A Study of the Conversion of Teachers’ Roles under Communicative Teaching Approach

【Abstract】Firstly，the article introduces the dedinition of CTA .Then it analyzes and introduces under CTA teachers’ different roles， such as controller， assessor， organizer， prompter and so on. Realizing these roles is not the ultimate goal， but we should cultivate the students’ communicative competence including grammatical competence， socio-linguistic competence， discourse competence and strategic competence. The teachers should change their role naturally based on different teaching content. Finally， the conclusion part is a summary of the enlightenment of the study of CTA and teachers roles in teaching process as well as a general statement of the significance and function of teachers’ role conversion under CTA.

【Key words】communicative teaching approachteachers’ roles methods

The communicative linguistics believes that the acquisition and development of communicative competence depend on students’ internal factors. Teachers are not the traditional knowledge disseminator but the learning helper. In the communicative teaching process， the core is the students， but teachers still play indispensable roles.

1 Definition

Communicative approach is also called functional approach or notional approach. Based on the communicative competence theory of Hymes， the functional theory of Halliday and the notional theory of Wilkins， communicative approach takes place of traditional teaching method becoming the most common and useful English teaching method in the world. The theory basis of communicative teaching approach is taking a language as a communicative method. During the process， teachers have the responsibility to improve the students’ intercultural ability and speaking ability through communicative process.

2 The Roles of Teachers under the CTA

Teaching is usually regarded as something that teachers do in order to bring about changes in learners. A central component of methodology is how teachers view their role in this process. What kinds of teaching type do they regard as desirable? What kinds of teacher-learner interactions do they favor?

2.1 As a Designer

How to use the collected information mentioned above， which relates to another role of teachers—designer of the class. Though a teacher could collect enough new and efficient materials， without a unique idea of designing or arranging these materials， in other words， teachers cannot create good input， which will lead to deficient output. To design a good class， including put all the required grammars， key points of syllabus into the related materials. Then students master these key points through communication or special activities.

2.2 As an Organizer and Controller

With good teaching materials and teaching design， a teacher moves to next role—organizer and controller of the class. Krashen’s Affective Filter Hypothesis that is one aspect of Krashen’s Input Hypothesis believes that emotional factor affect the language acquisition organ in mind， and adults have strong filter ability than children. So teachers should try to reduce children’s negative emotional influence， which can be used as the premise of input and guarantee of output. It can also make sure all students participant in the class activity and help the shy ones overcome their shyness. Besides， teachers should control the length of each activity. r

2.3 As a Self-observer

The classroom practices of language teachers are of interest to many different people. Program administrators and supervisors are interested in knowing whether the teachers’ instructional practices are relevant to the program’s goals and objectives.

As a teacher， he or she should adhere to several guidelines to conduct the self-monitoring in order to have good teaching.Self-monitor is a vital and helpful approach for teaching. Many teachers have found that self-monitoring techniques give them a far greater insight into their own teaching than more traditional forms of regular assessment， and at the same time a simple but effective way f improving the management and understanding of their own teaching. So self-monitor is one more role of a teacher.

3 Evaluation of Teacher’s Roles Conversion

In modern society， the basic role of teacher as a knowledge disseminator doesn’t change， but it is no longer like a knowledge authority to put his or her knowledge out directly. In the teaching process， students are the main body and teachers are main guiders.

Break off the perception of taking teachers as the center of the class. Now we should adhere to such a teaching principle: students learn by themselves and teachers as guiders. Shift the educational perception from knowledge-oriented to ability-oriented. Pay attention to students’ experience and practices， such as teachers can use reach-teaching， corporate study to adapt to students’ development. Concentrate on the importance of students’ whole quality， and we should try to cultivate them to new generation with self-teaching ability， creative personality and creative ideas.

4 Suggestions

Teachers and teachers’ training has always attracted people?‘s attention. World Education Yearbook has ever taken teacher and teachers’ training as its topic in 1963 and 1980. So we can see the importance of this field especially the globalization is moving so fast that FLT demands teachers much more than before.

Teacher preparation programs must move beyond a “training” perspective to an “education” perspective—one which recognizes that successful teaching involves higher-level cognitive processes that can be taught directly.

Language programs should reflect less of an emphasis on prescriptions and top-down directives and more of an emphasis on inquiry-based and discovery-oriented approaches to learning and teaching-a more bottom-up perspective.

Teacher preparation programs should include experiences that require student teachers to generate theories and hypotheses， and to reflect critically on teaching through gathering data about teaching and learning.

5 Conclusion

In this thesis， the focus was put on the redefinition of the role of the teacher. The CTA provide teachers various teaching method， but that was not enough. Teachers here is no longer simply a presenter of materials or an implementer of a method， for the teacher must serve variously as a information collector， a designer， a organizer， a self-observer and so on.

My own view is likewise that the field of second and foreign language teaching requires a comprehensive view of how successful learning and teaching is planed for and accomplished in educational setting. With the appearance of new teaching method， teachers’ role developed accordingly.

Teaching is a creative profession. The creativeness firstly is embodied in teachers’ insight into students’ inner mind. Facing different teaching environment， teachers should change their role naturally. According to different role analysis， I think a clear understanding of teacher’ role is vital for effective teaching.

Bibliography

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