Teachers and students'''' perceptions of a good teacher of English

Vietnam national university University of languages and international studies FACULTY OF POST – GRADUATE STUDIES DIÊM THI ̣HẢO TÂM M.A MINOR THESIS TEACHERS AND STUDENTS’ PERCEPTIONS OF A GOOD TEACHER OF ENGLISH (Nhận thức giáo viên sinh viên người giáo viên tiếng Anh tốt) Field: English teaching methodology Code: 60 14 10 Supervisor: Nguyễn Minh Huê,̣ M.A Hanoi, 2010 TABLES OF CONTENTS PART A: INTRODUCTION Statement of the problem and rationale for the study…………………………… Research aims and questions……………………………………………………… Significance of the study………………………………………………………… Chapter arrangements PART B : DEVELOPMENT CHAPTER I: LITERATURE REVIEW I.1 Introduction……………………………………………………………………… I.2 Definition of a good teacher …………………………………………………… II.2.1 General views about a good teacher………………………………… II.2.2 Specific attributes of a good teacher ………………………………… 10 I.3 General views and specific attributes of a good English teacher ……………… 10 II.3.1 General views about a good English teacher………………………… 11 II.3.2 Specific attributes of a good English teacher……………………… 14 II.3.3 Perceptions of students and teachers on a good language teacher…… 17 I.4 Studies on teachers and students‟ perceptions of a good teacher of English …… 17 I Summary……………………………………………………………………… CHAPTER II: METHODOLOGY 19 II.1 Research context……………………………………………………………… 19 II.2 Participants……………………………………………………………………… 19 - Teachers……………………………………………………………………………… 19 - Students……………………………………………………………………………… 20 II.3 Data collection methods and procedures ……………………………………… 20 II.3.1 Questionnaires 21 II.3.2 Interview 21 II.4 Data analysis CHAPTER III: RESULTS AND DISCUSSION 22 III.1 Introduction…………………………………………………………………… III.2 Teachers and students‟ perceptions of the personal qualities of a good teacher of English………………………………………………………………………….… 22 III.3 Teachers and students‟ perceptions of professional development and academic 23 requirement for a good teacher of English …………………………………………… 26 III.4 Teachers and students‟ perceptions of the roles of a good teacher of English… 31 III.5 Teachers and students‟ perceptions of the importance of classroom practices… 34 III Summary……………………………………………………………………… PART C: CONCLUSIONS 36 Summary of the findings ……………………………………………………… 36 Implications …………………………………………………………………… 38 Limitations and recommendations for further research……………………… 38 Conclusion…………………………………………………………………… REFERENCES APPENDICES LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS ESL: English as a second language GED: General Educational Development CLT: Communicative language teaching ESP: English for special purpose Q 1: Question LIST OF TABLES AND CHARTS Chart : Teachers and students‟ perceptions of the personal qualities 23 Table 1: Teachers and students‟ perceptions of professional development and academic requirement 24 Table 2: Teachers and students‟ perceptions about roles of a language teacher 26 Table 3: Teachers and students‟ perceptions of the importance of classroom practices 31 PART A: INTRODUCTION Statement of the problem and rationale for the study A question that many teachers often ask is: I like my job, and I love the students, but how can I become a good language teacher? The answer is not easy It is clear that whether someone can become a good foreign language teacher does not solely depend on his /her command of the language Some linguists assume that those who are engaged in language teaching profession have the burden of keeping up-to-date, not only with the language which is taught but ever changing learner needs and profiles as well (Kayhan, 1999) According to Schrier (1994), along with subject matter knowledge, professional good foreign language teachers must also have “the ability to reflect, analyze critically, select the tools and materials of teaching, and evaluate the products and performance of the learners” (p.220) Wing (1995) emphasized that today‟s language teachers are expected to have multiple roles along with target language competence: ‘In structuring the foreign language environment, the teacher needs to be a manager who facilitates language acquisition; a resource developer who uses to the greatest advantage the target and native languages, materials, and technology; an analyst who observes and evaluates what is happening in the classroom (p.168).‟ Cross (1995) identified several ingredients of an ideal language teacher According to him, an ideal language teacher should have high level of education, subject matter competence, professional competence which involves lesson planning, textbook selection, materials and tests design, awareness of current teaching approaches, and educational theory According to Williams (1975), in order to teach the language effectively, a teacher needs two major competencies as well as having excellent knowledge of the target language s/he is teaching, s/he should have teaching skills to apply in the classroom According to Williams‟ argument, a language teacher should have a good blend of target language knowledge on the one hand and skills to present and teach the target language to the students on the other As a language teacher, it is necessary to know what a good English teacher is Needless to say, knowing how to be a good English teacher can improve the qualities of teaching and help students learn English effectively and efficiently Teacher‟s personalities and teaching methodologies will affect how students learn Moreover, Jersild (1955) says that the teacher‟s understanding and acceptance of himself are the most important requirement in any effort he makes to help students to know themselves and to gain healthy attitudes of self-acceptance This study is conducted with the aim to find out the perceptions of students and teachers of good teachers of English By means of survey research based on questionnaires and interviews completed by students and teachers, I try to define the characteristics of a good English teacher both from teachers and students‟ point of view I hope that the views from the participants are essential as a whole picture of teaching and learning language activities Though students‟ perceptions instead of actions were the main focus in the present study, it may be that people cannot implicitly understand the problems or the factors of hindrance without looking at the whole picture from students and teachers Therefore, I would like to find out the differences between teachers‟ and students‟ perceptions in order to improve the quality of language teaching Research aims and questions This study is carried out to: a to investigate teachers‟ and students‟ perceptions of a good teacher of English b To find out the differences between teachers and students of a teacher of English In order to achieve these aims, the study seeks to answer the following research questions: 1.What are the perceptions of “a good teacher of English” held by students and teachers of English at Haiduong Medical Technical University? What are the commonalities and differences between the teachers‟ and students‟ perceptions of a good teacher of English? Significance of the study English as a second language (ESL) teachers often encounter student resistance to some of their activities Some students want more opportunities for free conversation while others complain about the pattern drill When language teachers fail to meet student expectations, students can lose confidence or interests in the teacher and their ultimate achievement can be limited It is true that teacher‟s performance have a strong impact on the students‟ ultimate success in language learning Due to this reason, I decided to carry out this study in order to explore a whole picture of what a good English teacher is, both 10 perceptions of teachers and students are crucial in this study The students in the study might have similar perceptions or very different perceptions from the English teachers Thus, looking for ways to use insights from the research might help English teachers understand what to expect from students, or it might give teachers ideas for tasks, assignments or assessment Chapter arrangements The minor thesis consists of six chapters The first chapter includes a statement of the problem and rationale for the study, the aims, significance of the study as well as chapter arrangement of the study The second chapter includes five parts The first part is introduction, the second part is definition of a good teacher, the third is qualities of a good English teacher, the following part is studies on teachers‟ and students‟ perceptions of a good teacher of English and the last one is research questions The third chapter is research method: part one is research context, part two is participants, part three is data collection instrument and procedures and part four is data analysis In chapter four, the researcher shows results and discussion about findings Chapter five gives some implications The last chapter is about limitations and conclusions of the study 11 PART B: DEVELOPMENT CHAPTER I: LITERATURE REVIEW I.1 Introduction In a study with 200 foreign language teachers teaching English, French, Arabic, Brosh (1996) identified the perceived characteristics of effective language teachers According to the results of this study, desirable characteristics of effective language teachers include: knowledge and command of the target language, the ability to organize, explain, and clarify, and the ability to arouse and sustain interest and motivation among students Many language teachers have the same point with Hammadou and Bernhardt (1987): “Language teachers differ from other teachers in that they not teach a ‘factual product’ but rather a process of communication and that they may lose the use of the process if they themselves not use it on a regular basis” (p 302) Included in many factors that directly influence the success of language teachers are also conditions such as: teaching resources, administrative support, and physical facilities in schools where teachers work (Crookes, 1997) In order to keep up with such a demanding profession foreign language teachers need be in the development of professional competence, which is the state or quality of being adequately qualified for the profession, and armed with a specific range of skills, strategies, knowledge, and ability Moreover, they have to try their best to become a good language teacher A question is raised that how can one become a good language teacher? And to answer this question each language teacher has to understand definitions and characteristics of a good language teacher, which are mentioned in the following parts I.2 Definition of a good teacher What is a good teacher? What characteristics should a good teacher possess? What makes good teachers better than others? Buskist et al.‟s (2002) study on students‟ perceptions on what qualities “master” teachers possess produced a list of 28 traits Such qualities as knowledgeable, wellorganized, hardworking were all featured in the list However, it is interesting to note that more than half qualities in the list were interpersonal in nature Furthermore, the five most valued characteristics were: understanding, personable, respectful, happy, and caring A good language teacher should conduct interesting classes, emphasize 12 good pronunciation, give clear explanation, have a good knowledge of the target language, have no favouritism, try to involve the students into the classroom activities, and be patient He/she should be friendly, prepares good notes, can tell jokes, plays games with the students, treats the weak learners well, and acts like a comedian A good teacher should be able to explain lessons clearly and arouse students‟ interest All responsible English teachers have ethic devotion, and they are supposed to make their personal styles compatible with their work These two aspects, which are beyond the scope of this book, can be achieved as long as the teacher himself has the willingness to so Moreover, he/ she should be kind, responsible and establish good relationship with students This review is aimed at finding out the perception and qualities of a good teacher from different perspectives I.2.1 General views about a good teacher For a teacher, years of teaching experience and knowledge of teaching methods not guarantee effective teaching Teachers should constantly look for ways to develop themselves professionally and sharpen their teaching skills along with the subject matter : "One who teaches effectively, teaches not only his subject but himself Personality is that part of the teacher's self which he/she projects into every classroom activity, thereby affecting and conditioning every learning situation" Penner (1992: p.45) A language teacher's professional competence is much more difficult than a driver's skill to handle a car, and is more complicated than student's competence of speaking a foreign language It involves more factors and longer learning time, and may never be really finished Good teachers must posses a number of approaches and patterns of working and the flexibility to call on several different strategies in the space of one lesson Sound planning and skilful management are needed to blend class, group and individual work to provide a wide range of learning activities, to observe, to solve problems, to offer explanations and to apply skills and ideas Regarding the communication, it means the quality of interest in other people, especially students and being able to demonstrate that interest through ideas and stories, as well as through shared values Many students were asked to give expected characteristics from their teachers; they said that they wished their teachers to have some qualities as follows: - They must be passionate about teaching, and patient, adapting to the level of the students - A good teacher must be strict, friendly, interesting” “should be passionate and intelligent” - They should not rely on the course book only 13 feedback, etc However, some differences are found through this survey For the teachers, they agreed that all the characteristics are necessary and important For the students they also consider them important, but they give their responses according to real situations, which are happening in their class So, we sometimes find that students are not very satisfied with the teaching methodology of their teachers or with the effectiveness of the teachers‟ motivation 43 PART C: CONCLUSIONS Summary of the findings The study has highlighted some important characteristics of a good language teacher Most of the students and the teachers agreed that it is important for a good language teacher to possess some necessary characteristics such as patience, good communication skills, language proficiency, etc Besides, a good language teacher has to build students‟ confidence, understand what students need to learn, create a good atmosphere and be flexible to apply variety of teaching techniques Moreover, unlike teachers of other subjects, a good language teacher has to balance all activities in class and especially they need know what to to encourage students to communicate in English However, through the collected results we find some differences between the teachers and the students on perceptions of a good language teacher The teachers say that it is very important to encourage students to speak with praises and rewards, understand students‟ needs and difficulties and motivate students to interact each other by working in pairs, groups or playing roles However, many of the students reported that these characteristics are not very important or even not important because they assumed that their teachers not perform these activities effectively and some activities are not applied in classroom practices Implications The findings of the present study have clear implications for teachers and students inside or outside the classroom at schools The picture of the present study obviously tells us of the expectations that students hold for English teachers Although using the questionnaires and interviews is only able to explore teachers‟ and students‟ perceptions of their general ideas on a good language teacher rather than determine whether the teachers have acquired such qualities as good English teachers or put the good language teaching methodologies in actual practice, the study provides valuable information that can assist in improving and developing teacher education programs and activities English teachers may have considerable insight to tribute to their teaching profession By looking at how the students perceives a good English teacher, teachers can have well- developed lessons and well-established language teaching methodologies, which help students acquire a second language in an effective and encouraging way 44 The ultimate purpose of studying students‟ and teachers‟ perceptions of good English teacher is, of course, an applied one; teachers hope to determine which strategies are most effective and help students adopt more productive leaning procedures When teachers have researched what a good English teacher is in the eyes of the students more thoroughly they will be able to incorporate teaching strategies into their teaching methodology, what the students and teachers said about a good English teacher has implications for teachers of a second language When teaching speaking skill, if teachers want students to participate into this activity effectively, the teachers should remember that students need to know exactly how an activity is done, otherwise they will be out of control when the activity starts So, a good language teacher should:  Model the activity with one of your best students so everyone can see what they need to and start with a simple, mechanical activity, then continue with something more meaningful, and finish with a communicative activity  Design interesting activities suitable to students‟ ability  Give students more time to work in pair and in group  Create a natural and free speaking environment  Establish close and friendly relationship with students  Give more compliments, encourage than criticism Besides, a good language teacher accepts students‟ mistakes and must be willing to correct them with suitable methods until the problem becomes really clear Teachers remember that they are never angry or scold and criticize their students whenever they make mistakes in class activities While interviewing with question (what should a good language teacher to motivate students to participate in classroom activities?) the researcher received many ideas as implications for language teachers: “at first, teachers have to relieve anxiety from students” (teacher 2), “we will study better if we have good atmosphere” (student 2), “teachers can use various techniques to motivate such as video, music, pictures, games, etc.” (Student 5) “Praising and rewarding are very important for each student because we will feel more self-confident” (student 10) Though teachers have to take their responsibilities in improving the quality of teaching, students should also take more ownership of their own learning Perhaps they are 45 expecting too much contribution from their teachers and too little from themselves For example, they have to more actively participate in activities given by the teacher Students also have their own responsibilities in improving their attitude toward learning English in order to become an effective and successful language learner All in all, language teachers have to face the challenge in any school situation, they should be equipped with as great a repertoire of methods, learning activities and relationship skills as possible Limitations and recommendations for further research Although the study has found some important findings, like many other studies, there are some limitations There will be some limitations in the methodology The research design, especially content analysis, is limited by some constraints Sometimes the materials involved are unrepresentative for analysis to have a chance of producing valid results By asking the participants of two classes, some invaluable information has been obtained to show the essential attributes constituting a good English teacher However, the findings are limited and cannot represent a true and full picture of a good language teacher There is limitation in generalisability, the participants, teachers and the students, are all from Haiduong Medical Technical University So, the findings might not have high applicability to other contexts Moreover, the students are non-major English ones, so their responses are not representative of English majors In order to help students of all levels and subjects study effectively and teachers improve their teaching method better in all subjects, the researcher hopes that there will be further studies to investigate perceptions of good teachers of English This will help improving the teaching quality Conclusion In conclusion, the present study, though at the preliminary level, has not only helped us to recognize necessary characteristics, but also provided insightful information about the teachers and students‟ perceptions of a good English teacher From that we could make a comparison and found that there were many similarities on perceptions of a good English teacher between the teachers and the students For example, both agreed that a good English teacher had to possess great patience, a good communication skill, fluency in his/her foreign language, understanding student‟s needs and interests, etc However, we 46 found a lot of different perceptions of these two kinds of respondents The teachers said that it was very important to stimulate students, realize students‟ interests, needs and difficulties or encourage students with praises and rewards, but the students assumed that these activities were not very importance To find out the explanation for all these differences, the researcher carried out many interviews and discovered the reason that teachers had not applied their methods of motivating effectively So, we always look forwards to active teaching methods from their teachers Obviously, when the gap of perceptions between teachers and students is narrowed, the students will me more motivated and the effectiveness of language teaching will be considerably increased 47 REFERENCES Altman, H.B (1981) What is Second language teaching In the Second language Classroom: Direction for the 1980s.ed.J.E Alatis, H.B , Altman and P.M Alatis Oxford University Press Askoy,N (1998) Opinions of Upper Elementary Students about “good teachers” Paper presented at the Annual Meeting of the Northeastern Education Research Association (29th, Ellenville, NY October, p.p 28-30) Brosh, H (1996) Perceived characteristics of the effective language teacher Foreign Language Annals, 29, 125–138 Brown,H.D (1994) Principles of language learning and teaching Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice Hall Regents Buskist, W., Sikorski, J., Buckley, T., & Saville, B K (2002) Elements of Master Teaching In S F Davis & W Buskist (Eds.), The teaching of psychology: Essays in honor of Wilbert J McKeachie and Charles L Brewer (p.p 27­39) Mahwah, NJ: Erlbaum Carroll,J.B (1977) Characteristics of successful Second Language learners‟ in Viewpoints on English as a Second language, Burt,M., Dulay, H., and Finocchiaro,M.(Eds) Variables in second language learning Regents Publishing Company, INC Cortazzi, M., & Jin, L (1996) Cultures of learning: language classrooms in China In H Coleman (Ed.), Society and the language classroom (pp 169­206) Cambridge: Cambridge University Press Crookes, G (1997) What influences what and how second and foreign 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The Modern Language Journal, 21, 67-79 Cross, D (1995) Language teacher preparation in developing countries: Structuring preservice teacher training programs English Teaching Forum, 6, 34-36 10 Girard, D (1977) Motivation: The responsibility of the teacher ELT Journal 31, 97– 102 11 Gorham, J.K (1987) Sixth Grade students‟ perceptions of a good teacher Research Report ED 359164 12 Hammadou, J & Bernhardt, E.(1987) On being and becoming a foreign language teacher Theory into Practice, 26, 301-306 48 13 Kottler, J.A., and Zehm, S.J (2000) On being a teacher The Human Dimension Thousand Oaks, CA: Corwin 14 Kutnick & Jules (1993) Pupils‟ perceptions of a good teacher: a developmental perspective from Trinidad and Tobago British Journal of Educational psychology, 63, p.p 400 – 413 15 Jersild, A.T (1955) When teachers face themselves J.C Columbia, N.Y 16 Long, M.H (1983) Native speaker /Non-native speaker Conversation in the Second Language Classroom In M.A Clarke and J Handscombe (eds.) Pacific perspectives on language learning on TESOL‟ 82 Washington, D.C: TESOL 17 Penner, J (1992) Why many college teachers cannot lecture? IL: Charles C: Thomas 18 Prodromou, L 1991: The Good Language Teacher English Teaching Forum, 29(2): 2-7 19 Richards, J.C., Tung, P., and Ng, P (1992) The culture of the English language teacher: a Hongkong example RELC journal, 23, p.p 81-102 20 Riddell, D (2001) Teaching English as a Foreign/ Second language Hodder & Stoughton Limited 21 Rubin, J (1995) A guide for the teaching of second language listening Learning processes and learner strategies in Research within Research II: research- guided responses to the concerns of foreign language teachers, eds Galloway, V and Herron, C (1995) Southern Conference on Language teaching 22 Sanderson, D (1983) Modern Language Teachers in Action: A Report on Classroom Practice York: Language Materials Development Unit of the University of York 23 Scrivener, J (1994) Learning Teaching Oxford: Oxford University Press 24 Urmston, A., Pennington, M.C & Brock, M.N (1996) Attitudes towards teaching English of BATESL students: a comparison of beginning and graduating Cohorts Research Monograph No.9 Hongkong: Department of English, City University of Hongkong 25 Vernon, P.E (1953) The Psychological traits of teachers, in King- Hall, R., Hans, N., & Lauwerys, J.A., The year book of education, Evans Bros 26 Williams, W (1975) The training teachers of English as a foreign language English Language Teaching Journal, 29, 107-115 27 Wing, B., (1995) The pedagogical imperative in foreign language teacher education In G Guntermann (Ed.), Developing language teachers for a changing world (pp.159- 49 170) Illinois: National Textbook Company Retrieved 28 Wright, T (1987) Roles of teachers & learners Oxford University Press 29 Yamoor, K.Y (1985) A study of attitudes in second language learning University Microfilms International 30 Yorio, C (1989) The other side of the looking glass Journal of Basic Writing, 8(1), 3245 50 51 APPENDIX INTERVIEW QUESTIONS How long have you taught English? What can you say something about English of your students? What the teachers in your department often to help students to overcome the difficulties? Do you think what characteristics a language teacher should have? What you think is the most important characteristic of a good English teacher? Why? What should a language teacher to motivate students to participate in classroom activities? 52 53 SURVEY QUESTIONNAIRE (Completed by the teachers) I am interested in researching the students and teachers‟ perceptions of a good language teacher Your participation in this survey will help me to complete my MA thesis at Vietnamese National University Please kindly spare a few minutes of your time to fill out this questionnaire Your responses to this questionnaire will be treated with utmost confidence Thank you for your cooperation Very important A good language teacher should : Personal Qualities & personalities Professional Development & Academic requirement Role of a language teacher need to have great patience and sense of humor need to have good communication skills need to have fluency and up-to-date information/ changes in a foreign language be able to be flexible and vary techniques according to students‟ level and the teaching/learning situations be able to make/ stimulate students to interact/communicate with each other through pair /group work/roles play /simulations etc be able to plan the lessons clearly be able to state the objectives of the lessons clearly be able to offer a good model as the target language user be able to provide students with appropriate correction and feedback be able to build students‟ confidence be able to realize students‟ needs, interests as well as individual differences 54 Important Not very important Not important Classroom practices be able to create good classroom atmosphere be able to manage, balance language classroom activities be able to encourage students to speak English with praises/ rewards Be able to explain vocabulary and grammar clearly 55 PHIẾU ĐIỀU TRA NGHIÊN CỨU (DÀNH CHO NGƯỜI HỌC) Bảng câu hỏi nhằm phục vụ đề tài nghiên cứu nhận thức giáo viên sinh viên người giáo viên ngoại ngữ tốt Câu trả lời mà bạn cung cấp quan trọng cơng trình nghiên cứu Các liệu điều tra sử dụng cho việc nghiên cứu, khơng nhằm mục đích khác Rấ t quan tro ̣ng Quan tro ̣ng Không quan tro ̣ng lắ m A good language teacher should : Phẩ m chấ t và tính cách Đòi hỏi chuyên môn và phát triển nghề nghiệp Vai trò của người giáo viên ngoa ̣i ngữ Hoạt động lớp học phải có kiên nhẫn hài hước Cầ n phải có khả giao tiế p tố t Cầ n phải có sự thành tha ̣o cũng khả câ ̣p nhâ ̣t thông tin cho ngôn ngữ mình sử du ̣ng phải linh hoạt áp dụng nhiều phương pháp khác theo trình độ hồn cảnh người học phải khuyến khích người học giao tiếp với bằ ng những hoa ̣t đô ̣ng làm viê ̣c theo că ̣p, theo nhóm, đố ng vai, v.v… Phải đưa kế hoạch giảng rõ ràng phải đưa mục tiêu giảng cách rõ ràng phải nói, phát âm ngoại ngữ cách trơi chảy xác phải tiếp nhận lỗi sai người học có ý kiế n phản hồ i mô ̣t cách hơ ̣p lý phải biết nhu cầu sở thích từng người học phải có mối quan hệ tốt cũng quan tâm đến người học phải tạo khơng khí lớp học tốt 56 Khôngquan tro ̣ng phải quản lý cân họat động lớp ngoại ngữ phải biết dùng lời khen hoặc phần thưởng để khuyế n khích đươ ̣c người học nói ngôn ngữ học phải giải thích từ vựng ngữ pháp cách rõ ràng 57