Teachers

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Your teachers, no less than you and your classmates, have personal styles, needs, fears, and motivations that affect their effectiveness and the quality of their relations with you. Their work is made more complicated by the fact that they usually act as group leaders as well as teaching.

 

The teacher contributes to the alliance by building a “frame” that promotes a sense of safety. Reliability, stability of time and place, and maintenance of appropriate interpersonal boundaries are parts of that frame. The student participates by becoming open to learning, and admitting flaws and lacks in the safe place the

effective teacher provides. Fortunately, teachers, teacher supervisors, trainers, and students who understand

what is going on in a classroom can substantially enhance learning effectiveness by adroit application of interpersonal and group dynamics. And by changing the culture of dysfunctional groups they benefit not only the current members of the group but also future members.

 

It is fortunate that most teachers and students like each other. This bond is one of the motivators of learning. In fact, some methodologies, such as counseling–learning, are built on the teacher and student relationship. The motivating force of the student–teacher relationship is extremely powerful; it taps deep unconscious needs on the part of both participants.

 

Think for a moment about your favorite teachers. Do you feel a certain bond with them and hope to please them (and not just for a grade)? Sometimes, of course, things do not go quite so well. Teacher and student needs can operate at cross-purposes. For example, a student may want a teacher who provides a great deal of overt emotional support, with lots of encouragement. In a class with a teacher whose style is more subject-matter focused, such a student could become frustrated. The frustration could show up as one of the behaviors described above under defense mechanisms, which the teacher might find disruptive. The friction could grow, and neither one would understand the underlying disappointment on the part of the student and pressure the teacher was feeling to get closer, the paradoxical result of which might be that the teacher pulls away.

 

Many students idealize teachers they like or those who provide the kind of good support that a functional  learning alliance involves. This can be quite uncomfortable for the teacher, because with idealization comes the risk of disappointment. A student who feels let down by a teacher who was once idealized can end updevaluing the teacher. This is a very difficult situation for both student and teacher and can end up interfering with the success of their work together.

 

Bibliography:

 

1.    Brown, H.D. (2000): Principles of Language Learning and Teaching. White Plains, NY: Addison Wesley Longman, Inc. Gass,

 

2.    S.M. I L. Selinker. (2008): Second Language Acquisition. An Introductory Course. New York: Routledge. VanPatten,

 

3.    Leaver, B.L; Ehrman, M; Shekhtman, B. (2005): Achieving Success in Second Language Acquisition. CUP

 

4.    B. i J. Williams. (red.) 2007: Theories in Second Language Acquisition. Mahwah, New Jersey: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates, Publishers.

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