
S is dependent and the type that repeats correct answers as if they were his. Sheep!
- Initiator;
S brings sth to class and can be also responsible for starting new discussions or debates.
Understanding and performing the roles above properly is a great start for us who want to develop as ELT professionals.
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