Roles of teachers and learners

Role of teachers:                       

           What does a teacher do?’ The obvious and simple

response is ‘a teacher teaches’, but what do we mean by

this? What does teaching involve? The answer to this is

bound up with the idea of how people learn.As we saw in

the previous chapter, there is not a one to one

relationship between teaching and learning. Although

teachers can tell learners about language – tell them what

words mean, give grammar rules and so on – this does

not seem to lead automatically to learners being able to

use the language that they are ‘given’. Learners may learn

things from the teacher, or from each other, or from

watching a film, or hearing a song, reading something, or

perhaps by reflecting on things that they have been

‘taught’ in previous lessons. Sometimes learners will seem

to make quite rapid progress, and at other times progress

will be slow. Sometimes learners will need a significant

amount of time (days, weeks, or months) before

something they have been ‘taught’ really makes sense to

them and they feel able to use it. Although teachers try to

make teaching an orderly and organised business,

learning remains apparently chaotic. Teachers of

languages have to accept this and set about helping

people to learn at their own pace and in their own ways.

We will look at some of the roles teachers adopt to try to

facilitate learning. Although teaching strategies may vary

according to the subject matter, the group being taught

and so on, we can see certain patterns emerging in all

teaching, and quite clear patterns when we look at teaching.

Try to picture a lesson that you have experienced, if

possible as a language learner (or teacher) but if that is

not possible, think of any lesson. Think in as much detail

as possible. Write down as many actions that the teacher

performed as you can. For example, the teacher gave information.

When you are ready, compare your list to the one below,

which has been based on a language lesson. (Don’t worry

about the numbered left hand column for the moment.)

                       

Teacher must provide instructions and encouragement. At the same time he has to be aware of students's perspectives and understanding.

The teacher must speak in target language and students must be provided with guidance and material. 

If students are speaking in their own language, teacher should force them to speak in target language.

Conversations  should be there. Grammar patterns ought to be there.

he importance to teaching of some of the roles

introduced in the previous section may seem

immediately more obvious than others. In this section we

will look in a little more detail at what each role involves

and why it is important.

Most institutions will have their own administrative

procedures that teachers will be expected to follow. These

may include preparing reports on students, keeping

records of what has been taught, and preparing a plan of

a sequence of lessons to be taught. Teachers may well be

expected to assess their students by administering a test or

tests at some point either during, or at the end of, a course.

However, unlike the other roles, these two functions are

removed from day to day contact with students. It is these

day to day activities that we will now look at more closely.

Different roles of learners

The learners' task in the teaching and learning equation is

to construct the system of the target language. They have

to find out and remember how words are joined together

and what they mean, how grammar patterns fit together,

as well as how phonological features such as stress and

intonation are used. The system the learner constructs

can only emerge gradually – parts may come from direct,

conscious learning of new bits of language, and other

parts may be subconsciously picked up from exposure to

the target language.

The ways in which learners undertake this daunting task

will vary according to the learning styles each individual

prefers, their previous learning experience, their own

perceived needs and so on. However, just as we were able

to analyse roles of the teacher, so we can analyse certain

roles that learners will fulfil. Again as with the roles of the

teacher, the list is not exhaustive and there is some

overlap between them.

Help from the teacher to learner:

The responsibility of fulfilling these roles is shared

between the teacher and student. In this section we will

look at what teachers can do to help students fulfil their

roles successfully.

To help learners to fulfil the role of participant the

teacher could 

● invite students to respond (see role of prompter)

● provide group and pair work (see role of provider of

input)

● value contributions made by praising and responding

appropriately (see role of listener)

● respect when students do/do not want to speak and

reflect on why this may be the case.

Different roles of learners

Participant

By participating fully in the lesson students gain practice. They

can ‘test out’ how they think the language works in a nonthreatening environment and may benefit from feedback from

the teacher on their efforts. Practice in using language and

exposure to it seem to be important elements in the learning

process. However, teachers should be aware that some learners

may feel uncomfortable about joining in in certain situations, and

some people may prefer to remain relatively quiet and observe

others. Many people may learn very effectively in this way, and

so learners need the opportunity to participate, but not

necessarily be forced to.

Discoverer

This is strongly linked to the teacher’s role of language guide. By

taking the opportunities to work out patterns and rules for

themselves, learners can benefit in the ways described in that

section.

Questioner

This is linked to the above role. By asking questions learners can

take responsibility for their own learning to some extent. They

can set the agenda of what gets taught, rather than simply being

the passive recipient of what the teacher presents. They can also

tap into and benefit from the teacher’s expertise. 

Recorder of information

When we have to remember something important most of us

write it down. This means that we can refer back to the

information. Learners need to record new words and phrases,

new bits of grammar and so on, to help them remember what

they learn. They can also make these records outside the

classroom when they study independently.