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1、如何由教师为中心转化为以学生为中心的英语课堂教学How to Shift from a Teacher-Centered to a Learner-Centered English ClassroomContentsAbstract .1Key words .1I. Introduction.1II. Background Information.2III. The Comparison between the Traditional Approach and the Learner-Centered Approach .33.1 The Traditional Approach of Tea
2、ching.33.2 Learner-Centered Approach.53.2.1The Definition of Learner- Centered Approach.53.2.2 The Key Feature of Learner-Centered Approach.53.2.3 The Advantages of a Learner-Centered Classroom.63.2.4 The Significance of Learner-Centered Approach in China.6IV. Causes for the Adoption of the Learner-
3、Centered Approach in China.64.1 Considering the Teaching Method .74.1.1 Giving the Poor of Instructions .74.1.2 Failure to Monitor, or to Monitor Sensitively 84.1.3 Failure to Give Feedback .84.2 Considering Teachers Qualification .8V. Advice on How to Shift from a Teacher-Centered to a Learner- Cen
4、tered English Classroom .85.1 Using the Communicative Approach.85.2 Creating Comfortable Classroom Atmosphere.115.3 Using Group Work .115.4 Producing More Qualified Teachers.13VI. Conclusion .13References.14How to Shift from a Teacher-Centered to a Learner-Centered English Classroom摘要：语言教学的目的是使学生能使用
5、目标语言进行交流。学生是学习的主体， 所以外语课堂教学应尽可能以学生为中心。随着语言教学不断交际化方面发展，传统的教学模式受到挑战， 文章主张英语教学要以学生为中心， 并讨论了为何要以学生为中心， 提出了如何以学生为中心的几点建议。关键词：英语教学； 以学生为中心； 交际法Abstracts: The purposes of language teaching are to enable students to communicate in the target language. Only the learner can learn. Therefore English classes sh
6、ould be made as learner-centered as possible and the learner-centered approach is advocated nowadays. With the teaching of language being more and more communication-oriented, the traditional classroom teaching is facing a big challenge. This paper proposes a new teaching idea of the “learner-center
7、ed” and analyses its reasons, and also puts forward several methods as to attaining this teaching idea.Key words: English teaching; learner-centered; communicative approachI. IntroductionToday, along with the increasingly economic and scientific development, English is becoming more and more importa
8、nt in our study and life. Unfortunately the purpose of teaching and learning English has not been realized. Many people still take it for granted that they learn English just because it is part of the school curriculum. Their only aim is to get high marks in the final entrance examination but mot co
9、mmunication.At present, the key to deepening the educational reform lies in whether the traditional teaching method, which dominates teaching practice in the language classroom method can be broken.In traditional teacher-centered English classroom, teachers are to impart language knowledge while stu
10、dents are always on the receiving stage, so its hard for the students to give full play to their initiative. The teacher should provide students with a lot of simple, useful, interesting language materials about daily life. The students can learn it in the English mother tongue atmosphere easily. Ju
11、st as a language education professor said: “Tell me, Ill forget, show me maybe Ill remember, involve me, Ill understand.” So, let the students take part in the activities, and then they can understand what they are learning. In English teaching & learning as a mother tongue, the teachers break the t
12、raditional “teacher-centered” mode, to take its place is the “learner-centered” mode, which based on the students, is more flexible and the students are the masters of English learning. In English teaching & learning as a mother tongue environment cooperative learning can help students shorten the d
13、istance from learner-centered learning to solidifying the new knowledge and shorten gap between the individual learning abilities.II. Background InformationWith the current liberal policy of opening to the outside world, English Language Teaching (ELT) is increasingly popular in China. Furthermore,
14、with the recent success of Chinas accession to the World Trade Organization and winning for hosting the 2008 Olympic Games in Beijing, there is an obvious consensus among the nation that English is a necessity for almost any modern Chinese. Despite the apparent achievements of Chinas ELT profession
15、for the last couple of decades, there are still unsatisfactory aspects in teaching the English language at the tertiary level; some government officials have made their complaints about these in public. This makes it more urgent that current teaching methodology should be changed or at least modifie
16、d with respect to the necessary reform in the teaching of English in China, particularly at the tertiary level.If we need something new and better to replace the old way of teaching English, there seems to be one promising candidate for teachers to select, i.e. the learner-centered approach in forei
17、gn language instruction. With the introduction of relevant theory and related rationale in Chinas applied linguistic community, some teachers have showed considerable interest in this new teaching method. There are some who have gone even so far as regarding the approach as a magic panacea.Tradition
18、ally, the teaching of EFL in most East Asian countries is dominated by a teacher-centered, book-centered, grammar-translation method and an emphasis on rote memory (Liu & Littlewood, 1997). These traditional language-teaching approaches have resulted in a number of typical learning styles in East As
19、ian countries, with introverted learning being one of them. In East Asia, most students see knowledge as something to be transmitted by the teacher rather than discovered by the learners. They, therefore, find it normal to engage in modes of learning which are teacher-centered and in which they rece
20、ive knowledge rather than interpret it. According to Harshbarger el al (1986), Japanese and Korean students are often quiet, shy and reticent in language classrooms. They dislike public touch and overt displays of opinions or emotions, indicating a reserve that is the hallmark of introverts. Chinese
21、 students likewise name listening to teacher as their most frequent activity in senior school English classes (Liu & Littlewood, 1997). All these claims are confirmed by a study conducted by Sato (1982), in which she compared the participation of Asian students in the classroom interaction with that
22、 of non-Asian students. Sato found that the Asians took significant fewer speaking turns than did their non-Asian classmates (36.5% as opposed to 63.5%). The teacher-centered classroom teaching in East Asia also leads to a closure-oriented style for most East Asian students. These closure-oriented s
23、tudents dislike ambiguity, uncertainty or fuzziness. To avoid these, they will sometimes jump to hasty conclusions about grammar rules or reading themes.III. The Comparison between the Traditional Approach and the Learner-Centered Approach3.1 The traditional Approach of TeachingThe traditional appro
24、ach of teaching in our English classroom is usually called the Grammar-Translation Approach. The traditional language classroom is dominated by the teacher from the very beginning to the end. In the other words the process of teaching and learning is teacher-centered. Teachers perform two roles: “Th
25、e first is that of knower-the teacher is source of knowledge in terms of both the target language and the choice of methodology. The second role is that of activities organizer-the teacher sets up and steers learning activities and provides authoritative feedback on students performance.” (Lan Tudor
26、, 1993) In this sense, the students needs are neglected and teaching becomes blind. What the students can do in traditional mode of teaching is to perform under the teachers wishes, and learning becomes passive and mechanical. The teacher remains center of classroom. Students in China are generally
27、teacher-dependent and lack the initiative to implement learning on their own. To many of them, it is impossible for one to adapt to the changing society with the knowledge learned at school. The traditional teacher-centered paradigm may prevent effective technology integration. Most teachers were ta
28、ught under the Kairov pedagogy, and this model has dominated Chinese education for approximately fifty years. Students, those who do generally just look up new words in the text and learn them by heart. They feel this is all they need do because they expect their teachers to spoon-feed them in class
29、. Students do not need to actively think over what they will learn or why they should learn or how. They just come to class with their ears open to listen to the teacher and receive knowledge. The methods of the teaching English can be briefly described as follows: before going to class, students ar
30、e usually required to prepare the new lesson, that is, to look for the meaning of the new vocabulary in the word list or in a dictionary and analysis sentences grammatically. In class, a teacher generally has two focuses: one is word study, which is often performed with the teacher taking out some d
31、ifficult words or phrases from a text and explaining the meaning and the usage by giving examples. Another focus is study of grammar, which is usually done by the teacher explaining or analysis some important or difficult structures either in English or in Chinese. The students must do more reading
32、the text aloud paragraph by paragraph, asking comprehension question, and finally doing the exercises after the text. Students are also required to do the exercises beforehand. So what the teacher needs to do with the exercises is only to check the answers by asking students to read their answers an
33、d asking other students to confirm or reject. If the students can not do so, the teacher does it instead. Both teachers and students spend a lot time on it; for it takes up a high percentage of examination, the teachers teach many new words, grammar structure. Most of students are teacher-dependent.
34、 They dont know how to study themselves. They are not interested in English. In such class, the teacher provides all the input like a transmitter, and the students passively receive what is sent to them. How to improve the students interest and how teachers can change the method in order to help the
35、 students step from a passive position of learning and memorizing are becoming the most important problem for teachers. For the problems, there are some possible solutions, which can improve the students interest of learning English; the teachers use the right method to improve the English teaching
36、quality. That is the times requirement. The goal of current education tends more and more to improve ones ability and strengthen ones overall quality. It is impossible for one to adapt to the changing society with the knowledge learned at school. The future society is continually learning one that r
37、equires people to learn throughout his life. English has become the most popular foreign language in China. So teacher-dependent teaching should be changed in order for English learners to be more effective and successful.3.2 Learner-Centered ApproachIn order to understand the approach better, lets
38、first focus on the curriculum design, since the learner-centered approach is characterized by the involvement of the learner in all aspects of the curriculum process. In learner-centered approach, curriculum design can be seen as a negotiating process between teachers and students, this differs from
39、 traditional approaches to curriculum design where these decisions are made by “outside” experts such as needs analyst or course planners. (Nunan, 1989) He expresses this in the following terms: “While a learner-centered curriculum will contain similar elements and processes to traditional curricula
40、, a key difference will be that information by and from learners will be built into every phase of the curriculum process. Curriculum development becomes a collaborative effort between teachers and learners, since learner will be involved in decisions on content selection, methodology and evaluation
41、.” Nunan still expresses his idea about the design of curriculum in other words: “The more teachers and students who are involved in developing the curriculum, the more successful it is likely to be.” This idea emphasizes the strongest and most coherent view of what a learner-centered approach can m
42、ean in language teaching terms. In a learner-centered approach students are seen as being able to assume a more active and participatory role than is usual in traditional approaches. As the goal of language teaching and learning is for communication, the learner-centered approach boils down to respo
43、nding to students in built needs as both language learner and users. This is why it becomes more and more acceptable in the field of language teaching. For the first time, the function of language has been emphasized, as the approach aims at enabling students to communicate in the target language an
44、d to improve their real language ability. Learner-centered approach is one of the most efficient ways in language teaching and learning field, especially in Chinas language teaching circle, where it has been dominated by the traditional approaches for many years. 3.2.1 The Definition of Learner-Cent
45、ered ApproachThe learner-centered teaching approach aimed at developing students communicative ability more effectively is gaining great popularity in English teaching class. It emphasizes students involvement and active participation in class as well as the important part teachers plays in guiding
46、students and providing the “conditions”. Learners will be involved in decisions on content selection methodology and evaluation. 3.2.2 The Key Feature of Learner-Centered ApproachA key feature of student-centered teaching is enabling students to reflect on what and how they have learned. Motivation
47、is intrinsic to them arising from their specific interests and background knowledge. They choose topics for study and the learning methods to be used. They are experts, knowing their own level of interest and background knowledge. The students enthusiasm of learning is to be aroused by this teaching method. 3.2.3 The Advantages of a Learner-Centered Classroom (1) Students can improve their learning process.(2) Students are more active in their learning process.(3) Students are expected to turn their input into output.(4) The teacher has the opportunity to give timely and meaningful feedback
