I would like to mention two English teachers I had and explain why they were important to me as an English student in my teenage time and why I consider that they had a great impact on my professional life.
The teachers mentioned were called Tina and Diana. They were my teachers in a language school in Recife, Pernambuco. Although I do not remember my lessons very well, (I can’t really tell anything about these teachers’ methods or tools) I can clearly define how good I used to feel on the day of their lessons. And what made me feel so good was the affection that both of them dispensed to me. At that time, I could not grasp how much influence the way they used to treat me would have on my professional life (at that time I did not have the faintest idea that I would become a teacher myself either!). Tina was my teacher for three semesters and I remember she used to call me ‘my little passion fruit flower’. Diana taught me for a semester only and she used to call me ‘Tricia’ (with a unique accent). And it is funny to say that while I am here writing, I can still feel the caring and positive vibration of the tone of their voices. I would say that they both made the classroom become a place where I could find, not only the paths for learning a foreign language, but also and above all, love and care. Their loving attitude towards me had always been part of my clearest and dearest memories in my language learning process. I say that because I know how much I missed them when I had to learn with other teachers.
Nowadays, having grown up, I can say that these two teachers had a real impact on the way I try to lead my professional life. I have been an EFL teacher for twelve years now and I take great advantages of emotional attitudes and affection with my groups. In my experience, I have noticed that students do evolve better (and I guess a big number of research work prove it right) when they have the feeling of being dear, especially by their teachers - even in a private language school, which is something that most of them do not take so seriously as their regular schools. I do think it is the teacher’s role to create a comfortable and familiar atmosphere for the students and in this hard job affection plays a very important role.