对教师角色的外部规约、分析与其自身生成的角色认同之间所存在的错位和距离是导致教师在教学实践中时常感受到“职业疼痛”的重要原因。本文通过对课堂教学实践的本质解读，探讨外语教师的角色张力以及他们在外语课堂上所应起到的核心作用，提出教师在外语课堂教学的复杂情境中所应扮演的是 “对话者”的角色。

The difference between the social expectations and analyses of teachers’ role and what has been identified by the teachers themselves has been an important cause for the “professional agony” felt by the teachers in their professional practice. This paper tries to explore a teacher’s critical role and its tension in teaching practice by discussing the nature of classroom teaching. It suggests that a teacher should play the role of an dialogist in the complex teaching context by which s/he is better able to create a positive foreign language learning environment, improve teaching efficiency and meet the multiple challenges from the objective world, the students and the self in order to carry on the dialogues in life through classroom teaching.