It’s good
to remember that the more successful English teacher is likely to be
better endowed than many of his colleagues with:
- energy
- acting talent
- artistic imagination and skill
- patience and kindness
- organising ability
- powers of reflection and self-criticism, etc.
STILL, the
indispensable constituents which will always make a successful
teacher are connected with three crucially important components of
the foreign language teacher behaviour:
- knowledge of language use
- knowledge of language analysis
- knowledge of language teaching.
To these
three, an overarching concept should be added: reflective
practice.
Reflection as Exercise
If there are
qualities which distinguish the outstanding teacher from the
competent one (congruence, prizing, empathy), to what extent can
these qualities be trained or developed?