The Analysis of the Application of Student-centered Teaching Model in English Teaching of Middle Sch

The Analysis of the Application of Student-centered Teaching Model in English Teaching of Middle SchoolbyA thesis presented to the School of English Education ofXi’an International Studies Universityin partial fulfillment of the requirementsfor the degree ofBachelor of ArtsMay 20, 2012Class:Advisor:AcknowledgementsI would like to express my thankfulness and gratitude to my instructor Fan Guifang, for her valuable suggestions, hearty encouragement and careful and patient instruction in the completion of this thesis. Instructor Fan’s profound knowledge, creative advice, and her insights into the teaching and classroom instruction helps me to step into the research field and makes my words possible and better through modifications.I would also like to express my gratitude to advisor Zhang Xinyue, she helped me a lot in collecting the materials and how to write a paper. I have to say thanks to my group members, my roommates and my esteemed leaders. Without their support and encouragement, I would not complete this paper in time.浅析以学生为中心的教育模式在中学英语教学中的应用摘要:在中国，自从执行改革开放的政策以来，英语教学取得了很大的进步，英语教师也进入了一个改革的新时代，为了适应中国改革发展的需要，英语教学的很多方面都需要改进。

在当前素质教育的前提下，英语教学已改变传统的以教师为中心的教学法。

这篇论文展示的是“以学生为中心”教学理念，其核心和强调的重点是教学的中心己经从老师的身上转移到了学生身上，在课堂上，学生应该十分的积极活跃，而不是被动地接受老师提供的知识，所以，“以学生为中心”教学理念受到了英语教师和学生的欢迎，而且成为大家瞩目的焦点。

本文主要探讨了以学生为中心的教学法的目的，基本原则以及这种教学法在英语课堂的实际应用。

这种教学法不仅能够提高学生的学习积极性，发展学生的交际能力，更重要的是能够培养学生的自主、自力、积极探索的精神。

在教学过程中教师应该遵循“以人为本”的教育方针，注重学生的需要，因为教育的最终目的是育人。

关键词: 以学生为中心的教学法; 语言教学; 教学模式The Analysis of the Application of Student-centered Teaching Model in English Teaching of Middle SchoolAbstract:In China, since the execution of reform and opening policy, the teachers have made great achievements in English teaching，the English teaching has entered another new century-the times of innovation. In order to cater for the need of national fundamental reform, many aspects in English teaching should be changed. Under the guidance of the “quality-oriented education”, we have changed the traditional teacher-centered approach in English Language Teaching (ELT). This paper presents “Learner-Centered”，the new concept of teaching under the instruction of constructive learning theory in Junior Middle School. The emphasis of foreign language teaching has shifted to students from teachers. The students should be more active in class instead of passively receiving information which the teachers provide. So “Learner-Center ed” has become the focus, and is welcomed by English teachers and students. Then, this paper sets out to examine the objective of the Learner-centered Approach (LCA) and most importantly, the basic principles and the application of this approach in ELT. The learner-centered approach can enhance students’ motivation, develop their communicative competence and cultivate their autonomy. A call for teachers to pay more serious attention to treating students as whole persons rather than receptacles in ELT for the ultimate goal of the education is to train independent learners.Key Words: a learner-centered approach; language teaching; teaching methodTable of Contents1.Introduction (1)2. Present Problem of ELT in China (3)3. The Theory of Student-Centered Teaching Model (4)3.1 The definition of Student-Centered Teaching (4)3.2 The Perspectives of Learner-Centered Teaching Model (4)4.Approaches to LCA in ELT Class (5)4.1Fostering the Learner’s Autonomy (5)4.1.1Raising the Students’ awareness for Learning Autonomy (5)4.1.2Promoting the Students’ abilities to Select and Use Strategies (6)4.1.3Testing Approaches to Monitor the Autonomous Learning (7)4.2Creating the Humanistic Teaching Atmosphere (8)4.2.1 Teachers’ evaluation on Students (8)4.2.2 Learner's Needs and Affection from Teacher (9)4.3 Using Cooperative and Motivated Learning Methods (11)4.3.1 Offering the Students Pairs and Groups Work (11)4.3.2 Providing the students enough space and time... . . . . . (12)4.3.3 Gettin g the Whole Class Involved in the English Activities (13)5. Paying attention to the below points by teachers (14)5.1 Time control (14)5.2 Choice of content and activities (14)5.3 Out-of-class interaction with students (15)6. Conclusion (16)References (17)1. IntroductionBased on a large scaled survey, the paper describes the current teaching models in English Language Teaching class in Middle school, analyzing the development that impede the application of learner-centered teaching approach. Finally, the paper provides suggestions for teachers on the application of learner-centered approach in English language teaching.The current teaching style can be traced to ancient times, when teachers were expected to pass on the truth, impact knowledge and solve problems. This kind of traditional teaching, teacher- centered approach has ignored the position of learners i n the class for a long time. The teacher has the absolute authority while student’s autonomy is totally deprive of. Student were supposed to sit quietly and to write down what teachers say and to obey all the rules set by teachers in class. Otherwise, they will be labeled as bad students.Nowadays, the demands of a rapidly changing information society stress the importance of flexible competencies. Thus English has become the basic communication tool. English learners need to be fluent in both spoken and written English. So, it is necessary that we change the teacher- centered approach in English language teaching. Student should be put at the center of the learning process and their needs should be the first point that teacher should keep in mind.It is believed that the learner- centered approach can enhance student’s motivation, develop their communicative competence and cultivate their autonomy.A call for teachers to pay more serious attentions to treating students as whole persons rather than receptacles in ELT for the ultimate goal of the education id to train independent learners.As a teacher of English, it must be thought over about what should be taught and how to teach the students in the classroom. What strategies should the teacheradopt and what strategies should be based on. There is a great worth to do some research on this topic.Form this topic, it can help the English teachers widen their knowledge and it can improve teacher’s techniques by designing learner- centered in the classroom, so that they can enable learners to communicate more efficiently in a foreign language, it can suggest activities through which teacher can help learners to use English in the real communications. Concretely speaking, by advocating learner- centered in the classroom, the paper aims to f oster the learner’s autonomy, to create the humanistic teaching atmosphere and use cooperative and motivated learning methods2.Present Problem of ELT in ChinaFor decades Chinese teachers have been quite used to the traditional way of teaching foreign language. Teachers are constantly pre-occupied by their own role what they should be doing, and what their students think of them. In the teacher-centered approach emphasis is placed on teaching instead of learning. Teachers appear as controllers, who are in complete charge of the class. They try to put everything into students’ heads and students are seen as receptacles to be filled with knowledge. This is sometimes referred to as “the jugs and mugs” theory (Naiman, 1978). The teacher is seen as having a large “jug” of knowledge which is poured into the student’s“mug”or receptacle. Some linguists describe this as the “banking”conception of education, where learners are like bank accounts into which deposits are regularly made and withdrawn later for specific purposes such as examination. This way of teaching has a lot of problems.The present era is one with an explosion of knowledge and information. Then, more is demanded of teachers than ever before. Moreover, many state-owned enterprises set high demands for the graduates’ language level. The social circumstances also exert great pressure on the students.Teachers should realize that their responsibilities of “passing on the truth, impartknowledge and solve problems” (Hanyu, 1999: 2)are far from enough. What teachers should do is to equip students with the means to cope with problems by themselves. At the same time, good teachers should manage to let students go of their hands and start to take some responsibilities for their own learning. As for students, they should be fully aware of the importance of independent thinking. They should develop not only a high level of competence in reading, but also an intermediate level of competence in listening, speaking and writing.Taking all these factors into consideration, we find it necessary to abandon the long-standing teacher-centered way of teaching. In the teacher-centered classroom, students are treated as passive recipients. They do not have to take any- initiative, just waiting there to be filled with knowledge. Both the teachers and the students have realized that what they are teaching and what they are learning are “dumb English”(1987) which can not be applied in real life. The teacher-centered approach can no longer fit in with the present situation. In order to answer the call for the “quality-orientation”(Cohen, 2001), teachers should adopt the learner-centered approach in English Language Teaching (ELT). This approach puts learner at the center of the learning process and attaches great important to learners’ needs. Students are seen as being able to assume a more active and participatory role than they did in traditional approaches.3. The Theory of Student-Centered Teaching Model3.1 The Definition of the Student-Centered TeachingStudent-centered teaching focuses on what the student is learning, how the student is learning, and the conditions under which the student is learning, whether the student is retaining and applying the learning. The distinction between teacher-centered and student-centered is made as a way of indicating that the spotlight has shifted from the teacher to the student. In student-centered instruction the action focuses on what the student are doing not what the teacher is doing.Student-centered education also creates an environment that supports the individual as a whole person. It attempts to meet the individual needs of a board range of learners who have different ways of knowing, skills and cultural background.3.2 The Perspectives of Learner-Centered Teaching ModelNunan (1991:178) defines the learner-centered as follows“A learner-centered teaching model is based on a belief that learnerswill bring to the learning situation different beliefs and attitudes aboutthe nature of language and language learning and that these beliefs andattitudes need to be taken into consideration in the selection of contentand learning experiences. The approach contrasts with the‘doctor-knows-best’ approach which, while it might acknowledg e thatlearners have different preferences and beliefs, discounts these on thegrounds that the teacher is the expert and that the learners’ views arerrelevant.”In the LCA, the learner should be seen as being the center of the educational process. For the teaching institution and the teacher, this means that instructional programs should be centered around learners’ deeds and that learners themselves should exercise their own responsibility in the choice of learning objectives, content and methods as well as in determining the means used to assess their performance. Learners are not merely passive recipients of subject matter devised by some educational authority, but have a wide experience of life which can be brought to bear in the learning process. Learners are less likely to be interested in subscribing to the ‘banking principle’(Williams, 1997) they want to gain the communicative and linguistic skills they need to carry out real-world tasks. It is believed that only the learner can learn while the teacher can just help and advise.Mark B Yeary (2002) believed that Learner-centered education is a promising model that relies on two complementary components: Placing more responsibility in the hands of the students; Requiring the instructor to serve as the “presenter orfacilitator of knowledge,” rather than the traditional “source of all knowledge.”4. Approaches to LCA in ELT Class4.1 Fostering the Learner’s Autonomy4.1.1 Raising the S tudents’ Awareness for Learning AutonomyThe findings suggest that the desire of middle school students for autonomous learning is relatively high. They are willing to be free from being dependent on teachers though they grow up laden with traditional Chinese culture in such an authoritarian society wherein “obey” is unconditioned. However, there are a number of middle students show poor awareness of learning independent of the teachers. Life would be marvelous for teachers if all students wanted to learn (Biggs 1999:85; cited in Cheung, 2001: 55). According to Biggs, students are only motivated to learn things that are important and meaningful to them. Thus autonomous English learning should be valued, strengthened and focused on throughout the whole process of teaching and learning to fully develop the student potential for LA (Learning Autonomy). Most importantly, teachers need to loosen their tightly control of the classroom and the students should be provide more chance for them to take on more responsibility for their own learning.The primary objective of language learning is to help students become more autonomous, so that they will be equipped with the skills to go about their own learning. In fact, some students are not as ready as others for independent language learning. And to change one’s view of learning requires a flexibility that not everyone has. In order to help students become autonomous, it would be more effective to provide training and make it integral part of the English teaching. Dickinson (1987:2) believes the way forward against learner resistance is to train learners toward greater autonomy and aim toward a gradual development to full autonomy. Nuan (1996:13) rightly points out that “some degree of autonomy can be fostered in learners regardless of the extent to which they are naturally predisposed to the notion”. Training activities can be incorporated systematically in the classroom to helpstudents become more aware of the learning process, more ready to take charge of their own learning , essentially, students can be helped to come to terms with their strengthens and weaknesses, to learn a language efficiently in ways that are compatible with their personalities. Training would benefit the “lazy” students, too, who might feel that they are doomed to failure in language learning due to their own laziness, by increasing their self-confidence and self-esteem, changing their beliefs and attitudes towards their own role in language learning. It can certainly encourage the students to become aware of the many factors (including the personal, social, and political), which affect their learning, and to re-evaluate the learning approaches and strategies that work best for them within their specific context.Through consciously training learners take the initiate in learning, one of the fundamental prerequisites for autonomous because they learn more thing, and learn better than do people who sit at the feet of teachers, passively waiting to be taught. They enter into learning more purposefully and with greater motivation to retain and make use of what they learn better and longer.4.1.2 Promoting the S tudents’ Abilities to Select and Use learning StrategiesFrom data analysis, it is known that middle school students, juniors in particular, are extremely incapable of applying metacognitive strategies, which is crucial in autonomous learning. The important role of metacognitive strategy played in successful learning is that controls the using of the cognitive strategies. Since no one has innate self-management and self-determination, especially some Chinese students with tendency to act relying on other s’ assistant instead of developing on them. It is important to promote students’ awareness and control of effective learning strategies and discourage the use of ineffective ones in English teaching.Strategies virtually promote autonomy in many aspects of learning. Only when students learn how to learn, in other words, have the abilities to select and use strategies can they diagnose their own learning strengths and weakness and become more autonomous. First of all, students’strategy awareness, refers to language learning awareness (knowledge about some of the factors that influence the languageprocess)（Dickinson’s 1992）is the fundamental prerequisite of applying strategies available. To be proficient in the use of a aboard range of metacognitive learning strategies, students should first become more aware of and familiar with the general idea of metacognitive learning strategies and the way such strategies can help them accomplish various learning tasks.Strategies-based Instruction (SBI) suggested by Cohen (2001:81) is viewed as a most effective kind of strategy training for practice. The SBI aims to assist students in becoming more effective learners by allowing them to initializes the language learning experience and gain more confidence in their ability to learn. It can also enhance students’ effort to reach learning goal because it encourages students to find their own pathways to success and thus promotes the students autonomous learning in English.The ultimate goal of strategy training is empowering students by allowing them to take control of their learning process. Teachers can further encourage independent strategy use by encourage the students to take responsibility for the selection, use, and evaluation of the various strategies that they have been taught.4.1.3 Testing Approaches to Monitor the Autonomous LearningIn middle school, learning objectives are often fixed at the outset, limiting any individual goal orientation, and teachers’assessments leave students little room for self-assessment. Most importantly, large classes and lack resources also make an individualized approach to learning difficult. All these demotivate students who cannot see any clear progress and goal to aim for.English language teaching is virtually not restrict to transmitting linguistic knowledge about English, furthermore, teaching students how to learn independently should also be integrated into it. Self-evaluation is proved to be an effective means available. It is therefore very necessary to promote the students’abilities for self-assessment and self-monitor to provide sensitive awareness. It is also important to help students, especially those who are passive ones to be more active to realize that they have the ultimate responsibility for learning to locate their own strengths and weakness and then get them to think about what they need to do, in order to performwell in English learning. Then self-assessment may be an effective means available.Though objective self-evaluation the students are helped to perceive their own progress and encouraged to see the value of what they are learning. And as Godwin(1797) pointed out “he best motive to learn is a perception of the value thing learned”(cited in Hanis: 1997). As an individual’s learning awareness grows, the potential for the student’ AEL increases.To conduct self-assessment, two useful instruments are used commonly: self-diagnostic questionnaire and learner diary or booklet to be integrated into everyday classroom activities three or four times a term.4.2 Creating the Humanistic Teaching Atmosphere4.2.1 Teachers’ Evaluation on StudentsEvaluation in English learning is a crucial aspect, which provides students with strengths and weaknesses as well as direction for future learning. In middle school, senior students show slight disagreement with teacher evaluation on them while juniors show great agreement with dependence on teacher evaluation that focus on outcomes than seniors. Seniors hope to evaluate their learning on their own mostly focus on their learning process in addition to the outcomes. As most psychologists and educators tend to agree that “Learning is a process by which behavior is either modified or changed through experience or training.”In other words learning refers not only to an outcome that is manifestly observable, but also attitudes, feelings and intellectual process that may not be so obvious.The reason that they are incapable of self-evaluation may be that they have experienced few learning contexts, which encourage them to exercise individual self-assessment. In reality, teachers are in control of the area of assessment and the students do not own the real opportunity to conduct self-assessment. A key learning strategy for autonomous learning in middle school is self-assessment. It is in need of new perspectives on progress, enabling students to monitor their progress and relate learning to individual needs. The key point here is that whether the teachers are willing to provide the opportunity for the students to access their own progress and thus help them to focus on their own learning and make them see their learning inpersonal terms.Only when students exercise a variety of learning strategies and higher order thinking skills, can they benefit more. Teacher assessment is virtually impossible to continually monitor individual performance correctly, so combining self-assessment with teacher assessment is particularly importantly. In this way, self-assessment helps to compensate by providing continuous, personalized and formative element of assessment. Once being allowed, self-assessment by no means guarantees that students do sow the seed of an individual focus on learning. And periodically review own progress or to coincide with periodic teacher assessment when necessary.4.2.2 L earner’s Needs and Affection from TeacherL earners’ affection has strong effect on their learning process. If their affection towards the learning is positive, the study will come to a positive result and vice versa.According to the survey, current ELT class is teacher-oriented and students are positioned in a relatively less autonomous role. Their thoughts, feelings and emotions are easily to be ignored and controlled by the teacher. With less autonomy, students' interests in study also decrease, thus the study becomes inefficient. To give more concern to learner's affection, a more humanistic study environment is required.The learner-centered approach, giving more choices and freedom to learners, is much more humanistic than the teacher-centered one. It emphasized the importance of the inner world of the learner. Maslow (1968) suggested that children should be allowed to make many choices about their own development. Although parents and teachers’ roles are guiding children to make right decisions, they were not supposed to shape or control the way their children develop. What they should do was to give advice and to help them to grow.Learners should be encouraged to think and not to be penalized for being different and creative. Classroom activities should be challenging and encourage curiosity in order to help learners realize their full potential. The primary function of education is to enable learners to develop as individuals in their own right and thereby achieve self-actualization.Stevick (1990) is another proponent of humanism in language teaching. He came to the conclusion that success or failure in language teaching depends not so much on whether one adopts inductive or deductive techniques for teaching grammar, nor whether one engages in meaningful practice rather than pattern drills, but in the extent to which one caters to the learner’s affective domain. In this learner-centered view of language development, the emphasis at all times should be on the learners, not on the teacher. In the mean time, Stevick also points out that learner-centeredness does not imply that teacher should abandon the classroom to the learners, that there are a number of functions that teacher should perform. This is in accordance with what we have learned from our interviews with students and teachers. Although the teacher-centered approach is not very welcome among students, they do not totally deny the benefits and necessity brought by the approach, especially when facing the pressure from upcoming exams. But if the teacher is too dominant in the class, learners' affective filter will filter a lot of “input”,with which learners’“output” will also be reduced. Being exposed in a more humanistic study environment will help learners abstract more input more easily, happily, and willingly.Being taught in a more humanistic way, learners are treated as a whole person and the whole-person involvement in the learning process is concerned really. It can help minimize learning anxiety and enhances personal security by creating a more friendly study environment.To give real concerns to learner’s needs and affection, a learner-centered ELT class:1 .Creates a sense of belonging2. Makes the subject relevant to the learner3. Involves the whole person4. Encourages a knowledge of self5. Develops personal identity6. Encourages self-esteem7. Involves the feelings and emotions8. Minimizes criticism9. Encourages creativity10. Allows for choice11.Encourages self-evaluation(Williams, & Burden 1997: 38)Therefore, a learner-centered approach, which acknowledges that man is is more humanistic and makes learning more cheerful and vital and easier for learners.4.3 Using a Cooperative and Motivated Learning Methods4.3.1 Offering the Students Pairs and Groups Work.Bruton and Samuta(1980) found that, contrary to popular belief learners in small groups were capable correcting one another successfully. Porter (1983, 1986) found (also contrary to popular opinion) that learners do not produce more errors or learn each other’s mistake s when working together in small groups. Learners in pairs engage more modified interactions. What is more, the findings confirm the importance of the nature of pair interaction for the learning opportunities available to the students. In a language classroom, especially in a large size of a language classroom, where a language teacher cannot ensure that all the individual students can have adequate opportunities to practice English in terms of all language aspects, he/she can easily organize the students in pairs to interact for a great variety of work including listening, speaking, reading and writing.Organize students in a reasonable way, most teachers let their students form their pairs or groups at will. Namely, students can choose their own partners in pairs or groups as they like. The most distinct advantage of this method is students may feel relaxed and ease since they can stay with their favorite partners in pairs or groups. In this case; Students willingness to practice English can be maximized. On the one hand, they are eager to show their language ability among their acquaintances; on the other hand, they desire to share opinions with their collocutors about some topics they are interested in.In general, the teacher ought to have a good knowledge of what is happening inhis/her class. Plan the appropriate pair work or group work tasks. The type of activity decides students’ zest to engage in the activity and the effect of language development. If the activity appeals to students, the classroom climate may be very decent to interact in pairs or groups. Then students are all involved in the activity and the teacher does not have to bother to keep the class in discipline. The sensible classroom climate for students to practice English largely depends on the types of pair work or group work tasks.4.3.2 Providing the Students Enough Space and Time to Nurture Their IndividualityIndividual students have their own personalities, study habits and methods that require respecting and encouraging. Then in some cases the teacher must let students work on their own at their own pace, providing them with enough space and time to nurture their individuality. Different from pair work and group work, individual work does not involve the active interaction but it is inclined to be quiet. Such quietness is badly needed by the students who hope to have their own space and time to mediate. It is no doubt that continuous pair work or group work deprives students of the opportunities to develop themselves individually. In addition, individual work can help students get rid of the pressure and tension from pairs or groups when students have to do some face-to-face interactions. The teacher can walk around the classroom to instruct individual students who need some special help or communicate with some individual students without disturbing others now and then. Even though individual work is relatively hard for the teacher to monitor, it is still popular to the teachers who do not bother to group students or when they feel diversity in classroom management is needed.4.3.3 Getting the Whole Class Involved in the English Activities.In order to get all the students involved in the English interaction, the teacher often stands in front of the classroom and start interaction between the teacher and the whole class. The most common way the teacher adopts in class is to explain language bits first and then work with the whole class. This way is most frequently used to learn sentence patterns or drills. To ensure that accuracy can be effectively achieved,。