AWEJ Volume.3 Number.4, 2012 pp. 306- 324
Three Asian Students’ Perceptions of Student-Centered Approach to Teaching in an EAP Class.
Umama AL Kalbani
School of Linguistics and Applied Language Studies
Carleton University Ontario, Canada
Abstract
This paper investigates how passive learners can adapt to the novelty of innovative or student-centered approach, as opposed to teacher-centered model of teaching. This paper also examines whether or not passive learners are meta-pedagogically aware of the advantages of innovative or student-centered approaches to teaching in their learning development. Another goal of this paper is to explore the factors that can prevent passive learners from adapting immediately to innovative or student-centered approaches to teaching. This study includes classroom observations, interviews with three student participants and their teacher, and questionnaires. The results indicate that passive learners are meta-pedagogically aware of the advantages of innovative or student-centered approaches in their learning development. Passive learners can adapt to the novelty of student-centered approaches, but their adaptation occurs gradually. There are some factors that can affect passive learner’s immediate adaptation to innovative models of teaching. These factors are: students’ learning approaches, metacognitive knowledge, prior experience, cultural and educational backgrounds, inadequate knowledge of L2 linguistic resources, social and cultural uses of writing and the duration of time the students have spent in the country whose language they want to learn.
Keywords: innovative approaches, student-centered approaches, active and passive learners, meta-pedagogically aware, factors affecting immediate adaptation