HO MINH TUAN

English has become an important means of communication in the world nowadays. In Vietnam, English is spoken as a foreign language, but it is the most popular language to be used in the majority of international meetings or contact. Owing to this important role, the teaching of English is certainly in need of a large number of qualified teachers of English who can train their learners for fluently communicating in English, so as an English teacher I have to improve myself to qualify for the high demand of the society for this career. A good teacher of English, I believe, must obtain such qualities as being a good citizen, loving their students, and having the professional expertise.
A teacher is also a citizen in a society, so a good teacher of English is firstly a good model for students to follow. Whatever you have your students do or follow, you must do that well first. Among many personalities a citizen may have, my experience tells me that responsibilities, honesty, and learning ability are the most essential ones that a good teacher must possess. Before an idea, a plan, or a lesson is given out, the teacher himself must carefully think about how it does help the students most. If a teacher makes a lot of mistakes in their lessons and his lecture does not meet the students’ needs and abilities, his students will be discouraged from learning English soon. Besides, a teacher must be honest with his students. There is no one who never makes a mistake. Thus, a teacher, whenever making a mistake, must be brave and honest to point out his mistake. If he recognizes and corrects that in time, his students will accept and believe in him. Another important quality is learning ability. A good teacher of English has to improve his English and raise his teaching qualifications ceaselessly; otherwise, what he learned in the university will be outdated soon or cannot afford the increasing demand of the society for the English-teaching career. In short, a good teacher of English is the teacher who bears responsibilities with honesty and never stops learning. He must immerse in his mind the Vietnamese motto in the field of education “each teacher is a “bright mirror” for students to look at”. Nevertheless, being a good citizen has not made a teacher in general and a teacher of English in particular successful in their work yet.
Loving students is another quality an English teacher must have to be successful in the process of educating students. Each student has his or her own characteristics; thus, the teacher must be flexible in behaving towards them. He should be kind and warm-hearted most of the time, but he must be strict sometimes. A naughty student who breaks the school regulation must be punished strictly; however, he must be praised immediately for his effort, and the teacher must then be a motherly or fatherly teacher to help that student redress the wrongness. In order to solve the problem like that, the teacher must be knowledgeable about students’ psychological development so that he can understand his students and have sympathies for them. Moreover, when a teacher knows the reasons for his student’s mistakes, he can find some suitable solutions quickly and in time to help them get out of troubles and orient them to the good morals and values. If we can do these things well, the students will believe in us, and so they will be willing to be taught by us.
Last but not least, a good teacher of English must have the professional expertise; that is, he must acquire a high level of proficiency in English and thoroughly master the teaching methodologies. When a teacher is good at English, he is able to help his students understand the lessons deeply and clearly. Besides, there is hardly a good place when students can practice English, but the classrooms; thus, a teacher must be a good communicator of English to provide a model for his students to imitate. However, it does not make sure that a person who is good at English is able to teach English well. The reason may be that he doesn’t know what is the best way to teach his students although he has a good command of English. The awareness of teaching methodology thus is very important. By applying appropriate methodologies, a teacher of English can get his students interested and make them take responsibility for their learning by involving them in making the classroom a positive atmosphere for learning. Due to these great impacts on the process of teaching and learning English, many changes in methodologies of teaching English have been introduced recently to the teachers of English in our country for the reason that Vietnamese learners are able to achieve a certain level of proficiency in English.
There are many other qualities that a good teacher of English must have, but I strongly feel that a successful teacher of English firstly must be a model citizen. Besides, he has to have a heart of loving students and to be an expert in English and methodologies. Especially in our country’s current situation when the governments greatly invest in education and make their efforts to socialize the English language so that Vietnamese people are not afraid of contacting the foreigner traders in that foreign language, the teaching of English has been pay much more attention to, and so it is certain that a teacher of English must self-improve his nature and his profession so as to meet the increasing demand of the society and take pride of his “precious” career itself as a motto says that teaching career is the most precious of the precious ones.
David