The document discusses the various roles of an English language teacher, including being an actor, orchestrator, gardener, controller, organizer, assessor, prompter, participant, resource, tutor, observer, and provider of comprehensible input. It also covers how teachers should perform in different classroom activities and how they can use mime, gestures, language models, and materials to aid teaching. The key roles revolve around directing lessons, giving feedback, supporting students, and providing comprehensible language input.

1. The practice of ENGLISH LANGUAGE TEACHING
by Jeremy Harmer
Subject: Practice II, Didactics of ELT.
Year: 2018
Teacher: Estela Braun
Teacher Assistants: Vanesa Cabral and María Luján Ramos
Members: Paola Nieto and Lucrecia Corral.

2. What is a teacher?
ACTORS: “We are always on the stage”
ORCHESTRAL: “because we direct conversation
and set the pace and tone”
GARDENERS: “because we plant the seeds and
then watch them grow”

3. ❏ “Teaching” means to give (someone)
knowledge or to instruct or train
(someone)
❏ “show somebody how
to do something” or
to “change somebody’s
ideas”

4. Teachers and learners
“Learner-centred teaching”
“Teacher-fronting”

5. The roles of a teacher
Controller
❖ Take the roll
❖ Tell students things
❖ Organise drills
❖ Read aloud
❖ Exemplify the qualities of a teacher-
fronted classroom.

6. Organiser
Engage instruct
(demonstrate)
initiate
organise
feedback.

7. Assessor
★ Offering feedback on performance.
★ Handing out grades.
★ Saying whether students can pass to the
next level.
★ FAIRNESS: Being sensitive to the students’
reactions and make a bad grade more
acceptable.

8. Prompter
To “nudge” students forward
in a discreet and supportive way
when they lose the thread of what
is going on.
● Neither too adamant nor too
retiring.

9. Participant
➔ Join in activities
not as teachers, but as
as a participants.
➔ Students enjoy
having the teacher
with them.
➔ For the teacher, participating is more
enjoyable than acting as a resource.

10. Resource
❖ No teacher knows everything about the
language!
● To offer guidance.
● To direct students to a good dictionary.
● To be helpful and available but avoid
student’s over-reliance.

11. Tutor
★ A combination of the prompter and resource
roles
★ Stay briefly with each group or individual
★ Help every single student to
avoid feeling aggrieved

12. ★ Pupils will feel supported and helped
★ Class atmosphere will be enhanced
★ Don’t intrude either too much or too little

13. Observer
❏ Give group and individual feedback
❏ Take down notes about what they get wrong
and right
❏ Work, observe, listen
and watch simultaneously
❏ Create the best kind
of rapport

14. Which role?
➔ It depends on the context
➔ We should switch between the various roles

15. The teacher as performer
● A transmissive and teacher-centred behaviour
● Performance styles depend on the situation
ACTIVITY HOW TEACHERS SHOULD PERFORM
1) Team game energetically, encouragingly, clearly, fairly
2) Role-play clearly, encouragingly, retiringly, supportively
3) Teacher reading aloud commandingly, dramatically, interestingly
4) Whole-class listening efficiently, clearly, supportively

16. The teacher as teaching aid
We are useful when using:
➢ Mime and gesture
➢ Language models
➢ Providers of comprehensible
input

17. Mime and gesture
❖ Are used to convey meaning and atmosphere
❖ Exaggeration makes their
meaning explicit
❖ Do not have universal meanings
❖ Should be used with care

18. Language model
➢ Textbooks, reading materials, audio, videotapes
and teachers
➢ Reading aloud→ motivation,
enjoyment,
imagination and mood

19. Provider of comprehensible input
★ Student-talking time vs teacher-talking time
★ Vital ingredient: exposure to any language
★ Teachers give comprehensible input
★ Reading materials, listenings
also provide comprehensible input