Generally, it was mentioned that the Learner-led approach could be very difficult to be applied especially with young learners. Even if there is evidence that it works fine with the specific group, the teacher must be very experienced or trained very well in order to succeed.
One of the problems that may appear is that if –let’s say- the head of the school comes to observe you a lot of criticism will take place because this approach is not very popular in the teaching context. Also, as a teacher you cannot provide enough evidence about the results and (to be more realistic) parents always prefer their children to undertake a more ‘natural’ approach in training and teaching that the school provides so they feel more confident and sure about the school they are paying for and the results of their children. However, it was mentioned that probably this approach could be more applicable with older learners as they tend to be more autonomous and cognitively mature.
Another important issue is that, most of us agreed that the ideal choice of the teaching and training approach is to be somewhere between the Teacher-directed and Teacher-guided approach, as there is more control and balance in the teaching context and there is more confidence and trust between the teacher, the school and the parents.
It is believed however that for someone learning a language and achieving language proficiency there has to be much interest and motivation. Even if the teacher is good at training learners, for someone to learn has to find his/her own way of learning. For this reason, it could be assumed that the successful learner in some way possesses autonomy in learning as he /she found his/her own way.
However, one way of helping learners become more conscious of their autonomy is by explicit and implicit teaching which can be very helpful in training study skills. In this way learners are enabled become familiar with study skills and choose the way they prefer to learn.
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I do agree with that many difficulties from school policies, parents, and even teachers we have to face when trying to practice and find a appropriate teaching approach between teacher-led and learner-led; however, it shouldn't be the excuse for teachers to improve their teaching skills.
ReplyDeleteto be a teacher, I believe it is not justice to say which way is the best, but teachers should find different appropriate approaches for students of different ages, diferent language proficiency, different language learning backgrounds, but rather generally discuss whether learner-led approach is better or not. I do appriciate that in the leaner autonomy course, I learned we have to find a way in somewhere between teacher-led and learners-led.