Becoming a Teacher. One Teacher = Many Roles

1. Controller - the person in control of class management.
2. Assessor – checking and deciding the method of giving feedback e.g. error correction.
3. A Resource – this is especially the case in developing countries, where there are limitations
4. Coach – encouraging class participation, especially for shyer students.
5. Tutor – in one-to-one teaching.
6. Organizer – instruction of students for activities and providing feedback.
7. Facilitator – for student interactive communication.
8. Counselor – solving any language learning problems.
9. An instructor – in the traditional sense on language points such as pronunciation, vocabulary or grammar.
10. A provider of experiences – in order for students to practice the four skills they require, as many language examples as possible are needed.
11. A model – particularly for pronunciation.
12. A motivator – balancing activities to achieve language targets and student interest.
13. An authority – students rely heavily on teacher pronouncements and so generalizations should be avoided/explained as such.
14. An arbiter – balancing fluency with accuracy in assessing error correction.
15. An examiner – continuous monitoring and testing.
16. A disciplinarian – essential to maintain class control.
17. A balancer – a sliding scale which constantly changes.
18. A mentor – giving language insight to another culture.
19. A prompter – without taking away the initiative from the student e.g. role-play activity vocabulary support.
20. A participant – e.g. discussion.
21. A performer – with suitable behavior according to the activity being undertaken.
22. Rapport builder – recognizing, listening to, respecting and being even-handed with students, in a professional manner.