III. Comparing traditional teaching and  21st  century teaching

 It is well known that everything in life has to evolve, and Teaching is not the exception.

There are some traits that define 21st century ELT practitioner that we will discuss here. 

1. Internet

We can say that around ten years ago people did not have easy access to internet, but now we all have the oportunity to obtain so much information just by the click of a button.

   Teachers take some advantages of this wonderful tool when it comes to innovating the teaching material, for example, a teacher can present a video to the students to make the lesson entertaining.

2. Technological devices

  To use technological devices in the classroom has become popular in recent years. Since EFL students do not have the opportunity to listen to spoken English every day, they have to use devices such as audio players to get used the language and its proper pronunciation.

  Currently, there is a device which is widely used; we are referring to the smartphone. Both teachers and students own one, and it helps them to improve their English skills by using some apps e.g. electronic dictionaries.

3. Creativity 
 Perhaps this point will not include all the teachers ,but some of them really cares about it.

 Creativity allows teachers to use different material, sometimes develop by themselves, to make lessons more understandable for students.

4. Open Mind

 This is an important point when it comes to dealing with different ways of thinking.

 21st century teachers must have the ability to understand every student's point of view even when they may disagree with it. It is very important for the purpose of manteining a good raport in the classroom.

5. Mistakes

  Sometimes teachers make mistakes in the classroom, but that is a common a normal situation since they are only humans.

 The thing is that in the past teachers were perceived as perfect individuals who did not made mistakes, and if they were wrong,they did not correct themselves. Now, we know it is impossible to be perfect, and we can be mistaken more than zillion times; therefore, the important thing here is to provide the right information to the students especially when they are learning a new language.

6. Realia

 It has been proven that people learn and improve  better when they are exposed to real situations to put into practice what they know about.

 When learning English, students need this type of material to get familiar with possible scenarios in in real life where they will need to use their skills to establish a proper communication.

 materials such as dialogues, short conversations, and readings have been designed to help students get used to the language, but native speakers do not speak like that. That is why real material that teachers present in the classroom helps students to perform better.

7. Patience

 A language is a complex entity which we will discover little by little, but first we need to know the basic things.

 As we know, English is not our mother tongue, but we are pretty interesting in learning it. An English student must know pronunciation,grammar structures, and some phrases of the language, but sometimes all this information is too much to be stored quickly. So teachers must be patient to deal with certain mistakes and help their students overcome them.

7. Lesson Planning

 Today's teachers plan everything that they are going to teach in the classroom, for they must give the students reliable information.

 Teachers cannot assume that their students will learn what they need to know by chance.

 Today's teachers should know what expect to accomplish their objectives aimed to their students' development.

8. Encouragement

 Teachers have an important role in students' life as they can influence their views.

 That is to say that if a teacher empowers his or her students to do their best, they would probably try to do so, but if this teacher does the opposite, his or her students might not improve their skills. Today's English teachers encourage their students to grow and progress academically.

9. Assessment

 Learning material includes more multicultural content based on both local and global resources to help students gain multiple perspectives and understanding.

10. Critical thinking and problem solving

 Today's teachers encourage their students to use different types of reasoning as appropiate to the situation, analyze the context to obtain the best conclusions, and solve different kinds of non-familiar problems by using both traditional and creative ways.

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• Salient traits between NESTs and non-NESTs

The differences between NESTs and non-NESTs lie in their strengths and weaknesses. 

Non-NESTs tend to be more knowledgeable grammar-wise whereas NESTs have the advantage when it comes to vocabulary and pronunciation because they acquired this language since they were little children. 

NESTs need to study more grammar while non-NESTs have to work a bit harder at improving their vocabulary and pronunciation.

NESTs tend to focus harder on pronunciation and vocabulary in order to make their students sound naturally.

Non-NESTs tend to over-teach grammar points as they want their students to use the language properly.

NESTs are much more likely to give stdents better examples of natural language, with a lot of phrasal verbs, idioms, slang because they have already experienced this natural kind of communication.

At the end the difference lies in the teacher’s ability to implantl in students a desire to become better speakers of the language and in the teacher’s capacity to respond to students’ needs and help them feel more confident about their knowledge and prepare their students´ for the world they are going to face.