The DoS Face-Off – What do we want from our human teachers?

By Nai Yi Htoon with Christopher Walker

In this somewhat unusual article, two Directors of Studies square off about what they want to see their human teachers do more (or less). In one corner we have Nai Yi Htoon, whose reputation for kindness and sensitivity is now widespread. And in the other, there’s Christopher Walker – a man in his forties. Fasten your seatbelts!

Nai Yi: We expect all of our teachers to be prepared for their lessons, to have a good idea of the language point they want to cover, and to be ready with the suite of teaching tools that courses like the CELTA prepare us all to use. But what of those more intangible qualities, the parts of the teacher that never make it into the lesson plan? Let’s look at other aspects that teachers can bring to the table – and that I’d like to see more of!

1. A sense of humour

Nai Yi: While a sense of humour is something we don’t often see, we do often feel it! Humour makes all the difference between a class where the students are engaged and enjoy being there, and a class where they are frustrated and unhappy. A funny joke here and there, a witty correction (or laughing along with our own mistakes!), lightens the mood of any lesson. Imagine attending an online class where the teacher disappears because of an unstable connection, and when they return they say, “Sorry, I was kidnapped by aliens, but they’ve just let me go!” That kind of light-hearted response makes students laugh along and be more forgiving of hiccups in the lesson.

Christopher: Of the people I’ve known who claimed to have a good sense of humour, perhaps only ten per cent were correct. Humour is very difficult to bring into the classroom, and most attempts will fail. I remember a teacher once who received multiple student complaints because he’d tell a joke during the lesson and then laugh at himself before the students had even managed to understand the set-up. It must be a relief to so many students that that teacher is now a Director of Studies and is kept locked up in his office.

2. Teacher Energy

Nai Yi: Energy doesn’t necessarily mean being loud. It is the enthusiasm and passion that teachers bring into the room. I believe that students often mirror the emotional state of the teacher. A teacher who enters the classroom with genuine enthusiasm sends an unspoken message that what they are about to learn is worth learning. We’ve met students who sometimes complain that they miss their previous teacher because “the new teacher isn’t as lively.” They’re not talking about the lesson plan, but rather the teacher’s presence. The same lesson plan delivered by two different teachers can feel like two completely different learning experiences simply because of the energy each teacher brings into the classroom.

Christopher: It’s hard to disagree with that. But sometimes I see that energy and enthusiasm spilling over in a way that can be a little hazardous – the teacher wants to have fun so much that they forget their learners. I remember a training course once where the teachers spent a few hours preparing a massive roleplay jungle cruise thing. When they tried it out in class, they thought it a roaring success until I asked – did the students speak any English while you were doing it? The answer, sadly, was no. Energy is good but it must be channelled.

3. Emotional Intelligence

Nai Yi: Teaching is a people-based job. Most of us have students who are anxious, tired, stressed or frustrated. Good teachers pick up on these things, read the signals and adjust for them. Emotional intelligence is the ability to understand how others are feeling and what we can do to make them feel better. I once had a student compare a teacher’s presence to a “yellow heart emoji and a sunflower” even in a stressful exam preparation class. This shows how much students appreciate a warm, friendly presence when lessons are difficult.

A small amount of care can be the difference between an average day and a great one. An “I-understand-you’re-having-a-difficult-day” look, a warm smile, or a gentle response when the student calls your name all make a lasting difference.

In Myanmar, addressing younger students as “သား၊ သမီး၊ သားလေး၊ သမီးလေး” (meaning my son, my daughter, sweetie) is very common, and when a teacher calls you that, it may not seem particularly significant, but it creates an immediate sense of belonging and acknowledgement. I once observed a teacher who responded with a gentle “ရှင် ရှင့်” (which translates approximately to yes, dear) whenever a student called her name to ask a question. The warmth she established in that room was so genuine that I didn’t want to leave the classroom. In fact, kindness is contagious. It makes students care for each other and when the classroom is full of caring, positive people, the entire class becomes a supportive community rather than just an English class.

Christopher: Who could say Emotional Intelligence is a bad thing? It isn’t. But it also isn’t something that the universe has apportioned equally, and there are many of us who love teaching and lack any Emotional Intelligence. Our attempts to mask this deficiency will be sniffed out by our students within seconds – so I’d say that if you’ve got it, use it, but this is not the place to fake it until you make it. If you’re not very good at showing the sort of concern that comes naturally to the likes of Nai Yi, just be sincere – it’s definitely the second best thing.

4. Playfulness

Nai Yi: How do you give instructions for a game? Do you just tell the students the rules and then go straight into it? Or maybe you switch on the game-show host mood and congratulate the winner with more excitement? Adrian Underhill, in his webinar at IH Yangon-Mandalay last year, said if you want your students to feel comfortable being silly during lessons, you need to be “the number one stupid” in the room. Playfulness makes it easier for students to engage in a lesson.

Of course, there is such a thing as too much playfulness. While some adults, surprisingly, are happy to participate in a lot of play, children may look at us like we’re crazy if we try to talk to them like little kids. As long as we understand that we need to change our approach depending on our audience, playfulness can be a huge advantage in engaging students by capturing their interest.

Christopher: Nai Yi is right that striking the balance here is the key thing. It comes down to knowing your audience, but also knowing the price you might pay for being overly playful. I love (trying to) teach young learners. I’m a fairly imposing guy, standing at fully five-and-a-half feet tall, so it’s unsurprising that most kids tear up when they see me coming in to cover the lesson in their regular teacher’s absence. I do all the silly shenanigans I can think of, like not noticing the child behind me, turning in a dramatically slow fashion, and still not seeing them. The English spirit of pantomime and “She’s behind you!” translates well, apparently. After ten minutes or so, the kids are much happier – but by then I’ve totally lost control and the chances of us getting any work done are close to zero. The returning teacher then must begin their classroom management schemes all from scratch, and I have to keep my office door closed until they’ve forgotten about the cover class. So – playfulness is good, but you have been warned.

5. Confidence

Nai Yi: Confidence isn’t something we typically discuss when we observe or reflect on lessons. But it can affect a lot of different things in a lesson. For instance, if a teacher has planned out a solid lesson and delivered it well, but when they speak, their voice is shaky or uncertain and they have trouble making eye contact, their students will likely have trouble listening to them or following what they say regardless of how qualified the teacher is.

Confidence is simply being secure in one’s ability to teach without doubt or hesitation. It’s about being composed when speaking to students and making sure that you’re giving them the best possible lesson. Students aren’t there to judge us. They’re there to take our knowledge and run with it but that’s only going to happen if we give it to them confidently.

Christopher: Confidence is great if you have it and it is sincere. I’ve met teachers who faked their confidence, or whose confidence masked deficiencies in the same way that a sense of humour or a high level of energy might. I know a teacher who has never appeared very confident. I thought that this lack of confidence was contextual – interview nerves, perhaps, or part of the settling-in process – but it seemed deeper than that as the apparent lack of confidence continued into the long-term. I wondered what must have been going on in the classroom, so went to see – and what I saw shocked me. The same lack of confidence on the part of the teacher. But also, and most gratifyingly, a class full of learners who were being given useful work to do, who knew what was expected of them, and who were improving their English language skills. Maybe in the future this teacher will discover more confidence. Or maybe they won’t. It hardly seems to matter when the quality of their teaching is so high.

Conclusion

Nai Yi: A lot of students don’t remember their teachers for their excellent, well-delivered lessons. Instead, they remember the teacher who made them laugh after a difficult day, who noticed when they looked discouraged, who brought positive energy into the room, and who made them feel that they belonged. All of these are things that make a lasting, important impression on our students and it’s vital to remember them when we are teaching.

Christopher: Absolutely. But these things can’t be planned, and in most cases they can’t be trained either. So what’s a teacher to do? I’d say, do these two things: put the student at the heart of everything you do, and do it all with sincerity.

Nai Yi: I also wonder whether some of these expectations are culturally shaped. What students expect from their teachers isn’t necessarily the same everywhere. In my context, I’ve certainly met students who say they prefer teachers who are lively, enthusiastic and warm. And as a DoS, that sometimes makes me wonder what we should do with that feedback. Do we ask a teacher to be more lively because that’s what the students want? Or do we accept that different teachers have different personalities and that students may respond to them differently? I’m certainly not suggesting that every teacher needs to become funny, energetic or playful. But perhaps it is worth being aware of the qualities our learners respond to.

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