Text 2 teachers and actors

Exercise 1. Read the text.

To be a good teacher, you need some of the gifts of a good actor; you must be able to hold the attention and interest of your audience; you must be a clear speaker, with a good, strong, pleasing voice which is fully under your control; and you must be able to act what you are teaching, in order to make its meaning clear. Watch a good teacher, and you will see that he does not sit motionless before his class; he stands the whole time he is teaching, he walks about, using his arms, hands and fingers to help him in his explanations, and his face to express feelings. Listen to him, and you will hear the loudness, the quality and the musical note of his voice always changing according to what he is talking about.

The fact that a good teacher has some of the qualities of a good actor does not mean that he will indeed be able to act on the stage; for there are important differences between the teacher’s work and the actor’s one. The actor has to speak words which he has learned by heart; he has to repeat exactly the same words each time he plays a certain part; even his movements and the ways in which he uses his voice are usually fixed before. What he has to do is to make all these carefully learnt words and actions seem natural on the stage.

A good teacher works in quite a different way. His audience takes an active part in his play: they ask and answer questions. The teacher, therefore, has to understand the needs of his audience, which is his class. He cannot learn his part by heart, but must invent it as he goes along.

There are many teachers who are fine actors in class but are unable to take part in a stage-play.

Exercise 2. Say what common and what different features these two professions have. What’s your opinion?

Text 3 the class teacher.

Exercise 1. Read the text.

Notes: omniscient – всеведущий

zest – живость, энергия

mature – зрелый, сформировавшийся

abreast – в ряд, не отставая, на уровне

The education of children in their formative years is a difficult and important task, which places a considerable burden of responsibility on the teacher. The qualities that have enabled teachers to carry out this responsibility are not easy to define.

Qualities of heart and head go together in making of a good teacher. Her whole attitude is optimistic and cheerful. She does not pretend to be omniscient, but is lively, keen and receptive, enjoying her work and sharing with her pupils their zest for new discoveries. The fact that her interests are far from wider than the school curriculum helps to make her interesting as a teacher. She can explain a difficult point clearly, knows many ways of presenting information, and is resourceful in creating situations in which the pupils make discoveries for themselves.

Out of her daily contacts with children comes the understanding on which the mature teacher relies. She is sympathetic, patient especially with slow pupils, and fair to all, avoiding any appearance of favourites. Her sympathy is genuine but unsentimental, she can be firm when the situation demands it.

Above all, the good teacher is alive to the possibility of improving the content and method of her teaching, and therefore keeps abreast of new developments, gives them adequate trial, and absorbs whatever elements are suited to her own situation. She herself is able through the discoveries which she makes in her classroom, to contribute to the body of knowledge upon which educational progress depends.

The influence of the successful teacher extends beyond her own classroom in yet another way – through the help which she is able to give to inexperienced colleagues who may at first find difficulty in translate educational theory into classroom practice. In return she is quick to appreciate the value of contacts with younger teachers trained in advanced methods.

Exercise 2. Suggest an alternative title.

Exercise 3. Give a rough summary of the text. In your summary answer the following questions:

1. Why does education place a great responsibility upon a teacher?

2. What makes a good teacher?

3. How far does the influence of the successful teacher extend?