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The Roles
of the Teacher in the Reading Classroom
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If the goal of communicative language teaching
is to have one's students become communicatively competent (Larson-Freeman 1986), then,
what roles should the teacher play in enabling his/her students to become communicatively
competent in reading?
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- 1. The teacher should be a manager/planner. This means that s/he
must be responsible for students' learning both inside and
outside of class. In order to do this, s/he must know the
needs and wants of the students in reading English. The teacher
should specify students' objectives in behavioral and measurable
terms and look for a variety of materials and teaching aids
for achieving these objectives. The teacher must think of
different activities for the whole class, small groups, pairs,
and individuals. If the teacher fulfills this role, students
will learn according to an appropriate syllabus.
- 2. The teacher acts as a counselor/social worker. S/he should create an atmosphere of
friendliness and trust by listening to students, accepting their ideas/opinions, and if
they have any problems finding ways to solve them. In this way, students will feel
relaxed, confident, assured, and not embarrassed. This behavior can definitely lower the
students' affective filter (Krashen 1984) which, in turn, may enhance learning.
- 3. The teacher is a supporter. S/he should promote students' self-reliance by
encouraging students to work toward independence. In this way, students will develop to
the fullest of their ability.
- 4. The teacher is a motivator/stimulator. The teacher should
foster student expectations about the reading and arouse their
interest to read. This can be done by asking them warmup questions
or giving them a purpose for reading. In this way, students
will enjoy learning language and develop a positive attitude
towards reading.
- 5. The teacher is a promoter. S/he should promote thinking skills by encouraging
students to participate in discussions and decision-making. Students will, thereby, be
equipped with skills they can use their whole life long.
- 6. The teacher is a language instructor. Even as a reading teacher, s/he cannot avoid
teaching language. This can be done by presenting new vocabulary, and teaching language
patterns and reading strategies appropriate to a particular genre. Teachers should also
use English in class because this is additional language input for the students. Apart
from this, teachers should correct students' mistakes in language production but only if
the mistakes obstruct communication. In this way, students will learn about language usage
while using the language in a reading class.
- 7. The teacher is a director. The teacher should supervise learning
by explaining how students should do specific activities,
keeping them constantly engaged in doing reading tasks. The
teacher should also allow time for students to work at their
own pace or, if a specific amount of time is required for
an activity, to watch the time. The teacher should also make
students use the target language and have students get information
from reading on their own.
- 8. The teacher is a monitor. This involves going around the class while students do
their reading activities in order to observe their performance, listen to them, and give
advice when needed.
- 9. The teacher is a co-communicator. By working directly on a one-to-one basis with
students, the teacher becomes a partner in communication.
- 10. The teacher is an evaluator. S/he should judge the students' performance by helping
them to see if they have completed their tasks successfully, finding out how well they
have done, and providing feedback. This serves not only to evaluate students, but helps
teachers to evaluate their teaching materials and activities to check whether they have
reached the teaching objectives or not.
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If the teacher fulfills these roles in the
reading class, students will become more efficient readers. They will be provided with
opportunities to use the language for a communicative purpose fulfilling the aim of
communicative language teaching.
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Arunee
Wiriyachitra is coordinator of the English Language Skills team for English majors
at the Faculty of Humanities at Chiang Mai University. |
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Return
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- Larsen-Freeman, D. 1986. Techniques and principle in language teaching. Oxford: Oxford
University Press.
- Littlewood, W. 1981. Communicative language teaching. Cambridge: Cambridge University
Press.
- Krashen, S. D. 1984. Principles and practices. New York: Pergamon Press.
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