What is an English teacher's most important characteristic?

What makes an English teacher? Mmmhhh, tough question. There are so many things that one needs to be a teacher. An English teacher requires a lot more. In the caleidoscope that is the world of EFL teachers in Ecuador there are so many individuals that call themselves English teachers and truly they lack the most important, and obvious, element of them all: an English teacher has to, first and foremost, know English.
Having nice teaching strategies and colorful material helps but in the end what a learner needs is a model to follow, someone who provides him / her with the necessary elements for that learner to set up his/her cognitive structure and those elements are Grammar, Vocabulary, Pronunciation and of course, knowledge of the culture. A good starting point is taking English classes and to learn the culture...if you really want to become  a good English teacher

Comments

Carlos said…
Not everyone can be a teacher and it's even more difficult to be a teacher of a foreign language, because as you said they need to know about that culture and language is part of culture.
July 11, 2012 at 7:30 PM
Luis Bermudes said…
Many try and many fail.
July 28, 2012 at 8:29 PM
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