3. Focus on the Learner

In the 3rd module, I learned how principal teaching styles have been changing according to the two major concepts: instructivism and constructivism. 

Instructivism (teacher-centered) is the teaching concept based on behaviorism, which evaluates students' behavior and external changes of students, so teachers will accomodate their instructions based on the students' behavior. In Japan, this approach is still dominant in English lessons at school, even though many teachers have learned TESOL or they understand benefits of student-centered approach. 

Constructivism (student-centered) is another teaching concept and it seems to be equivalent to communicative language teaching, in other words. It is based on cognitivism; students will acquire a language skill through solving problems or interacting with someone/something. This approach encourages students to communicate through a target language in authentic situations and motivate students to learn the language because of meaningful interactions (Richard & Bohlke, 2011). 

I have tried to apply this teaching concept to my actual lessons many times, however, I ended up going back to the teacher-centered approach, due to the following reasons. 

Large class size

Compulsory textbooks

Mandatory coverage of the textbooks

Test-driven settings for university entrance exams


Considering ordinary educational settings in Japan, I could say that it is almost impossible to keep up with student-centered approach, applying to TESOL. Even so, I believe that it is still worth trying to incorporate an essence of TESOL to traditional English lessons, since I noticed that my students showed positive learning attitudes when I applied some TESOL techniques to my class. It might be because doing communicative activities is simply fun for the students, however, having fun is an initial/essential part of learning to some extent.


Multiple intelligences (Gardner, 1993)

To implement student-centered approach and make it successful, understanding how our students process information is helpful. People have different personality traits and preferences, strength/weaknesses, so do I. As a learner, I think I am a linguistic, natural, and kinesthetic person. It may be difficult to understand all the students' learning styles (Dunn & Dunn, 1979) in my English class because ordinary class size is a little big (approximately 40 students) in Japan. However, I realize that utilizing various learning types in lessons will help students in learning, as well as teachers. "The one style fits it all approach" is not existing (Gardner, 1993).  

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