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!