TESOL 1 ASSIGNMENT 2 Teaching is Subordinate to Learning (Syeda Hina

Ali)

For the longest time teachers have played the central role in classrooms especially when it comes
to teaching a new language to speakers of other languages. In methods like the Grammar
Translation Method, Direct Method teachers hold the floor and the classes are led by the
teachers. Students in the aforementioned methods get minimal to no opportunities of interaction.
The focus is on teaching rather than learning. Caleb Gattegno who devised the Silent Method
proposed the idea that teaching should be subordinate to learning which means the teacher
should base his lessons on what the students want to learn rather than on what he wants to teach
them. This also means that teaching should not overpower the process of learning and the focus
in classrooms should be to enable students to learn a language rather than just filling memories.
The focus should be on enabling the students to be autonomous and independent learners who
can learn from their errors. This also means that the teacher should be aware of the demands of
the learning process and should consciously make an effort to prioritize learning. In a typical
classroom a teacher would walk in with a planner and try to achieve his goals often ignoring the
learning process and compromising on students’ independence. Teachers should start from what
the students already know and then build on the unknown. Conclusively this means that the
teacher should be a facilitator rather than the central role in classrooms as this takes away the
essence of learning. Learning of students should be the focus in classrooms and not teaching.
This also means that language learners already have the experience of learning a language and
the teacher should only provide the necessary help. Students should be able to utilize their inner
resources and produce new utterances while also being able to be responsible to correct
themselves.