Attributes of an English Teacher

李菲

1.Introduction

A series of qualities to be a good teacher should be a continuous process， even whole life learning. this paper has a superficial analysis according to personal understanding of this topic.

2.Personal attributes and abilities

General speaking， teacher should be professional and educator. The standard of profession and education are different form different countries. So those are difficulty to get an explicit definition， but now， the mostly accept by the public is： Profession， an occupation requiring advanced education and training and involving intellectual skills and teacher is one of it. Education， the process of training and developing the knowledge， skill， mind， character， etc. Especially by formal schooling.

Meanwhile， there are also some other qualities， Morality； intellectual skills； communication skills； personality characteristics； habits of work； mechanical skills and so on. Form above， morality is the first principle we need to follow. Exactly， morality is the basic principle for human beings. Of course， the teachers are one kind of groups between them. We live in this society should be abide by a kind of rules. And owning to these kinds of rules， the world can be organized and there is the need of education， most important， there is teaching， and teachers. Intellectual skills are consist of many elements， to me， curiosity， imagination and a good memory are the outstanding qualities I want to give a future analysis in the paper. I think， curiosity and imagination have a close connection. When the teacher confronts with difficulties， intensive motivation may drive us to conquer them bravely， or even to search out some special methods to deal them. Personally， a kind of strong motivation could be equal to love-heart towards teaching. “Love” can overcome any difficulties， at the same time， “love” make teachers more patient， no matter on work， or to the students.

3.Study plan to gain the success

It includes two parts： educational and professional.

一、Educational

（1）Listening： It is no doubt that listening is one of the important abilities. If you dont know what they are talking about， you totally cant communicate with them. As a good teacher， listening is also very important. Only if you are good at listening yourself， can you teach your students well.

（2）Speaking： It is common for us Chinese people that we are good at listening， reading and writing， but it is hard for us to speak English. Why？ The main reason may be that we dont have good environment to practice our oral English. So， our English teachers should provide students more chances to speak English in class.

（3）Reading： It seems that reading is a very easy thing for us English majors. In fact， reading is also very hard. We need to remember many English words and know the sentence patterns.

（4）Writing： an old saying---“the character is stand for a person” shows how important the character it is. We will have a great impression on the people who have a neat and tidy character. As a teacher， hand writing and blackboard writing are two kinds of indispensable methods to convey knowledge. During the class， a beautiful blackboard writing makes the learners are comfortable， and prefer to learning.

（5）Solid professional major knowledge： this ability refers to understand of the subject target； to know the development of the country； master of the vocabulary， phrase； usage of grammar….

二、Professional

（1） Upgrading of knowledge： as a modern teacher， the system knowledge of learners are different from the old ones in all aspects， the traditional pedagogies are not suitable anymore， especially the updated knowledge in the recent times. And the teaching materials are also changed every several years， what I need to do is continuous learning. Develop the habit of reading every day， enrich myself， purify the mind， and keep a curiosity heart.

（2） An agreed theoretical and empirical base： there is no clear definition about what kind of person can be the profession， but one principle is accepted by the commons that is an agreed theoretical and empirical base. Maybe， this ability will cost me a long time to attain， but I will try. For now， I could observe the teaching experience form my teacher. I can learn the syllabus they did， as an experienced English teacher， their syllabus will be more orderliness and lucid， this is short way for me to get a great progress in a short time. And during my part-time job as a teacher， I will design a syllabus myself， and then compare it with my teachers. In this way I think I will do it better and better.

（3） Put research into the practice： it is a little difficult for me to do a research now， let it alone put it into the reality. As a student， I could lay a foundation for the future study： nursing a sensitive feeling and keen observation about the surroundings， find out problems， develop a thinking-mind.

4. Conclusion

To be a qualified teacher is a long way to go. This paper is just a superficial analysis and a personal study plan about it. With the systematic learning about this topic I hope I can have a profound research in future.

Reference：

[1] Freman. R.& J.C. Richards. 1996. Teacher Learning in language Teaching[C]. Shanghai： Shanghai Foreign Language Education Press.

[2] 陳向明. 實踐性知識：教師專業發展的知識基礎[J]. 北京大學教育評論，2003年第一卷第一期

[3] 管培俊. 關于教師教育發展的十個觀點[J]. 教師教育研究，2004，（4）