Hi Steve and all,

You state:the main  role of the teacher is to stimulate, encourage and assist the learner and inspire him or her to seek out the language on his or her own. If teachers are successful then they make their students self-directed. 


Would you (or anyone else) kindly operationally define how a teacher realizes such a role?  In doing so, we may have more substantive grounds upon which to pursue this discussion.  The statement, as it stands, is so general that I, for one, find it difficult to "latch" on to and "run" with it. 

Thanks,

Michael
 
Michael A. Gyori 
www.mauilanguage.com




________________________________
From: Steve Kaufmann <steve at thelinguist.com>
To: The Adult English Language Learners Discussion List <englishlanguage at nifl.gov>
Sent: Sunday, August 9, 2009 4:42:47 AM
Subject: [EnglishLanguage 4766] Re: critical thinking

Michael,

What I mean is that the main  role of the teacher is to stimulate, encourage and assist the learner and inspire him or her to seek out the language on his or her own. If teachers are successful then they make their students self-directed. 

The teacher can also explain things about the language, but that is of less importance. I remember those of my teachers who inspired me to seek out knowledge and care about the subject I was learning. I do not remember them explaining things to me, although  they probably did. This was true for all subjects.

I do not  believe we need to define critical thinking, higher learning thinking, or the word "language". The most important ingredient in the learners acquisition of a new language is the amount of exposure to the language. This is most easily done through reading and listening, which is available to the learners almost anywhere and any time. This is most effective if the content is meaningful to the learner, interesting and not too difficult.

Teachers can point out things about the language, but far more things will be discovered by the learner on his or her own.



Steve Kaufmann
www.thelinguist.blogs.com
www.lingq.com
604-922-8514



      
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