Learning consists of acquiring organizing principles through encountering experiences. Learning a language consists of forming hypotheses about the language input to which the learners will be exposed, hypotheses being constantly modified in the direction of the target model. The teacher is a resource person who provides language input for the learner. It is the role of the teacher to assist learners to become self-directed by providing access to language data through activities such as active listening, role play and interaction with native speakers.

A learning strategy is “a specific action taken by the learner to make learning easier, faster, more enjoyable, more self-directed and more transferable to new situations” (Oxford 8). The main role of the English teacher is to help students discover effective approaches to learning and to stimulate knowledge and provide skills to the learners. They must adapt various approaches to teaching in order to serve the needs of the students. Different patterns of interaction can often be observed among learners due to differences in learners’ personalities and their different cognitive styles.

The four Cognitive styles can lead to particular patterns of classroom behavior. They are Concrete Learning Style, Analytical Learning Style, Communicative Learning Style and Authority-oriented Learning Style. Task-Oriented students are generally highly competent and successful in completing academic tasks. They enter into learning task actively and generally complete tasks with a high degree of accuracy. If they need a teacher’s help, they will not hesitate to ask and are very cooperative. Phantom students are generally good students who work steadily on classroom tasks. These students may not often be noticed or heard in the classroom. Their participation is less, and rarely initiate conversation or ask for help.

Social students usually place a high value on personal interaction. Although they are competent in accomplishing classroom tasks, they tend to value socializing with friends’ more than completing class assignments. They enjoy tutoring others in the class and participate actively in the lesson, although their answers may not always be correct. Their approach to learning can also create classroom management problems. They also do not hesitate to seek assistance from the teacher. Dependent students need the teacher’s support and guidance to complete class tasks and tend not to maintain engagement on tasks without frequent reinforcement and support. They often depend on the teacher and need structure and guidance in completing tasks. Cognitive styles have been defined as characteristic cognitive that “serve as relatively stable indicators of how learners perceive, interact with, and respond to the learning environment” (Keefe 40).

Researchers of classroom interaction have developed observational systems to describe and classify patterns of student-teacher interaction. Teacher lectures, questions about content or procedure which pupils are intended to answer. Teacher responds and encourages the ideas of the students in a non-threatening way. Individual work is generally the secondmost frequently used teaching pattern in classrooms. It includes activities as completing worksheets, reading a comprehension passage and answering questions, doing exercises from a text book, and essay writing. It provides the learners with the opportunity to practice and apply skills and to progress in their own way. It enables teachers to assess the student progress and to assign different activities to different learners based on individual needs and abilities.

Language learners from different cultures will have different beliefs and language learning strategies. “A good teacher is someone who can persuade other people to express themselves, someone who can bring out the creativity in others” (O’Neil and Reid 439). There is a great amount of ongoing research into the nature of learning strategies and into identifying strategies that are effective for different purposes. The teacher help students discover effective approaches to learning through different strategies.

• Memory strategies which help students to store and retrieve information.

• Cognitive strategies which enable learners to understand and produce new language.

• Compensation strategies which allow learners to communicate despite deficiencies in their language knowledge.

• Meta cognitive strategies which allow learners to control their own learning through organizing, planning, and evaluating.

• Affective strategies which help learners gain control over their emotions, attitudes, motivation and values.

• Social strategies which help learners interact with other people.

The current interest in learner strategies in second language teaching highlights ways in which teachers and learners can be collaboratively engaged in developing effective approaches to learning. Both are viewed as sharing the task of facilitating learning by finding how learners can learn more effectively. Rubin, one of the pioneers of work in the field, suggests that through better understanding and managing their learning strategies, learners can expect to

• Gain insights into their own approach to learning.

• Learn to choose strategies appropriate to a task and learning purpose.

• Learn to use these strategies in a classroom, self-study, or job situation.

• Learn to use strategies specific to reading, listening, and conversation.

• Be able to define strategies for improving memory for language learning.

• Learn how to effectively transfer knowledge about language and communication from one language to another.

• Learn to use resources wisely.

• Be able to deal more effectively with errors.

Teaching methodologies define specific roles for a teacher as an analyst, curriculum developer, counselor, mentor, and a researcher. The teacher determines students’ individual needs following institutional procedures and uses the information obtained for course planning and development. The teacher develops his or her own course plans and syllabuses based on the needs of a student. He is encouraged to identify students who have problems and learning difficulties, and to offer individual counsel to the students. He is also encouraged to conduct research related to language learning and teaching, including research in his own classroom. A more recent model of teaching used in mainstream education, known as active teaching reflects the management and monitoring of learning as a primary role for teachers.

Instrumental approaches, such as Cooperative Learning attempt to redefine roles of both teacher and learner through a methodology which relies less on teacher-directed teaching and more on cooperative group work and pair work activities. With Cooperative Learning, the teacher’s role is to share the responsibility for managing both interaction and learning with students. Structure the learning environment so that students cooperate to obtain learning goals. Stimulate interactive language use through group work and collaborative problem solving and choose classroom tasks which involve information sharing, cooperative reasoning, opinion sharing, and values clarification. Coordinate group activities provide clarification, feedback, and motivational support.

Teachers create their own roles within the classroom based on their theories of teaching and learning. In communicative language teaching, the teacher has two main roles. The first is to facilitate the communication process between all participants in the classroom, and between these participants and the various activities and texts. The second role is to act as an independent participant within the learning-teaching group. The latter role is closely related to the objectives of the first role and arises from it. These roles imply a set of secondary roles for the teacher, first, as an organizer of resources and as a resource himself, and second as a guide within the classroom procedures and activities. A third role of a teacher is that of a researcher and learner, with much to contribute in terms of appropriate knowledge and abilities, actual and observed experience of the nature of learning and organizational capacities. Teachers also see their roles in different ways such as

1. 1. Planner: The teacher sees planning and structuring of learning activities as fundamental to success in teaching and learning.
2. 2. Manager: The teacher’s role is to organize and manage the classroom environment and student behavior in a way that will maximize learning.
3. 3. Quality controller: A central task for the teacher is to maintain the quality of language use in the classroom. Correct language use should be reinforced and incorrect use discouraged.
4. 4. Group Organizer: The teacher’s role is to develop an environment in which students work cooperatively on group tasks.
5. 5. Facilitator: The teacher seeks to improve students’ confidence and interest in learning and to build a classroom climate that will motivate students.
6. 6. Motivator: The teacher seeks to improve students’ confidence and interest in learning and to build a classroom climate that will motivate students.
7. 7. Empowerer: The teacher tries to take as little control or direction over the lesson as possible and lets the students make decisions about what they want to learn and how they want to learn it.

The ability to make appropriate interactive decisions is clearly an essential teaching skill. Interactive decisions enable teachers to assess students’ response to teaching and to modify their instruction in order to provide optimal support for learning. “Learning involves mastering a body of knowledge, a body of knowledge that is presented by a teacher in chunks small enough to be relatively easily digested. Both teachers and learners are concerned with the end product of learning” (Brick 154).

Referencias

1. Brick J. China: A Handbook in Intercultural Communication. National Centre for English Language Teaching and Research, 1991.

2. Keefe J. Learning Style: An Overview. National Association of Secondary School Principals, 1979.

3. O’Neil M., and Reid J.A. Educational and Psychological Characteristics of Students Gifted in English. Commonwealth Schools Commission, 1985.

4. Oxford R. Language Learning Strategies: What Every Teacher Should Know, Newbury House, 1990.

5. Rubin J. The Language Learning Disc. Descriptive Pamphlet, Joan Rubin Associates, Berkeley, Calif, 1985.