Towards Autonomy

In this article , we will answer this question : Who’s powerful? Teacher, students or both of them?

While I was observing , I fullfilled a list in order to figure out the power in the class. According to this list and this class. Teacher chose the aims, language focus, topics, and activities . But of them(teacher&learners) wrote on the board , clean it, make students speak, create pairs, or groups, gave meaning for words, spelled out new words gave explanations, asked and answered questions. On the other hand, students were alone for repeating waht was said if the others didn’t hear, creating silence.

According to recent decisions and researches, it is crucial to have a learner-centered language class as iti is stated in the book of Maryellen Weimer : “ If the goal of teaching is to promote learning, then the role the teacher takes to accomplish that goal changes considerably. Teachers no longer function as exclusive content expert or authoritarian classroom managers and no long work to improve teaching by developing sophisticated presentation skills. They will lecture less and be much more around the classroom than in front of it.”

In this lesson, at the beginning , teacher presented the language with a PPT and it last twenty-five minutes, then asked students to summarise the PPT and ask questions , especially turn-taking.

As far as I observed, the teacher held the power, but in my classes, even I present the language with a PPT , however I usually do presentation with 3D materials , I would keep it short and give opportunities to make students talk. For example; in one of my lessons, I presented the animals with toys in just five minutes and then my students took turns to speak about the topic while doing the activity. Surely, I directed them sometimes but not too much.However, this works if teachers have silent learners. These type of learners doesn’t want to be active and expects techer to do all the things, but when they see the whole class attend the lesson eagerly, he/she will be effected by the positive atmosphere of the classroom and they will start to handle the power.