Good Teacher

What makes a good foreign language teacher?
It is not a secret that teaching has a great role in our life. In our constantly changing world we have to get knowledge from everything: from people and things surrounding us, from different technologies, from our experience. But nothing of these can take the place of a teacher, who plays a great role in life of every person. During rather long period of time a teacher was an integral part of children’s life. He does not only impart the knowledge of the world, prepares children for everyday life but also influences their souls, teaches them to be honest, to be patient, to help each other, to respect each other. But who is a teacher? We usually think that a teacher especially if we speak of a female is a nervous persistent creature. And if we speak of a male, we are sure he is odd, absent-minded and very often not strongly built and healthy. But in the broadest sense, a teacher can be defined as someone who not only teaches or imparts knowledge, but also someone responsible for shaping the minds and hearts of all those whom they teach. Foreign language teachers have a lot of common qualities with the teachers of other subjects. Moreover such “ideal” teacher would posses personal qualities, technical abilities and professional understanding.
One must admit that the future of any student depends on the qualities and dedication of a teacher of foreign language or any other subject. That is why it is necessary to be a good teacher who will create an interest in students to achieve the aims they set for themselves.
But what qualities, features do make a teacher a good teacher? Speaking about it first of all we should touch teacher’s personal and professional qualities. The most important feature for both foreign language teacher and teacher of other subjects is to enjoy his profession and love children. If a teacher loves his profession and his students he is ready to devote themselves to such a hard work as being a teacher. A teacher who is full of love for his work is motivated, energized, and creative; he comes to place of work in high spirits, he is open and can share his positive emotions with the students.
The next most important concern is teacher’s eternal patience. A foreign language teacher must be patient. He must never be annoyed with students because they don't understand something. Not all children learn at the same pace and inevitably some will require special attention. However, giving up on these children is a mistake as they can usually succeed with encouragement and hard work.
It is a well-known fact that a good teacher must possess leadership qualities. He must have great confidence and strong will power to obtain the best results from his students.
A good sense of humour is another great tool that helps a teacher to simplify his task. I think that a good sense of humor can create a pleasant atmosphere where everyone knows they can ask questions, make mistakes or try out new ideas.
One more qualities of a good teacher which is necessary to mention is respect. It is very important to respect the students, their opinions, ideas, style of living, and attitude towards something. Having that respect for others gets you the respect back from others.
Endurance, tolerance, optimism, enthusiasm, objectiveness, amiable disposition are also in the first ranks of qualities of a good teacher. I think that all these characteristics are some kind of challenge for a person because it is not so easy to combine all of them. But as the future teachers we must make every effort in order to develop them because we are the future examples for younger generation.
Besides, a good foreign language teacher should possess certain professional knowledge. First of all he must know psychology of his children. It will help a teacher to have a certain way with the students, to involve them, to make the lessons more interesting and effective.
Without any doubt a good foreign language teacher must be knowledgeable in his subject, because he is an example for the pupils. He must know all the peculiarities of the language, its grammar, lexical structure perfectly well. The pronunciation of a good foreign language teacher must also be on a high level. In other words he must be a professional, a master of his skills.
Besides, a good teacher also must have the ability to analyze his work in order to see his mistakes, to find more effective and productive way of teaching.
But on the other hand, their social position of officially respected but badly paid specialists doesn’t allow them to occupy the desirable step on the social ladder. Unfortunately very often teachers don’t have an easy access to necessary scientific literature to improve their professional skills.
One more negative aspect of this profession is that they almost have no weekends, as their Monday is more likely to begin on Sunday, because some important preparations should be done. And young teachers are often not ready for the emotional impact and the amount of work coming down on the teacher.
To draw the conclusion, one can say that future teachers must remember that being a teacher is a great responsibility, because teachers are charged with children’s young souls. They must improve themselves in order to become good teachers, to acquire the qualities which will help to open children’s hearts, to become friends for them, to become examples for them to follow, to stay in their minds and hearts forever. One cannot deny that the experience the teachers get at school make a great influence on their attitudes to life and people.