The Role and Identity of English Language Teachers
This talk will deal with the challenges faced by English language teachers who teach English as second language. The role of an English language teacher is highly demanding and complex. Every decade, various theorists develop new theories of teaching English as a second language. While each theory has its own merits and limitations, they all focus on the students. The teacher who are expected to play the multiple roles of facilitator, instructor, guide, often give in to the role pressure. How do the language teachers, who deal with high expectations of their institutions, peers, parents and the students they teach, integrate their role as a teacher into their “ Self’ and maintain their effectiveness? In the chain of learning, how does the teacher position herself? The talk will delve into these aspects and more.
About Somali Gupta
Dr. Somali Gupta, Professor & Head, Department of English, C.L.C. Govt. Arts & Commerce College, Dhamdha, Dist.Durg. (Chhattisgarh) India has 33 years of experience in teaching English as a second language . She is also accredited as Process facilitator by the Indian Society for Applied Behavioural Sciences (ISABS) (www.isabs.org). Currently, she is also holding the role of Dean, Social Development in ISABS.
She is actively engaged in research and tries to combine her process knowledge with her teaching. She received the highly acclaimed post doctoral Research Award from the University Grants Commission (UGC) , India. The topic of her research was Youth Anxiety and Stress within the Higher Education System. A Group Analysis of the Students from the Backward Classes of Chhattisgarh. Earlier she had done a Minor research project (also sponsored by the UGC) on the Development of Oral Communication Skills in Second Language. In both the projects the methodologies used were a combination of experiential and action research. Along with teaching, Dr Gupta has been engaged with various organizations doing programmes on Global Leadership, development of soft skills and executive coaching. She has done extensive work on Emotional Intelligence with teachers and student groups. She is also actively involved with various environmental issues and has driven two Awareness Campaigns on “Solid waste Management” on the use of plastics. These campaigns were sponsored by the Ministry of Environment and Forest , India. She also conducts workshops for students and teachers. She has also conducted a number of webinars on various topics that were attended by participants from various parts of the world.
Dr Gupta has one book and a number of research paper publications to her credit. She is the member of the editorial board of Journal of English for Specific Purposes, University of Nis Serbia and Associate editor of eFALTL , International Burch University, Sarajevo , Bosnia Herzegovina. She is also a member of ELTAI (English Language Teachers Association, India).She is a Visiting / External faculty at IIM Ahmedabad , IHMR,Jaipur, and International Burch University, Sarajevo , Bosnia Herzegovina.
She is also currently engaged in doing workshops for NGOs that support Children with Special Needs and Women who face domestic violence (Association for Helping Children with Special Needs, Medica) in Bosnia n Herzegovina.
IESPTA 