Teachers Roles and the Role Shift in the English Teaching Abstract：The current situations of English teaching reform and prospect disclose many shortcomings of the traditional roles of teachers and traditional teaching， this paper has a exploration on the implication of teachers roles， the rationale and necessities of the role shift， the changing direction， and how to achieve the role shift， which require English teachers to change their teaching concepts and methods to deal well with the relationship between teaching and learning， and between teachers leading role and students dominant position， so as to teach English perfectly and successfully. Key words：English teaching， teacher roles， role shift， necessities， changing direction 1.Introduction Technological development， social progress and the process of global integration put forward higher requirements for English education. There are many factors that affect the quality of English education， such as the syllabus， the content of teaching materials， the presentation system， knowledge level of teachers， the teaching equipments and so on. Among the factors， concepts are the most important， especially the concept-based view of students， the concept-based view of teachers and the concept-based view between teachers and students which turn out to be essential in a variety of concepts will affect the direction of educational development， influence the quality of education and determine the the future development of education. It should be said that the concept of English education in China has been changing. As the saying goes “Be a teacher one day in learning as the father in life in the traditional education.”， even in the days of the Confucian classics， the positions of the king， parents and teachers are side by side which emphasizes the highly privileged status of teachers. The so-called teaching， by definition， is a combination of “teaching” and “learning”. Therefore， teachers should deal well with the relationship between “teaching” and “learning”， that is， properly handle the relationship between teachers leading role and students dominant position. In recent decades， experts advocate changing from the teacher-based learning in the traditional teaching to the teacher-led and student-activity teaching in the modern teaching. This change is enormous， but the concept of education itself is dynamic and will change constantly. 2. The necessities of teachers role shift in the English teaching Roles of teachers mean teachers with the special status should meet the expectations of social behaviour in the educational system， therefore， it has a positive significance to analyze roles of teachers and make clear their diversified roles in order to fully change the traditional roles of teachers. 2.1 Linguistic analysis The linguist S. D. Krashen proposed “The key to language acquisition is a process of internalization， and foreign language learning is affected by two types of environment， one is the natural environment in which learners contact with the language through the natural absorption， so this learning is unconscious； another is the classroom environment in which learners train to learn the language in the formal classroom， so this learning is conscious” （Krashen， 1982）. Thus， in English teaching， the changing role of teachers has created a very good situational context for students to learn English so as to achieve “the ultimate goal of language teaching is to train students communicative competence” （Hymes， 1967）. Teachers roles change well or not in the English teaching will directly affect the whole process of “input-absorption-understanding” of students English learning. 2.2 From shortcomings of the traditional roles of teachers and traditional teaching In traditional English teaching， the roles of teachers demonstrate mainly in three aspects： （1） the “authority”； （2） the “arbitrator”； （3） the “messenger”. The definition of Role of teachers in Ci Hai cites that “impart knowledge to students”， which indicates the simple relationships between teachers and students are the transmission and receiving of information， and teaching and learning of knowledge （Ci Hai， 2009）. In this traditional education， teachers dominate in the mastery of knowledge， teaching skills， and ethics communication， and the roles of students are the passive recipients of knowledge， the lonely ascetics， the ruthless competitors and losers on learning. Thus， requiring teachers to change their roles is essential in the English teaching. The role shift of teachers in the traditional education requires teachers throwing away their absolute authority， changing from the “baton” in hands to “the leading stone” so as to guide students to explore the wonderful English world， making full use of the “heuristic communicative approach” to break the traditional role of teachers and teaching methods， where teachers have to change from