Read the Text 1 and choose the correct alternatives from number 01 to 12.

TEXT 1

What makes a good English teacher?

Barbara Monda

Nowadays, for the particular role English language is playing in many fields of the modern life, English teachers are always growing in number. But, unfortunately, not all the teachers are prepared in the same way.

About myself, in two years and half at the Liceo Scientifico I have met three different English teachers, but I'm sure in the future I will think of just one of them as a good one. I think she has all the qualities, personal and professional, a good English teacher should have.

The most important thing, she has a personal interest in the students as human beings, she knows we are students, yes, but inside we are persons, with our problems and feelings, I think a good personal relation is the first thing we, students and teachers, should try to achieve, because it is an indispensable basis for a good professional relation, founded on understanding and esteem. This is very important above all in the case that students haven't chosen to study English, but are forced to because it is one of the ministerial subjects; the teacher, in this case, has to interest the students in what he or she teaches.

_____ my side, I can say when I went to the Liceo Scientifico I did not like English, now I study English everyday, so I cannot imagine my afternoons without it.

_____ three years of experience I`ve understood what the second most important quality for a teacher is to be well prepared and able to convey students what he/she knows. I think I don't need to explain why a teacher should be skilled. It is not unusual the fact that students at the Secondary School learn something which is completely wrong and not being particularly interested in the subject, will always persist in their mistakes. Another important point is the didactic methodologies the teacher prefers. _____ my opinion, a teacher should be very flexible in his/her approach: In general, I think it is better to work _____ pairworks, to allow students to discover things for themselves and make them free to experiment new structures, but there's also a time when a lesson with the teacher _____ the centre of the attention and a close comparison of the language used by students are preferable. It is the teacher who has to choose the method time by time to understand what is better for the students to improve their skills and to enjoy the lesson.

Of course, a student who likes the subject will improve his/her abilities much quicker than one who does not, but he/ she has to be supported by the use of modern technologies, such as the video recorder and similar machines, with which the teacher should be familiar. At the end, for a good teacher who, since he/she does all of the things above, likes his/her job, other things that students appreciate like punctuality, marking homework and classwork on time, disponibility to give helps outside the class-room are logical consequences.

(from Fun Press, the magazine of student work from the British Council, Naples)