The-Role-of-Teacher--Learner-and-Material-in-Forei

The role of teacher, learner and material in foreign language learning Yan Mei I have been a foreign language teacher for about 10 years and my understanding about the role of the three crucial factors, teacher, learner and material and their interaction in foreign language learning has undergone great changes. Looking back on my first year’s teaching, I still felt the nervousness when I stepped onto the platform. There was pressure from everywhere, the students, the fresh new environment, the newly assigned role, and most important of all, from the textbook. At the very beginning of my teaching, my focus was mainly on how to finish what I should cover during the class sessions. I made full preparation and tried to arrange my time in a proper way so that I could keep up with the schedule as that of other teachers of the same course. Class time was limited and there seemed to be so much to teach, so every class I felt exhausted after the effortful presentation of each language and difficulty point, totally ignoring that the students were just as miserable as me. The teaching results were imaginable. Reflecting on my first year’s teaching, I attribute my failure to some misconceptions that I held for education and my ignorance about the ecological nature of language teaching. In my teaching, (maybe as many others’) learning materials were given top priority and teachers’ role had been unduly exaggerated, while learners, the most important agent in learning, were almost totally and mistakenly neglected. However, language teaching, as we know, is far from the mere transmission of knowledge from the teachers to the learners; input provided by teachers will not necessarily become intake of the students. In fact, as we gradually realize, it is not teaching, but learning that counts. That is why nowadays learner-centered or learning-oriented teaching has been highly advocated and recommended. Viewing language teaching and learning from the new perspective, the role of teachers, learners and teaching material should also be redefined. In the learning process, the first and most important factor should go to the learners. If the learners themselves are not willing or ready to learn, learning is hard, if not impossible, to happen. For learning to happen, motivation, autonomy and active engagement in the whole teaching and learning process are necessary, and all these are greatly influenced by factors from teachers as well as from the textbooks. Learner-centered teaching poses new challenges for teachers. Class time is no longer the mere presentation of the text material. A fully understanding about the learning style of each student is necessary for students to learn more efficiently; a thorough investigation about students’ past learning experience makes it possible for teachers to design the teaching content suitable for the students; an enthusiastic and passionate presentation would arouse students’ interest and passion in the course and a relaxing environment created by teachers can lower the students’ anxiety to participate more actively in class activities, so on and so forth. In learner-centered teaching, teaching should not be limited to the transmission of textbook knowledge, skills, attitudes, and values should also be integrated in the teaching design as well. Language teaching is oriented to the holistic development of learners. Textbooks also have a lot to do with learning. In choosing a textbook, a lot of questions should be asked to make sure it can satisfy the needs of the learners: such as whether they are cognitively matched with the students so as to arouse the students’ interest in learning, whether there is closer connection between units so as to keep the incremental nature of learning, whether the materials can make the most important learning tasks salient as so to promote learning, whether the text content is contextually based so as to make it meaningful learning, etc. Textbook is the medium to bridge the teacher and the learner. Whether it can be transformed from input to students’ intake depends on the teacher’s skill in transmitting and learners readiness to accept. Learning can happen only when the printed words have made some connection with learners’ prior knowledge. Otherwise, it is only rote learning that cannot be retained long. So the suitability of a textbook is determined by the condition of learners and the use of teachers. If I were to compare the learning process to a sailing, I would say teachers were the helmsmen who would make the blueprint and guide the directions, and learners like the sailors, would do the real strenuous work. Teachers can create all possible conditions conducive for the learning. They choose the suitable material, design the class teaching appropriately, create contextual situations for learners’ practice, motivate and encourage learners, and make changes according to learners’ feedback, and so on and so forth. Yet learning can only happen within th