The Role of Teachers

                                       The Changing Role of the Teacher

     The world is developing and there are some improvement in every sphere, so Education system is not exception. There have been a great number of changes in education systems worldwide recently. As part of the changes the role of schools and the role of teachers are also changing. I am going to depict characteristic features of  “ideal” teachers and a teacher role in general. A teacher is the one who shapes the personality and entire life of children. It is one of the noble professions as it contributes in building the future of the country and overall society.

   Schools are one of the first places where child’s behavior and future educational success is shaped. I believe, that teachers must love their career in order for them to pass enthusiasm, and to provide a warm environment to the students.

   Teachers are second mothers for the students because students spend a lot of time with their teachers. At the same time, I believe a real teacher becomes through many years of training and experiences in the field. The same way, mothers are not born being great mothers but as their experiences with their kids expands they become experts on the field. We know that mothers look the best for their kids and one of their goals is to raise their kids so they can become professionals and pioneers for the society. Some of the mother’s role toward kids is to give them care, love, respect, lead, instruct and to try to form a safe and pleasant environment at their homes.

   

   Are these attitudes of the mothers toward their kids related to what the role of the teacher should be with the students in the classroom?

    Teachers have the qualities to be or become role models for students, because most teachers respect, love, care, instruct, and guide their students to become a successful person. At the same time,a teacher should also be someone who guides student rather than someone who is a authority in the classroom.

  Everything the teacher says will have an impact on the students. If the teacher feels joy of feels anger, it will be spread among children because the attitudes of the teacher gets contagious. If the teacher laughs, students also laugh, why? Because teachers are responsible for the social behavior in the classroom. I also believe that there should be times where fun is a necessity,because kids learn faster when they feel attracted to an exciting lesson.

   Teaching is key to student success. Teachers are responsible for developing appropriate instructional strategies to help students achieve, as well as appropriate methods for assessing and evaluating student learning.

      In the fast changing world of the early 21st century public education is also changing.There have been a great number of changes in education systems worldwide recently. As part of the changes the role of schools and the role of teachers is also changing.

    If we compare the role of a teacher in the past and now, we will see a big difference between these. In the past teachers used to be the major source of knowledge, the leader and educator of their students' school life. They used to be the authority in the class and often took over the role of parents. Nowadays, teachers not only provide information, but also show their students how to gain it.

   How do you think what is the role of teacher in modern classroom?

  First of all, teachers in modern classrooms are no longer lecturers, they are facilitators, their main task is to set goals and organize the learning process accordingly.

  One of the example of teacher contemporary role is in flipped classroom.It is a reversed teaching model that delivers instruction at home through interactive, teacher-created videos. Here students have opportunity to watch the lecture in the comfort of their home. In flip teaching, the student first studies the topic by himself, typically using video lessons created by the instructor^.  the pupil then tries to apply the knowledge by solving problems and doing practical work at class. It’s also known as backwards classroom, reverse instruction, and flip teaching.

  In typical teaching practices, students listen to a lecture at school and then do the follow up activity alone at home where a teacher cannot help them if they have difficulties. The flipped approach changes it around so students can watch the lecture alone and then go to class where the teacher is there to help.

  Let’s see what are some benefits of this method?

•        Gives teachers more time to spend 1:1 helping students

•        Builds stronger student/teacher relationships

•        Creates a collaborative learning environment in the classroom

   As you see, The Flipped classroom gives opportunity to teachers to provide a more individualized learning model for their students and it is a powerful approach to teaching that helps “students to become learners who can learn for themselves and by themselves.”

  Another difference between the past and the present role of teachers is following. Nowadays, teachers are supporters rather than educators and also advisers towards parents. Parents are involved in decision-making so they take part in the life of the school. In the past, teachers used to follow a syllabus which was compulsory for them. In this days, teachers have a National Curriculum,  that they have to consider, but - on the other hand - they have independence to choose the teaching materials (textbook), make up a syllabus of their own.

  One another difference between the past and the present tasks of teachers is represented by the technical background (computer, power point, projectors, etc). Instead of teaching with chalk and blackboard. they need to be an information technology expert, a technician or/and a photocopy master.  

   In conclusion I would like to say that , teachers' function is to play an important role in the upbringing of each person  and they have much responsibilities in front of country and nation . The worth and potentialities of a country get evaluated in and through the work of the teacher, The people of a country are the enlarged replica of their teacher. They are the real nation builders. We can say that, "a school without teacher is just like a body without the soul, a skeleton without flesh and blood, a shadow without substance".

Words and word-formation processes (both in English and in Georgian languages)

How new words are being formed in the languages?

Everyone is interested in this issue and from the following paper you will get an answer of this question...

Key Words:

·         Word;

·         Invention;

·         Formation;

·         Language;

·         Source;

·         Process;

·         Meaning;

·         People;

·         Influence.

Content:

·         Introduction;

·         Neologism/Coinage, (Eponyms);

·         Borrowing, Calque;

·         Compounding;

·         Clipping;

·         Backformation;

·         Conversion;

·         Acronyms;

·         Derivation;

·         Conclusion.

        First of all, let me discuss why do we need new words? Because of new inventions and changes, every language is in need of new words,simply because new things need new words. When new inventions enter in our lives, we are in the need of naming them.If we compare language spoken 50 years ago and at present we will see a big difference between them because language is dynamic, it changes and develops constantly. The words existence totally depends on their usage. If a new word is used by many speakers, it will probably survive and one day it will become an everyday word and will be entered in our dictionaries. Especially in the last centuries, many words were coined because of the vast amount of new inventions, which were made in the 20th and 21st century. If there is a new thing and the people don’t have word for it, there are many ways how new words are created. In the past and at present, people used and still use a variety of methods to create new words, such as compounding, derivation, coinage etc. In the following paper will be discussed some of these word formation processes and examples.

     One of the most common sources of new words is coinage/neologism. First, let me define what does neologism imply?  Neologism is a field that studies how new words enter in vocabulary/language. Invention of totally new terms, this is coinage. Georgian examples of neologism are: “სეილი”(when there is discounts), “შოპინგი”(shopping), “დამესიჯება”(sending messages to somebody), “დაკლიკება”(to click on mouse/file), “დასეივება”(to save something), ავტობანი(autobahn), დიჯეი(DJ), ინსტალაცია(when you are installing something), ფასტფუდი(fast food), პარკინგი(parking), ინოვაცია(innovation), სლოგანი(slogan).As mentioned above, when new things are invented, new words need to invent as well, because “a language is shaped by the needs of its users”-as it is said by George Yule.Subcomponent of coinage is eponyms. Eponyms are words that are ''based on the name of a person or a place'' - (George Yule).Things are named after people such as:  hertz (itis named after Heinrich Rudolf Hertz, who was German physicist and he was the first who proved the existence of electromagnetic waves), Celsius (is unit of measurement for temperature. It is named after the Swedish astronomer Anders Celsius), boycott (its meaning- expression of protest usually for social or political reasons, it was derived from the name of Captain Charles Boycott, who was a British land agent), hooligan (Hooliganism is disruptive behavior,the word came from Patrick Hoolihan, who was Irish thief who lived in London), Zeppelin (is a type of airship named after the German Count Ferdinand von Zeppelin), the word zeppelin is commonly used to refer to all airship. In Georgian language we come across with eponyms in Chemistry. For instance , these words are used to refer different chemical element: აინშტაინიუმი (its symbol in the Periodic table is Es, it’s named after Albert Einstein  ) , კიურიუმი ( symbol- Cm, named after Pierre Curie, who was French physicist, he was studying radioactivity), მენდელეევიუმი ( symbol- Md,  named after Dmitri Mendeleev,who was Russian Chemist and inventor, who found periodic system), ნობელიუმი ( symbol – No, named after Alfred Nobel, was a Swedish chemist and innovator and he was the inventor of dynamite),.ნიკოტინი ( in English Nicotine – is the particular chemical in the plant, which is stimulant drug, named after a French diplomat and scholar- Jean Nicot ), ვულკანი (Vulcano- originates from Vulcan, the name of a god of fire in Roman mythology).

      As it was already mentioned in the paper, coinage is a word formation process, when we invent new words, because of new inventions/objects.For example, the following list of words provides some common coinages which are found in English language: escalator,heroin, linoleum, Band-Aid, Jeans etc. Before I move to Borrowing words I would like to give you several examples of Georgian coinage process: ორთქლმავალი(steam-engine),ელმავალი(train),ცეცხლსაშიში(flammable),კეცი(frying-pan to bake Mchadi),ქვევრი(pitcher, vessel where you keep wine).

     As for the second source of new words is Borrowing. This is process of taking words from other languages. We all are aware that English language has a number of loan-words from other languages. For instance: algebra, mosque, zero,average, chemistry, cotton,sofa, bazaar– Arabic words, Candle, area, anatomy, superintendent, physician- Latin,( e.g word master comes from Latin word –maegester, word city from ceaster, chest- cest, circle- circul.).Country, murder court, crime, evidence, government, jail, judge, jury, parliament, prison, state, tax, verdict, chapter, prayer, priest, religion, saint, prince, princess, lady, etc – all these words are originated from French. Greek words-atmosphere, autograph, climax, comedy, critic, data, history, pneumonia, skeleton, tragedy. Italian words - umbrella, opera, and violin. Russian- perestroika(pere means- again, stroika comes from stroit which means to build), vodka. African- banana,jazz, zebra,  zombie. It is noteworthy to mention that in English language, some borrowed words maintain the same grammatical rules, such words are: datum(which is Latin word and it’s singular) and its plural form is data. The second example is- Criteria (Latin and singular) and criterion is plural. From all these examples it’s obvious for all of us that different countries had influence in formation process of English language.Georgian language has also loan-words.E.g: ექიმი (a doctor)- is Arabic word (Aqim); ხურდა (change)- Arabic (khrda),ბოსტანი(a garden)-Arabic (Bostan);გიჟი(a madperson)-Arabic (Gidz).Loan-translation or Calque is a type of borrowing, in which a borrowed word or phrase is translated from one language to another. There are lots of examples of calque both in Georgian and in English languages. Here are examples: beer garden – German – Biergarten ; loanword – German – Lehnwort;long time no see – Chinese – hǎojiǔbujiàn; pineapple – Dutch – pijnappel.As for Georgian examples : an English word boyfriend – in Georgian language is translated word by word (ბიჭიმეგობარი), but very often people use this word without translation and it means that this word can be considered for us as borrowing word. An apple of my eyes (meaning- the dearest one, in Georgian is translated as თვალისჩინი( meaning eye-sight); training programs ( მოსამზადებელი/გადასამზადებელიპროგრამები ), unfortunately, here we have the same case as in usage of “boyfriend”, most people say ტრეინინგი instead of  proper word, which already exists in Georgian language. Fingerprint- (თითისანაბეჭდი), here is direct translation of compounding word.

      What does compounding word mean? What kind of words are they?“Compounding is the process of putting words together to build a new one that ''does not denote two things, but one'' and that is ''pronounced as one unit'' – Wisnicwski.Simply, this is joining of two separate words to produce a single form. Let’s look through several examples: airport, background, cowboy, daydream, headache, loudspeaker, greenhouse, snowboard, timetable, weekend, classmate, seafood, wallpaper, woodcutter, birthday, beeline, supernatural, starlight, etc. In Georgian language , there is a number of examples of compounding words, such as:  სახლ-კარი (meaning- a house, here we have combination of the words a house (სახლ) and a door (კარი); დედინაცვალი (meaning-stepmother, combination of mother (დედი) and replaced ( ნაცვალი ) ; მთა-ბარი ( meaning –mountains and valleys , here are joined together mountain (მთა) and valley (ბარი); ვაშლატამა (meaning- an apple peach, combination of an apple (ვაშლ) and a peach (ატამა) ; დღედაღამე - meaning & combination- midday(დღე) and night(ღამე); შორიახლოს (meaning- when something is neither near nor far, combination of far (შორი) and near ( ახლოს) ; ნაცარქექია ( meaning -lazy-bones , these following two words are joined- ashes( ნაცარ) and to dig (ქექია/ქექვ ); პირსახოცი ( meaning –towel, combination of the face ( პირ) and cleaning (ხოცი/წმენდა).

      One more common source of new words is clipping process. In this process a word is reduced or shortened without changing the meaning of the word. For instance, memorandum – memo, reputation – rep,public house – pub,omnibus-bus,refrigerator-fridge, fanatic-fan, demonstration-demo, doctor-doc, teenager-teen, etc. In English names are used in their clipped form : Alexander-Alex,Daniel-Dan,Robert-Rob,Arabella-Bella,Theodora-Dora.In most cases , in Georgian we encounter clipping process in forms of nick names.ნიკოლოზ-ნიკა,ნიკო (equivalent of Nick);თამარი(Tamar)-თაკო,თამუნა;ანასტასია-ანა, ანი,ანუკი (equivalent of Ann);თემური(Temur)-თემო;ვახტანგი(Vakhtang)-ვახო.

     In addition, backformation is also a type of reduction process, but it’s completely different from clipping. “Here a word of one type (noun) is reduced to form another word of a different type (verb)”- George Yule. Such words are: observation(noun)-observe(verb), aviate(verb) from aviation(noun), diagnosis(noun)-diagnose(verb),editor(noun)-edit(verb),housekeeper(noun)-housekeep(verb), isolated(noun)- isolate(verb),sunburned(noun)-sunburn(verb),back-form(verb) from backformation(noun), etc.

      Besides, new words can be created without any reduction. This word formation process is called, conversion. In this process, noun is used as a verb(without any reduction).You have one form but function of it changes, because of that it is also  known as “functional shift”. For example, access(noun) – to access(verb) – there is no internet access – I can’t access the internet; email(noun)-to email(verb)- I have just received your email- please, email me as soon as possible; host(noun)-to host(verb)- you are hospitable host- I would always like to host you; name(noun)- to name(verb)- her name is Mary- He was named as a president candidate; can(noun)-to can(verb)- my grandmother has put pickles in a can – my grandmother canned the pickles. In the first sentence can is used as a noun and it is a kind of vessel, where people keep something and in the second sentence, it is used as a verb, which means that the grandmother preserved pickles in a jar/box.

      One more interesting source, how a new words are created is acronyms. You have two or more words and take first letters from them. In these days, people very often use acronyms in their daily lives and sometimes they don’t know what they mean. Here are several examples of acronyms:OPEC (Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries),LOL - laughing out loud, ROFL - rolling on the floor laughing,JPEG-Joint Photographic Experts group, ESL –English as a second language, laser - light amplification by stimulated emission of radiation, A.S.A.P – as soon as possible, BTW – by the way , B.Y.O.B. – "Bring your own bottle" is used for parties where guests are expected to bring their own alcohol,D.I.Y. – This acronym stands for "do it yourself,SSA – The Social Security Administration, DVD-ROM- Digital versatile disc-read only memory. Why acronyms are used? There can be a several reasons. First, it helps us to remember some complicated combination of words easily. Second, nowadays most people (especially, youth) tend to use shorter forms while chatting or writing something. The second merit of acronyms is that - it is not time consuming. In Georgian language we frequently use English acronyms and pronounce them in the same way, e:g:UEFA - The Union of European Football Associations (უეფა). Georgian acronym of შპს (LTD- private limited company) means (შეზღუდულიპასუხისმგებლობისსაზოგადოება).

      As for derivation, this is one of the most common sources of new words. In this word formation process affixes(suffixes or prefixes) are added to words to produce new words. Each suffixes and prefixes has own meaning. For example, prefixes such as dis-,un-,anti- they have negative and opposite meaning ( disrespect, antibiotic, unsteady;  Ex- ( meaning- previous/out – expand, exclude). Re- (meaning- again, repeatedly – replay, restart);  non- ( meaning- negation/absence – non-smoker ) ;suffix such as –er ( creates an agent noun – e.g: designer ) ; -less ( meaning- lack of something - careless) ;-ness( noun forming morpheme – happiness); -able,--ary,-ful ( they create adjectives – believable ,imaginary ,peaceful ). This is last, but not the least example of suffixes and prefixes.

     As you see, there are many ways to create new words. Of course there are even more possibilities/ways than mentioned before. You see that all languages are dynamic, and when there is community development, of course the language is developing as well. From examples mentioned above, we can conclude that English language is influenced by different languages, because of that there are a vast number of loan-words. When a new word enters in a language and sounds strange is called barbarism, I am mentioning it because many words, which are used today in both English and Georgian languages, were at one time, considered as barbarian words, and nowadays most of these words are part of dictionaries and they don’t sound strange anymore. Thus, word-formation process is intrinsic part of all languages and it differs from language to language with its different features.

 Author: Guranda Khabeishvili

References:

Books:

George Yule (Author), Publisher- Cambridge University Press (1996), “The study of language” (second edition).

Websites:

www.brighthubeducation.com

www.haillinguistics.blogspot.com

http://www.ruf.rice.edu/~kemmer/Words04/structure/borrowed.html

www.forum.ge

Using Films as an Educational Tool in the 21st century(Today's) ESL Classroom

Fed up with always doing the same thing?

 Want a break in between units?

Trying to find something different for a change?

 According to Carme Porcel, the answer to all these questions is easy: we, English Language Teachers, just need to choose a film and use it as a teaching method.

We ,English Language teachers always look for something that will create completely different atmosphere for students. I would like to provide you with an idea that will help you to make some changes in your ESL classroom. This is something you do every day but pay no attention how useful it can be. This simple thing can be used for mastering and brushing up your language. 

TEACHING ENGLISH WITH FILMS

Content:

·         Introduction;

·         Merits of using Film, How to use film in ESL Classrooms;

·         How to select film and what to consider;

·         Survey&Experiment Results;

·         Conclusion.

         The importance of learning the English Language has become more significant over the last decade. We are all aware that there are different new approaches in teaching English. As we live in advanced technological world, most of students tend to enjoy learning with audiovisual aids. Due to this, the teaching approach that will be discussed in my paper is one of the best approaches to implement in ESL Classrooms. If you are looking for something to motivate your students, then that something may be a film. Definitely, using film in ELL classrooms gives students a great opportunity to improve all language skills (Speaking, Listening, Writing, and Reading), as it contains authentic language and behavior. The paper views what makes films a powerful educational tool in English classes.

            Using film as a tool for education has a numbers of merits. Statistics reveals that, youth on average watch 25 minutes of films per day. Why not make this an enjoyable teaching/learning opportunity? Martin Bradley, the author of a resource book for teachers of English as a foreign language, believes that using film as an instructional tool in ESL classes is a way to bring the outside world into our classroom. In teaching English as a second language films help trigger discussions, set up writing tasks and can be used to practice listening skills, learn vocabulary or get students used to hearing how native speakers "really" communicate. Besides, the use of film in the classroom can enhance the motivation of the learners. Using films through specific task activities provides an ideal vehicle for active learning, as well as encouraging interaction and participation. Definitely, using film in ELL classrooms gives students a great opportunity to improve all language skills. You may ask a question, how? It is noteworthy that there are already readymade film scenes, which range from 2–5 minutes. As Martin Bradley, writes, each scene has been carefully chosen, researched and categorized under themes. Themes of the scenes include: Cultural differences, helping others, Teaching, Travel etc. How all these encourage us in developing certain skills? These are specific task activities, what learners can do after watching a film in order to improve a particular skill. Completing Listening-Gist to practice listening skills; to make discussions for speaking skills; to write an alternative ending/to write about what happened in the scene- for writing skills; to improve their reading skills, we can bring for them films that are adapted from novels, short stories and etc, which enhances students’ interests in analyzing the written work. Studying a cinematic adaptation of a literary work will allow students to make comparison between the written original and cinematic version.

          How to select film and what to consider? These are the main questions which we should bear in mind before selecting a film. If we decide to choose a film for our learners by ourselves, we have to take into consideration these following main aspects: 1) There should be chosen a film which is in proper with learners’ level of language knowledge. 2) We should avoid choosing a scene which is inappropriate and offensive to their culture.

        Based on my Survey results, where participated more than 60 people (including students and EL teachers), this approach should be implemented as ELT method from Elementary School and it should be used in ESL classrooms at least once a week,as well as, 100% of survey participants have positive attitude toward usage of film as an educational tool in ESL Classroom. In addition, according to my experiment which I carried out in a private school, it turned out that fourth grade pupils benefited from film lesson.The experiment had following stages, first of all they watched the film “Mirror&Mirror”. After watching a film they were split into two groups and asked to write an alternative ending of the film, as well as, to draw a picture of the scene and then to describe it. Engagement of the learners was high and the teacher found that it was productive for ELL, as they learnt new words during these activities.

To conclude, from my point of view, crucial merit of using film for EL learners is motivation.  Carme Porcel, who is English Language Teacher based on his experience believes that using films in ESL classrooms is really rewarding both for teachers and students. From his point of view, for teachers, it is the perfect way to motivate their students. He thinks that when language learners feel motivated the learning process is easier and flows smoothly.  Thus, this educational tool helps English Language Learners to enrich vocabulary, to improve Oral and Aural skills, moreover raises intercultural awareness and develops critical understanding. To my mind implementing this approach as an instructional tool in Georgian Schools(and not only in Georgian schools , generally for every students to whom English is L2)

 will raise productiveness and effectiveness in English Language Learners (If we consider that not every Georgian student has an opportunity to go abroad/to interact with native speaker in order to practice English).

Author: Guranda Khabeishvili

References:

Magazine/Web Articles:

Lowe Mark (January 2008) Films in English Language Teaching. Big screen benefits Modern English Teacher, Vol. 17-1

Porcel, Carme (July 2009) Using films in class Modern English Teacher, Vol. 18-3

Books:

Martin Bradley (Author), Publisher: stone river books; 1ST edition (2013), Teaching with Film: A resource book for teachers of English as a foreign language.

Websites:

Teaching with film

Film Education

Do you support an idea of implementing this approach in ESL Classroom?

What do you think, will it be productive for  English Language Learners?