How To Be a Qualified English Teacher in Senior High School.doc

怎样做一个合格的高中英语教师how to be a qualified english teacher in senior high schoolcontentsabstract.1key words.1i. introduction.1ii. importance of english teachers.2iii. present situations of english teaching and the comments on english teachers.4 3.1 the english course and its aims.43.1.1 aims of the course.43.1.2 students background conditions.43.2 requirements for an english teacher.53.3 ways students benefit when they attend class53.4 advantages and disadvantages of native english teachers and chinese english teachers in english teaching.63.5 some of problems are encountered by chinese english teacher in teaching7iv. the standards of a good english teacher.74.1what makes a good english teacher?.74.2 good teachers never have enough time.9v. the way of being a good english teacher.105.1 how to become a good english teacher.105.2 other aspects.11vi. conclusion.12references12how to be a qualified english teacherin senior high school摘 要： 英语教师教学水平的高低直接的反应在所教的学生学习成绩和对英语的兴趣上，一个成功的英语教师必然有一套自己的独特的教学方法，一名合格的英语教师无论在生活中还是教学中总是扮演着一名特殊的角色，在教学过程中一名合格的英语教师不仅仅要会教课更需要利用自己的特长和语言表达来激发学生的学习兴趣。并且要学会如何鼓励学生，定期的做一些调查，以此来判定自己在平时表现的好坏，从学生的兴趣爱好入手，给每个学生制定不同的学习计划，等等。无论这些教师的年龄大小仍然是与他们的学生的相关的生活.这位教师应该有忍耐，信心，想象，热诚，幽默和创作力。 他/她应该是友好的，在精神上和实际中和学生打成一片，有一种肯定学生的态度，并且如果需要的话必须鼓励他的学生。只有做到了以上几点才算是一个合格高中英语教师。关键词：英语教师；学生；鼓励；abstract: students achievement and their interest in english can reflect english teachers level, a successful english teacher must have his/her own special teaching method. a qualified teacher always plays a particular role no matter in teaching or in life. a good english teacher are not only good at teaching, but also need make use of helpful conditions to stimulate students potential. teachers need to learn how to encourage students, make a survey to students frequently. teachers should make plans according to students interest. whatever their age, these teachers are still relevant to their students life. the teacher should have patience, confidence, imagination, enthusiasm, humor and creativity. he/she should be friendly, sympathetic and on good terms with the students, and have an affirmative attitude towards the students and occasionally encourage them if necessary.key words: english teacher; student; encouragement;i. introductionenglish is an important course for senior high school students in china. however, for a long time there has been a controversy about who should teach english, a native english speaker or a chinese teacher of english. undoubtedly, a good english teacher should be a good english speaker. many native english speakers have proven to be successful teachers in english classes in china. however, this does not necessarily mean a good english speaker is a good english teacher. apart from fluency and accuracy of the english language, a good english teacher must have a good grasp of the teaching syllabus, have a good understanding of the teaching objects (students), and have a good mastery of teaching techniques. to help chinese teachers of english gain confidence and do well in their english classes, it is necessary to objectively evaluate their advantages and disadvantages compared with native english speakers in english classes.ii. importance of english teachershistorically, it seemed there was no need for students to master the four skills of english (listening, speaking, reading, and writing) since china had a closed-door foreign policy and people seldom had the chance to talk with other english speakers. there was no demand for people with good spoken english. so, the teaching objective was not for students to be able to speak english, but for them to be able to pass the written exams and read some science and technology materials in english. most english textbooks were designed for these goals, and the exams were mainly focused on testing students reading comprehension and knowledge of english sentence structure and grammar. therefore, sentence structure and grammar seemed far more important than listening and speaking. the grammar-translation method served the purpose well. but why do both teachers and students take the exams so seriously? this has something to do with our examination system. following the example of the traditional chinese imperial examination system (an exam held to choose the top candidates to be high officials in the ancient government), a national college entrance examination is held once a year. those who want to go to universities and colleges have to sit the exams. passing the exams doesnt necessarily mean that a student gets the chance to receive a higher education; the student has to get very high marks. the higher the marks are, the more opportunities the student has. one mark less than the entrance mark means the student will lose the chance this year, or possibly forever. that explains to some degree why most teachers and students (in china and other countries of the world) are still teaching and studying english for the exams. they are neglecting the fact that a large number of qualified people with good oral english are needed now that china has a more open policy. among all the second-language-teaching methods, the grammar-translation method is the easiest for a teacher to employ. it doesnt require a teacher to speak good english or make good lesson preparations. all a teacher needs to do is to put english into chinese, word by word, sentence by sentence. the teacher doesnt need to prepare and use any other teaching tools except the textbook. the teacher is a translator rather than an instructor to the students. also, students find it much easier to understand english with the help of chinese. another reason for the dominance of the grammar-translation method is that there are not enough qualified english teachers. a qualified english teacher should not only be capable in all four skills, but also know how to work with the students so they learn to communicate with other english speakers. but quite a number of teachers, especially in the vast rural areas, only have a secondary school education. what they know about english is limited to some basic english grammar and vocabulary. they have very poor pronunciation and intonation, with a strong local accent, and they cannot speak english fluently. for them the grammar-translation method is the most acceptable because they can basically teach english in chinese. english teaching is comparatively new in our country and most english teachers, especially the more experienced ones, know little about the newer methodologies. quite often, ironically, it is those who cant teach english well who are chosen to teach the methodology courses. some teachers never hear about other teaching methods, only the grammar-translation method. changing the exam system is essential if we want the middle-school english teachers to move away from using the grammar-translation method and change from teaching for exams to training the students to use english as a communicative tool. more and more people have realized what a big burden the national college entrance exam has become. this is true not only for students and their parents, but also for each high school and its teachers since people judge a school only by how many of its students are enrolled into colleges and universities. more and more, experts plead for the exam system to be changed. to change the content of english exams would be a big step in english teaching reform. although a new set of middle school english textbooks, chiefly based on spoken english, has been used since 1992, many teachers still have to resort to the grammar-translation method because they dont want their students to fail the english exams based on grammar and sentence structure. we should cut down the percentage of grammar on the exam and put more emphasis on testing students listening and speaking abilities. with a change in testing, the teachers will have to change their methods. to train more qualified teachers is a key in the whole system. here qualified teachers refers to those with both the ability in the four skills and the knowledge of efficient teaching approaches to help students master the skills. you cannot expect a teacher who cannot speak english to teach english in english. the methodologies of teaching english should be a main course in our teacher training programs. this course should be taught by those who have knowledge of the various methodologies available. let the new teachers be fully prepared before their teaching career begins. if our students cant talk easily with other english speakers after studying the language for six to ten years, (six years in middle school and four years at college and university), we cannot say our teaching is successful. we may have wasted our students time by teaching them only grammar and teaching them english in chinese. china is developing fast and is badly in need of a competent cadre of english speakers. this is the same situation in many other countries of the world. overall reform in language education is the key, beginning with teacher training and including reform in testing, methodology, curricula, and materials. iii. present situations of english teaching and the comments on english teachers3.1 the english course and its aims3.1.1 aims of the courseby the end of the first scholastic year, students are expected to be able to carry on daily conversations in simple english, to ask and answer questions based on some reading or listening materials, and to talk briefly for about two minutes about the content of a text after one or two minutes prior preparation.by the end of the second year, students are expected to be able to carry on conversations with native english speakers not only about daily life but also about social issues. given some reading or listening material, they should be able to retell the content and discuss the topic for three to four minutes with one or two minutes preparation beforehand.3.1.2 students background conditionsby the time they have entered senior high school; chinese students have already had three years experience of studying english. however, they have been studying hard preparing for university entrance exams. so most of them, being accustomed to memorizing new words and expressions and paying attention to grammar points and language structures, find it hard to express themselves in oral english. on the other hand, they may find that the textbooks for oral english, which are largely full of dialogues and conversations, appear to be of little or no use to them, because they find few new words or expressions.3.2 requirements for an english teacherwhats needed for an english teacher? according to zhang shandongs description (zhang zhengdong: p320) of myrna delson-karans idea, in educational evaluation, the following items may be taken into consideration for the evaluation of a teacher of second language teaching.this includes the teachers ability to understand, to speak, to read and to write english; accuracy in pronunciation; knowledge of foreign customs, culture and cross-cultural communication; knowledge of linguistics and of the essence of language acquisition; and his/her ability to initiate, to sustain, and to close basic communicative tasks in an appropriate way. this includes the teachers ability to prepare a lesson plan focusing on the teaching aim and to work towards the aim with certain teaching strategies. the teacher should bear an open attitude towards foreign culture, share with students what he/she knows about how foreign culture differs from his/her own, and present them in teaching .this includes proper arrangement of seats, board, and time to fit for certain activities. this also includes the teachers ability to be clear in the classroom and to change modes of presentation and types of questions. the teacher is also supposed to be able to engage students in the learning process, to provide opportunities for feedback and to use group and individual activities so as to bring students initiative into full play.3.3 ways that students benefit when they attend classmost teachers would agree that class attendance facilitates learning in a variety of ways. the auditory presentation of material supplements reading assignments. multimedia classroom presentations, that provide an auditory/visual supplement to reading assignments, target a broader range of learning styles than textbooks alone. also, students who are in class hear discussion and elaboration of important concepts, including the teachers perspective on the material, and teachers often offer more current information than that found in the textbooks. in addition to learning from the teachers explanations of class material, students who are in class hear questions and commessroom generalize to other courses. also, regular class attendance requires discipline and time management. these tools are beneficial no matter what career path students follow. in a broader sense, attending class increases students personal interaction with a variety of faculty members, raising the likelihood of finding mentors and role models who can help guide their academic, career, and personal develonts from others, and share their own.teachers can use class discussion to enhance students critical thinking skills. they can ask them to explain the material in their own words, pose questions that require students to make connections between different elements of the class material, or challenge students to relate class material to other areas of psychology or to realms outside of the field. the more students examine and analyze material, the better their retention will be. in general, class attendance also influences course grades (buckalew, daly, & coffield, 1986; simpson & nist, 1992) and the development of academic skills (terenzini, theophilides, & lorang, 1984).the development of academic skills transfers to other realms. for example, to take quality notes, students must prioritize, organize, and synthesize the material being presented, and skills developed in one clapment.3.4 advantages and disadvantages of native english teachers and chinese english teachers in english teachingthe teacher should be an expert or at least should be able to do, with ease, whatever the students are expected to do. a native english speaker can certainly do whatever the students are asked to do him. and he/she knows everything about the english language and about the western culture. he/she can talk freely, which assures the chinese students as well as the chinese english teacher that the native english speaker is the only choice and the best candidate for teaching english. many native english students are successful english teachers. the reasons for their success may be summarized as follows: a native english speaker himself is foreign, new and different and thus interesting in every way to the student .he/she is the best model set for the students to learn the language he/she speaks and the culture he/she comes from. he/she gives the students a natural language environment as well as a chance to talk with a native speaker, which gives them a feeling of accomplishment when they can, by and large, get their ideas across to him. he/she can talk about his/her country, his/her life and everything that is new and interesting. so the students are interested in what he/she talks about. he/she is good at teaching, which is both a science and an art. he/she is able to discard those useless, less-than-effective things in the textbook. instead, they would talk about something useful, everyday affairs or current news, through which the students feel that they have acquired the ability to talk about them too. there are some other reasons that account for a native english students success in english class, e.g., the teachers personality- being humorous, friendly, etc.unfortunately, there have been cases in which native english students have turned out to be poor teachers in english classes because they have no teaching experience or teaching training. in these cases, the students may simply have some listening practice or gain little at all if the teacher speaks non-standard english or always speaks too fast for the students to comprehend.in comparison with native english students, a chinese english teacher in english classes may have some disadvantages in language proficiency and in familiarity with western culture. but having got a bachelors or even a masters degree of arts after four or seven years of postgraduate or graduate study of the english language, a chinese teacher, though a non-native english students, should understand how to teach english.its also possible for any chinese to learn about foreign culture through various ways. whether the teacher can succeed in english classes seems to be a question of whether he/she has proper psychological elements and knows the right way to manage the class.3.5 some of problems are encountered by chinese english teacher in teachinghe/she may find there are almost nothing new to the students in the textbooks, so he/she may wonder what to teach in class. he/she consults some information for something about foreign culture and brings it to the classroom, which really can arouse students interests of listening but changes the or