A few skills you need to develop if you want to become a teacher trainer

Some weeks ago there was a BRELT chat on how to start training teachers which
has spurred me on to write this short article on what I believe to be the key skills any
prospective teacher trainer needs to have. For the sake of this article I will use the term
teacher trainer indistinctively, so please do not feel strongly about me not making a
distinction among trainers and educators for now.
It would be very difficult if not impossible to array down an unequivocal list of ten
skills you need to develop if you want to become a teacher trainer. To start with, I
would be unjust to the nature of the profession, not to mention that I would be
extremely presumptuous to assume that there is a single list, and that I know it all.
However, there are some core skills I observe in some of the professionals I admire
most, and this is what I want to share in this article. This list is tentative, and as
Woodward (2009) says, each individual needs to answer the question if they are ready
to become a teacher trainer themselves. This said, more than anything else, the
objective of this list is to help you decide if you are ready to become a teacher trainer
or if you still need to develop some skills before that.

In order to become a teacher trainer, teachers need to have a combination of basic

hard and soft skills.

HARD SKILLS SOFT SKILLS

Knowledge of the English language Agreement with your own educational
Knowledge of teaching principles principles
Varied teaching experience Willingness to work hard and to
A qualification in teaching commit
Good management skills
Orientation to results and an ability to
recognize them
Flexibility to work with the unexpected
Humbleness

In this article, I will talk mostly about the importance of hard skills, but I will also
consider two very important soft skills.

Knowledge of the English Language

To be a teacher trainer, it is important to have sound knowledge of the English
language. Not only is it important for you to speak English at a high level of proficiency,
but also to understand how the language works. Many times trainees draw on the
trainer to elucidate questions about language they may have. As a teacher trainer, you
also need to be able to identify issues in your trainees teaching that are caused by
lack of language proficiency. Farrell and Richards (2007) explain that the proficiency
level of a language teacher will in many cases determine the extent to which the
teacher is able to use many current teaching methods appropriately. Therefore, a
teacher trainer needs to be able to identify what problems in teaching arise because of
teachers linguistic needs.
Knowledge of teaching principles
Being an excellent teacher does not mean you know how to teach teachers or
about teaching teachers for that matter. In order to be a teacher trainer, you need to
understand the rationales behind your practice, and the underpinnings of what you do
in class. In order to prepare a lesson, you need to know certain aspects of lesson
planning, different classroom management techniques, what kinds of listening and
reading tasks there are, different ways to present grammar etc, however, when it
comes to teacher training, you need to know the subject-matter as well. You need to
know, for instance, what PRESET, INSET, CPD, cognitive apprenticeship, loop input,
the craft, applied science and reflective models are, just to name a few things.

Varied teaching experience

Obvious as it may seem, you need to have considerable first-hand experience to
draw on in order to be able to help other teachers develop. Usually, experienced
teachers have developed great awareness of teaching, which is part of the subject-
matter you need to have to become a teacher trainer. Senior (2006) explains that
experienced professions are better able to make informed decisions based on the
values, beliefs and assumptions that underpin their practice, and are therefore more
capable of helping novice teachers who have not had (lots of) teaching experience yet.
It is important to mention that by varied teaching experience I do not mean years of
teaching, but teaching in a range of different contexts: different-sized groups, different
levels, different age ranges, different methods and approaches etc. As Ur (1996:317)
puts it, teachers who have been teaching for twenty years may be divided into two
categories: those with twenty years experience and those with one years experience
repeated twenty times.

A qualification in teaching
A qualification in teaching is evidence of your understanding of the subject-
matter. It is also a way to show commitment to your own professional development.
Richards and Farrell (2005) explain that teachers need to be informed about their field,
need to know learning strategies, have effective ways to access students, have a good
understanding of the English language and of how to teach it, and they need to know
how to plan and evaluate language courses. Qualifications in general help teachers
amass this knowledge and also help them prove it. Prospective teacher trainers are
expected to have this knowledge, and established qualifications help them provide
evidence. Also, depending on the teacher training program you wish to work in,
qualifications are a must.

Agreement with your own educational principles

Bailey (2006) says that teacher trainers serve as role models for trainees and
among others, have the the tasks of being instructional experts, problem solvers, and
observation specialists. In order for a trainee to follow your lead, you need to be a
good role model yourself. The proverb walk your talk is especially true in teacher
training, given that this is an area in which trainees learn by observing, discussing and
reproducing what the trainer does. Also, if you want your trainees to cooperate and to
trust you, you need to ensure your discourse coincides with your actions. In other
words, if you cannot use a certain technique confidently, or if you do not apply a certain
classroom routine you encourage your trainees to apply, it makes it difficult for them to
do it. It is like demanding that your students speak English only when you sometimes
resort to Portuguese if you have to clarify more complex concepts of grammar and
vocabulary.

Humbleness
If you want to venture into teacher training, you need to allow yourself to be a
beginner again. Teacher training is not a simple and logical extension of what you have
been doing in class. As Freeman (1987) explains it, teacher training involves knowing
a new subject-matter, and assuming new roles and responsibilities. Much as you may
be familiar with the environment in which teacher training happens, it does not mean
you already know the ropes of the job. You need to be humble enough to know that
you will need support from more experienced peers who can be your coaches and
mentors, you need to be open to criticism, understand that you will make mistakes,
and that you will also need to be trained up for the job. Remember: when you start as a
teacher trainer, you are a likely to be an experienced teacher, but you are still a novice
trainer.

Wright and Bolitho (2007:224) state that good teachers and good trainers share many
of the same attributes (). Yet, not all successful teachers are capable of making the
transition to training. This happens because just as a good linguist or speaker of a
language is not necessarily a good teacher of the language, a good language teacher
may not be able to transcend the boundaries of their own classroom. I personally
believe that if you have the drive to become a teacher trainer you need to go after it,
and see if that is really your cup of tea, however, you need to make sure you are
prepared before you plunge into this new world, having developed both the hard and
soft skills that are necessary to start.

Sources:

1. Bailey, K. (2006). Language teacher supervision. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

2. Freeman, D. (1987). Moving from Teacher to Teacher Trainer: Some Suggestions for Getting Started.
TESOL Newsletter, XX1(3).
3. Farrell, T. (2007). Reflective language teaching. London: Continuum.
4. Richards, J. & Farrell, T. (2005). Professional development for language teachers. New York:
Cambridge University Press.
5. Senior, R. (2006). The experience of language teaching. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
6. Woodward, T. (2009). Am I ready to be a teacher trainer?. TeachingEnglish | British Council | BBC.
Retrieved 15 October 2016, from https://www.teachingenglish.org.uk/article/am-i-ready-be-a-teacher-
trainer
7. Wright, T. & Bolitho, R. (2007). Trainer development. [s. l.]: [s. n.].