Summary 3

ROLES REFLECTING A TEACHING APPROACH OR METHOD

The role of a teacher in the context of classroom teaching and learning may also be
influenced by the approach or methodology the teacher is following. While not all teachers
see themselves as trying to implement a particular approach or methodology (e.g.,
Communicative Language Teaching, a Process Writing Approach, a Whole Language
Approach), many teachers do describe their teaching in these terms and may have been
trained to work within a specific methodology. Implicit in every methodology are particular
assumptions about the role of the teacher and about how students should learn.

1. The Direct Method,

which was one of the first oral-based methods to be used in foreign language teaching,
described the teacher's role in very specific terms and proposed the following guidelines for
teachers to follow:
Never translate: demonstrate
Never explain: act
Never make a speech: ask questions
Never imitate mistakes: correct
Never speak with single words: use sentences
Never speak too much: make students speak much
Never use the book: use your lesson plan
Never jump around: follow your lesson plan
Never go too fast: keep the pace of the students
Never speak too slowly: speak normally
Never speak too quickly: speak normally
Never speak too loudly: speak normally
Never be impatient: take it easy

2. Active Teaching Model

(which focuses on the teacher's ability to engage students productively on learning tasks
during lessons), sees the management and monitoring of learning as a primary role for
teachers. In order to achieve this level of teaching, teachers must:
 Communicate clearly by: giving accurate directions specifying tasks and
measurements presenting new information by explaining, outlining, summarizing,
reviewing
 Obtain and manage engagement by: maintaining task focus pacing instruction
appropriately promoting involvement communicating expectations for successful
performance
 Monitor progress by: reviewing work frequently adjusting instruction to maximize
accuracy
 Provide immediate feedback by: informing students when they are successful giving
information about how to achieve success

3. Cooperative Learning Model

(Kagan 1987; Kessler 1992), attempt to redefine the roles of both teacher and learner
through a methodology which relies less on teacher-directed teaching and more on
cooperative group work and pair work activities. With Cooperative Learning, the
teacher's role is to:

 Share the responsibility for managing both interaction and learning with
students.
 Structure the learning environment so that students cooperate to obtain
learning goals.
 Stimulate interactive language use through group work and collaborative
problem solving.
 Choose classroom tasks which involve information sharing, cooperative
reasoning, opinion sharing, values clarification.
 Coordinate group activities. Provide clarification, feedback, and motivational
support.

In Communicative Language Teaching, The Teacher Has Two Main Roles:

 The first is to facilitate the communication process between all participants in the
classroom, and between these participants and the various activities and texts.
 The second role is to act as an independent participant within the learning-teaching
group.

The latter role is closely related to the objectives of the first role and arises
from it. These roles imply a set of secondary roles for the teacher; first, as an
organizer of resources and as a resource himself, second as a guide within the
classroom procedures and activities. .. . A third role for the teacher is that of
researcher and learner, with much to contribute in terms of appropriate knowledge
and abilities, actual and observed experience of the nature of learning and
organizational capacities. (Breen and Candlin 1980: 99)