Becoming the Effective English Teachers in the 21st Century: What Should Know and What Should Do?

Abstract

Think outside the classroom box (Hampson et.al) shows that a traditional classroom where teachers as the only source of knowledge no longer fulfill the 21st century students needs. In the 21st century students should be taught the 21st century skills preparing them for successful learning, life, and work. Based on this phenomenon, teachers are demanded to be ready and be responsive in facing the educational challenges in 21st century. They should grasp that education develops and changes affected by a drastic technological revolution that conceives students as digital native and the teachers as digital immigrant. Then, the teachers should adapt this change by engaging with some information dealing with the 21st century education. Particularly, English teachers have vital roles since they teach English subject which is really relevant to the 21st century learning. It is because the 21st century requires many skills to get high standard use of English language (Suherdi, 2012b). This study focuses on proposing that becoming the effective teachers is what English teachers should do to answer the needs of 21st century. It is supported by Belasco and James (1991) statement (as cited in Ansari, 2013) that effective teachers have a repertoire of effective teaching practices. Based on the analysis, it is really critical to shedding more light on the findings of this research about what matters English teachers should know; they are the 21st century skills and learning, the characteristics and skills of effective English teachers, the roles of effective English teachers, and several endeavors to actualize effective English teachers.