THE LANGUAGE TEACHER’S ROLES AND THE 21 ST CENTURY CLASSROOM CHALLENGES

1. UNIVERSITATEA NAŢIONALĂ DE APĂRARE THE LANGUAGE TEACHER’S ROLES AND THE 21ST CENTURY CLASSROOM CHALLENGES Luiza KRAFT, PhD “Carol I” National Defense University Bucharest, Romania

2. 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.

3. 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.

4. Do we need a new kind of language teacher for the new teaching roles? YES!

5. What kind of modern language teacher?

6. What traditional professional qualities are still being required?

7. 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.

8. 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.

9. New qualities → new competences:

11. New competences → new roles and attitudes

12. 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.

13. New roles:

15. 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.

16. The need for teacher training/developmentand 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.

17. If you have questions, I would be happy to answer them!

18. Thank you very much for your attention!