On the Qualifications of High School English Teacher

I. An English Teacher Should Have Ethic Devotion and Higher Knowledge Qualities.

An English teacher should have ethic devotion. This is the premise of a good language teacher. That is to say， the teacher should be warm-hearted and enthusiastic. He is willing to help the students he teaches. The students will benefit a lot from the teachers constant efforts and they will make more progresses.

A good English teacher will integrate several areas of knowledge and practice. These areas of knowledge include competence in a second language and knowledge about other subjects， such as psychology， educational psychology， cross-culture communication and so on.

II. An English Teacher Should Have the Ability to Recognize His Own Role.

Although an English teacher has ethic devotion， in order to make his lesson more successful， he should also have the ability to recognize his own role; this is the assurance of a good language teacher. In the classroom， the teacher often works as organizer， assessor， prompter， participant， controller， resource and psychologist in the classrooms.

An important role played by a language teacher is organizer. The success of many activities depends on the good organization and clear instruction of the teacher.

It is clear that a major part of a teachers job is to assess the students work， to gauge how well they are performing or how well they are performed. According to Harmer （1983）， as an assessor， the teacher does two things： correcting mistakes and organizing feedback.

The students often need to be encouraged to participate or to be given suggestions about how they may perform in an activity， where silence occurs or when they are in confusion of what to do next， then the teacher should give the appropriate prompts so that the task or activity may continue.

Teachers participation will not only motivate the communicative atmosphere， but also it will at least， be regarded by the students as a good chance to practice English with someone who speaks it better than themselves.

The teachers control over the activities can help to run the class smoothly and efficiently. By controlling， apart from helping to produce accuracy， the teacher should also make sure that as many learners as possible participate in the class and that most errors are corrected.

The resource role implies that the student takes the initiative to come to the teacher and the teacher is ready to offer advice and counsel whenever the students seek it. He can be considered as a good convenient resource.

When teaching， the teacher often plays a role of a psychologist. He should treat each student equally so that the students receive a sense of security and produce cooperation. The teacher may also help the student analyze the cause of forgetting and find the tips of memory to solve the difficulty of memorizing words. Because English learners in china become anxious easily， the teacher should help the students to reduce their anxiety.

III. An English Teacher Should Have the Ability to Make Lesson Plans and Use Some Necessary Teaching Skills and Make Thorough and Effective Evaluation of His Lesson.

It is not enough for a good language teacher to know his own roles， he should play these roles very well in his real teaching practice， i.e. an English teacher should have higher ability of teaching before class， during class and after class; this is the core of a good language teacher.

The Teacher Should Get Some Necessary Information before Class; He Should Make Good Preparation for the Schedule， the Syllabus， the School， the Materials and the Students.

The teacher should know the principles of good lesson planning， i.e. variety， flexibility， and coherence.

Variety means a lesson plan should include a number of different types of activities and a wide selection of materials so that learning is always interesting for the students. Flexibility refers to the ability to use different techniques， materials and activities， and not be a slave to the lesson plan. A lesson plan is just possibilities for the lesson which may or may not come about. Coherence means that students can see a logical pattern in the lesson. Even if there are separate stages and different activities in a lesson， there has to be some connection between them， or at least a perceptible reason for changing direction.

Having made good lesson plan， in order to make his plan go smoothly， the teacher should have the ability to use some necessary teaching skills during the class.

Classroom management is the way teachers organize what goes on in the classroom. The goal of classroom management is to create an atmosphere conducive to interacting in English in meaningful ways. （Gebhard， 1996）

He should respect each learners right to contribute by allowing him adequate time to respond and recognize that mistakes are a natural part of the language learning process and that errors are to be learned from and not to be stigmatized.

The teacher should remember that students are people. They have feelings. They respond to love even when it is stern， but they react negatively to harshness and criticism. When you show genuine interest in your students， they will show interest in you and your teaching.

Good teaching also involves good questioning. Skillful questioning can arouse students curiosity， stimulate their imagination and evoke different levels of thinking process. It can also help to clarify concepts and problems related to the lesson.

According to Blooms taxonomy， there are six cognitive categories of questions―knowledge， comprehension， application， analysis， synthesis and evaluation.

Questions at the first level of Blooms taxonomy， knowledge， require the student to recall， describe， define， or recognize facts that have been learned previously.

Questions at the second level， comprehension， require some level of understanding of facts students have committed to memory.

During the learning process， it is not enough for students to be able to memorize information and to interpret the memorized information. They must also be able to apply what they have memorized to a problem， context， or environment， that is different from the one in which the information is learned. In this case， it is sometimes necessary for the teacher to ask application questions， which require students to apply previously learned information to reach an answer. These questions require to use previously learned facts and understanding to solve a problem.

Questions at the analysis level require students to break a problem into parts and to draw relationships among parts.

Synthesis questions require students to perform original and creative thinking.

Questions at the highest level of Blooms taxonomy， evaluation questions， require students to form judgments and to offer an opinion using stated criteria. Evaluation questions have the distinct quality of confronting students with real-life problems. In this respect， evaluation questions link classroom instruction to the real world.

Besides， it is vital for the teacher to realize that all students make mistakes as a natural and useful way of learning. By working out when and why things have gone wrong， they learn more about the language they are studying.After a teacher knows the reasons， then he could use different ways to correct students. Correction helps students to clarify their understanding of the meaning and construction of language.

Having finished his teaching， the teacher should have the ability to make thorough and effective evaluation of his lesson after class.

One way of getting feedback is to ask students simple questions such as “Did you like that exercise？ Did you find it useful？” And see what they say. But not all students will discuss topics like this openly in class. It may be better to ask them to write their answers down and hand them in.Another way of getting reactions to new techniques is to invite a colleague into the classroom and ask him or her to observe what happens and make suggestions afterwards. The lesson could also be videoed.

References：

[1]David Nunan. Second Language Teaching and Learning[M]. Foreign Language Teaching and Research Press，2001.

[2]David Nunan. Practical English Language Teaching[M]. Higher Education Press，2004.

[3]H.H Stern. Fundamental Concepts of Language Teaching[M]. Shanghai Foreign Language Education Press，1999.

[4]Jeremy Harmer. How to Teach English[M]. Foreign Language Teaching and Research Press，2001.

[5]Jim Scrivener. Learning Teaching[M]. Shanghai Foreign Language Education Press，2002.

【作者簡介】齊曉敬，北京市第八十中學棗營分校。