THE LANGUAGE TEACHER’S ROLES AND
THE 21ST CENTURY CLASSROOM CHALLENGES
Luiza KRAFT, PhD
“Carol I” National Defense University
Bucharest, Romania
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Agenda
• Causes for teachers’ changed roles;
• A new kind of language teacher for the new teaching roles;
• Traditional professional qualities which are still being required;
• New professional qualities and competences;
• New roles and attitudes required from the 21st century language teacher;
• The increasing need for teacher training/development and professionalisation.
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What causes changed roles?
Different social, economic, political, strategic and cultural trends, e.g.
1) increasing internationalization of the economic activity;2) increased cross-cultural and cross-linguistic interaction
through tourism and virtual communication;3) increased mobility of labor;4) increased demand for modern languages as mediums
for everyday communication; 5) political decisions about the need for generalized
linguistic competence in at least one modern language, leading to:- multi-level teaching of target modern languages;- teaching of modern languages lower down the age range;
6) increased public interest in all professions including teaching.
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• Do we need a new kind of language teacher for the new teaching roles?
YES!
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• What kind of modern language teacher?
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• What traditional professional qualities are still being required?
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• proficiency in the target language (TL);
• knowledge of, and a positive attitude towards, the target culture;
• knowledge about language as a system and social construct, with particular reference to TL;
• knowledge of appropriate assessment techniques.
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New professional qualities
1. much more sophisticated and effective pedagogical skills;
2. much greater autonomy and self-direction in professional development;
3. greater ability to channel self-development through exploiting own professional practice;
4. sensitivity to pluricultural and multicultural issues and willingness to work in international programs;
5. ability to exploit and build on school and teaching experience.
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New qualities → new competences:
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Interculturalcommunication
skills
Computer literacy
Cultural literacy
Linguistic literacy
Critical literacy
Digital literacy
Scientific literacy
New competences
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New competences → new roles and attitudes
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Traditional roles of the foreign language teachers
• Experts in effective design and implementation of TL instruction and programs;
• Promoters of students’ cross-linguistic transfer;
• Developers of transferable learning strategies and academic skills.
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New roles:
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self-evaluator
evaluator
orchestrator
collaborator
designerof learning scenarios
researcher
(cultural) mediator
facilitator and guide
Teacher as
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Teachers as Cultural Mediators
• Today’s MELT teacher’s task is to “translate” or interpret new cultural learning to ease the military Ss’ adjustment to the multicultural environment in preparation for the current PSO’s worldwide;
• this also means that:• attention to specific cultural similarities and
differences in values, customs and traditions increases awareness of one’s own culture and the “new” culture;
• intercultural understanding and skills develop gradually along a continuum from “survival” to self-actualization.
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The need for teacher training/development
and professionalisation • practice-oriented training;• reflective practice, alongside with:
learner autonomy;
social and personal development;
intercultural competence.• reflective partnerships between teachers,
peer-mentoring, peer observation, peer teaching;
• team spirit and confidence.
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If you have questions,
I would be happy
to answer them!
Thank you very much
for your attention!