HOW TO BE AN EFFECTIVE TEACHER BASED ON MY EXPERIENCES AS A

SECOND LANGUAGE LEARNER

Quality teachers are essential to ensure students' identity. An excellent teacher will
produce brilliant students. A teacher needs to carry out the teaching and learning
process effectively to ensure that students understand the learning and are able to
apply the skills learned in everyday life. Especially in second language subjects that
most students find it difficult to understand. As Malaysian, our second language is
English. So, English language teachers must be creative so that classroom learning
is more effective. Effective means successful in producing a desired or intended
result. The question is how to become an effective teacher?

First, the English teacher must encourage the students to keep study.
Encouragement is very important to encourage students to continue to study without
feeling tired. Based on my experience, the interest in English which is the second
language never fades away because it always has the support from the teacher. My
teacher always gives advice and motivation when giving up because failing in the
English language exam. When the teacher realized I was not good at English, he
focused on me until I can speaking and writing in English, answer questions in
English and be a good listener when someone speaking something in English. So,
any encouragement such as advice, motivation, concentration and so on can
encourage the students to continue to learn without giving up thus making the
learning environment conducive in an effective manner.

Next, pedagogical knowledge should also be mastered by English teachers to

ensure the effective teaching and learning process. Pedagogical knowledge is the
method and practice of teaching, especially as an academic subject or theoretical
concept. English is an academic subject so it is appropriate to use pedagogical
knowledge in teaching this subject. During school, my teacher always teaches me
how to know the animal in English by acting. My teacher will act as an animal and we
will mention the name of the animal. Besides, I learned to know the limbs in English
by singing. My teacher created a song for us to memorize the name of the limbs
while dancing pointing the limbs pronounced. I'm very excited to learn English in that
way and I can remember the teaching of the teacher so far. Students need to be
taught with interesting methods so they do not feel bored to continue studying. That
is how to make the process of teaching and learning more effective.

In addition, an effective teacher needs to know the use of information and

communication technology tools in the process of teaching and learning in schools.
Surfing the internet is an activity that students always do to find all the information.
The internet is one of the branches of information and communication technology. In
my school hours, I and my friends are taught to use the internet by my English
teacher to find useful information such as searching for word meaning in Google
Translate apps, guide to making sentences in English and so on. Furthermore, High
technology tools can also be used as teaching tools like a presentation app to make
class activities more interesting. In this modern age, especially young students are
particularly interested in high technology tools, indirectly teaching and learning
activities become more effective.

Finally, an effective teacher needs to appreciate all the work done by his
students. Based on my experience, a student who is rewarded by his teacher will
always be eager to continue learning activities even though the results are just as
small. For example, my English teacher gave me a pencil when I passed the final
exam. Besides, he gives a nice cop whenever I finish his schoolwork. The students
are very happy and feel loved to accept even a small gift from their teacher, this
makes them also love their teacher and earnestly doing homework given to them.
Teachers and students need to love each other for a conducive learning environment
and effective teaching.

In a nut shell, a quality teacher must have integrity in itself. Leadership is very
important in the teaching profession to guide students to success in the future. Good
teachers always encourage students to continue to learn by using effective
pedagogical methods. The use of technology is also important to give exposure to
today's students and teachers need to reward each work done by the students. I
have been through all these experiences, so I am convinced this way teachers can
provide guidance more effectively.