Forget About the ‘Istic’ - Are You a Human Language Teacher?

Paul Bress, UK

Paul Bress works both in the fields of personal growth and TEFL and has published very widely in both areas. His particular skill is an ability to see the ‘big picture’ and to help others to take practical steps to solve their professional and personal problems. Paul is a life-long, non-stop, learner – he learns more from everyday experience than from formal research. E-mail: paulbress@talktalk.net

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Introduction
Important human qualities
Effects of having/not having them
Effect 1: Control
Effect 2: Knowledge
Effect 3: Temper
Effect 4: Ability to listen
Effect 5: Need for attention
Conclusions
Reference

Introduction

When John Cleese and Robyn Skinner wrote Families and How to Survive them (1993), they stirred up a lot of interest amongst the general population in both psychology and psychotherapy. In this book they assert that psychotherapists are, by and large, not the people who have glided through life without a care in the world. No, they have usually suffered significant personal problems, have benefited from being in therapy themselves, and have wanted to pass on the benefits of their learning to others in distress.

I should confess at this point that I have been a client in a number of different kinds of therapeutic settings. And my (subjective) conclusion is this. As in any field of endeavour, you find excellence, you find mediocrity, and you find dross. The problem is that, if you are a psychotherapy client, you may actually be harmed by your incompetent therapist (whereas hopefully you won’t be harmed by your incompetent baker!).

Such experiences have led me to question the role of so-called ‘humanistic language teachers’. If such people are intent in developing the whole person, then, in my view, they are entering a potentially dangerous area. Because, if these practitioners do not have sufficient self-awareness, then the learners may actually suffer at their hands.

I’d wager that the vast majority of learners on the planet are not interested in whether their teacher is humanistic or not. What they want is a teacher with personal qualities. Someone who is personable, approachable, likeable. Someone who cares about their progress and who does what he/she can to ensure it. This is hardly rocket science!

So what human qualities do I want to highlight? Below I have pinpointed five personal qualities which I consider to be of particular significance. I have also supplied descriptors, which, in my view, spell out the degree of humanity in your teaching. From functional teaching (on the left) to dysfunctional (on the right) Have a look at each descriptor and consider which one describes you best for each personal quality. Of course you may be both – or somewhere in the middle!

Important human qualities

CONTROL

KNOWLEDGE

TEMPER

ABILITY TO LISTEN

NEED FOR ATTENTION

Did you find that sometimes you identified with some of the descriptors on the right (rather than those on the left)? Let me attempt to explain the potential effects in class of the presence/absence of these qualities in your teaching.

Effects of having/not having them

Effect 1: Control

If you can cede control to your learners, they will feel more confident and powerful. If you can’t, they will probably feel frustrated and will become dysfunctionally dependent on you.

Effect 2: Knowledge

If you are a genuine facilitator, your learners will respect you. If you are a show-off, your learners will tire of hearing you drone on. They will turn off, get bored, and may feel resentment or even hatred towards you.

Effect 3: Temper

If you are calm, you are showing what it is to be a mature adult, and your learners will warm to you and feel safe with you. If you have a fiery temper, your learners will feel frightened of you – and this could well spill over into anger too.

Effect 4: Ability to listen

If you feel very comfortable when you yield the floor, they will develop more confidence and feel they matter. If you feel highly uncomfortable yielding the floor, they will probably feel diffident and even scared. They will feel that they are becoming less and less important.

Effect 5: Need for attention

If you feel happy being in the background, you will allow your learners to use English for authentic communication (independent of you). But if you need to be noticed, and crave centre stage, you are discouraging learners from developing confidence in using English without you. They will be too dependent on you and will probably come to resent that in due course.

Conclusions

To sum up, if you meet the descriptors of the more human teacher on the left, your teaching style will probably have the effect of creating a safe environment in which learners can easily develop both as language learners and as people. However, if your teaching style meets the opposite descriptors, you will probably be a highly dominant in the classroom, someone who is charismatic, very teacher-centred, but who has the effect of arresting the development of your learners. They will be dependent on you for a long time. They may enjoy this experience at first, but it will eventually lead to resentment and anger.

In my opinion, there are some psychotherapists who ought not to be working in their profession. Why not? Because they have unconscious agendas and issues, which make it difficult for their clients to make progress. By the same token, I believe that there are many teachers who are similar, and that those who espouse Humanistic Language Teaching may be the most likely to be like this. Some people are drawn to Humanistic Language Teaching, I suspect, because their own childhood may have been troubled and not adequately rounded. If such teachers could become aware of such issues (probably by seeing an excellent psychotherapist), thenit is likely that they’ll become increasingly aware of any negative impact they may be having on their learners.

Reference

Cleese (J) and Skynner (R) (1993) Families and how to Survive them, Cedar

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