The Various Roles of the Teacher in the English Classroom

Seminar paper from the year 2011 in the subject Didactics - English - Pedagogy, Literature Studies, grade: 1,0, Technical University of Braunschweig (Englisches Seminar), course: Teaching English Grammar and/or Lexis, language: English, abstract: English as a world language is becoming more and more important in our culture, thereby affecting the English classroom and its participants. The whole process of teaching English has been changing during the last decades and so have the students. They already start learning their first foreign language at a primary school level and teachers have to be flexible to enable students to learn. Thereby teachers not only educate students what English is about and how it works, but also the usage of it and particularly communication skills. Every student has a different ability when learning a second language. Some grasp it easily and develop sympathy for it, others struggle and have difficulties which could lead to being demotivated and lack of interest. This leads to the question what an English teacher can and has to do, in order to teach students successfully. Nowadays teachers are supposed not only to educate, but also to create an suitable environment for learners. Therefore it is necessary to perform many different roles in the classroom to fully achieve the best learning development. Roles which have its own characteristics, work differently and have various aims. First, this leads to the question ¿what a role actually is¿ and I will give a short definition of it. Afterwards the various roles will be introduced and then described in detail. What are the characteristics of a role? What does it mean to perform it? Why is it necessary to do so? These questions will be answered later on. Finally, I will give a conclusion and a brief overview about the portrayed roles.