THE TEACHING-LEARNING JOURNEY: FINDING THE RIGHT TRACK

Abstract

The teaching-learning dynamics in the ELT classroom is a journey experience. In an ideal world, the direction this journey takes is towards making the students autonomous learners so that they can be best prepared to face the 'real' and much bigger world outside the classroom. This goal is reached if both teacher and learner understand the roles they should appropriately play in the process. The secret, therefore, is finding the right track.  The reality of finding the right track is often much more complex, however. Teachers have their own agenda, informed and sanctioned by syllabuses, textbooks, and lesson plans, and then translated into actual classroom instruction procedures. Students, either by force of habit or by an act of faith, often toe the line. However, at the end of the day, the general feeling one gets is that students do not seem to be learning much. This paper will, thus, explore the nature of the gaps between teaching and learning and how these may be remedied. Data from an ELT project in the Philippines will be used.  In so doing, this paper hopes to show the practical responsibilities of the teacher in a learning-centred classroom for effective learner development to take place.