On the Role Challenges Faced by Foreign Language Teachers

On the Role Challenges Faced by Foreign Language Teachers

Abstract: Grammar translation and communicative approach are two widely used teaching methods in foreign language teaching. In these two teaching methods, the role of foreign language teachers is different; From the perspective of learning strategy research, the role of foreign language teachers is similar to that of foreign language teachers in communicative approach. The roles of contemporary foreign language teachers in teaching should be promoters, designers, trainers, evaluators, learners and researchers.

Keywords: communicative teaching method; Foreign language teachers; Learning strategies; Character; function

There are many schools of foreign language teaching methods, which can be divided into traditional schools and reformed schools according to the different treatment of the relationship between mother tongue and foreign language, theory and practice, language and speech, consciousness and intuition, understanding and imitation, analysis and synthesis, deduction and induction, listening, speaking, reading and writing [1] 40. Different teaching methods have different historical backgrounds and serve different learning objectives, so different schools have different functions for foreign language teachers.

First, the traditional grammar translation method: teacher teaching method

Grammar translation is the oldest and most important school in foreign language teaching. Grammar translation method is also called "classical method" and "traditional method". Grammar translation is said to be the oldest method, because it is a traditional way for ancient Europeans to teach classical languages (ancient Latin and ancient Greek). Grammar translation method, which originated in the Middle Ages, takes ancient Chinese as the research object and reading as the main teaching object. This is a way to teach a foreign language in the mother tongue. This method takes translation as the basic teaching method and grammar learning as the starting point of teaching.

The guiding ideology of grammar translation teaching can be briefly expressed as the following principles:

(1) Learning a foreign language means learning its grammar and vocabulary;

(2) In learning a foreign language, grammar is one of the ultimate learning purposes and an important learning means;

(3) Teaching is conducted in mother tongue, and translation is the basic means of explanation, practice and test;

(4) Teaching with words as a unit;

(5) Based on words, reading, listening, writing and speaking go hand in hand at the beginning of teaching;

(6) Taking literary masterpieces and their languages as the basic teaching materials.

Grammar, translation and writing are the three pillars of grammar-translation method.

Before the new teaching method came into being, many people who were proficient in modern foreign languages and classical languages were trained in this way. This shows that this method conforms to the law of learning a second language for people who have mastered their mother tongue to some extent. Because it is simple and easy to operate, teachers of different foreign languages can master it, so it has been widely used. Its advantage is that it can better cultivate reading ability and translation ability (mainly the ability to translate from a foreign language into a mother tongue). Students trained in this way have good basic grammar skills and strong ability to work independently. Its disadvantage is that it doesn't attach importance to oral English and lacks effective methods to cultivate oral English ability. Students trained in this way generally have no oral communication ability or poor oral communication ability. The most important reason why grammar-translation method can prevail for a long time is that it does not require high quality, teaching equipment and teaching environment of foreign language teachers. When giving lectures, teachers can explain language phenomena in their mother tongue, which saves time and is convenient for students to understand. In order to let students master the correct grammar rules, teachers take up a lot of classroom time to instill language knowledge.

The teaching process of grammar-translation method is simple and unchangeable. Teachers monitor all activities in teaching and correct possible mistakes, while students passively accept them. Teachers have become the giver and source of knowledge, playing a core and leading role, and controlling the teaching process. Explaining vocabulary-translating text-doing homework has become a fixed procedure. Teachers are always the leading role in teaching and the absolute authority. They seldom consider the needs of students.

In college foreign language teaching in China, foreign language teachers are used to grammar translation, which plays a leading role in teaching. There are reasons for this role orientation:

(1) The teaching equipment is backward and the teaching conditions are not perfect. In this case, teachers must play a leading role.

(2) Limitation of teacher training conditions. This traditional teaching method does not require high teachers' oral ability, and most teachers can attend classes as long as they have grammar knowledge. Due to the enrollment expansion of colleges and universities, the teacher-student ratio is seriously unbalanced, and there are often dozens or even hundreds of students in a classroom. Due to the surge in demand for foreign language teachers, the ranks of foreign language teachers are mixed, which directly affects the effect of foreign language learning. Originally, language was used for communication, but now I read more and speak less. Reading less refers to reading less original foreign languages, reading less professional foreign languages, reading the original and reading slowly; Talking less means less opportunities for communication between teachers and students, because the relationship between teachers and students is unbalanced. To really learn a language well, there should be no more than 20 students in a class, and 5 ~ 10 is the best.

(3) The restriction of exam-oriented education system. In order to make students get good grades, most foreign language teachers have to choose this traditional teaching method, which has created a group of foreign language "famous teachers" with "high scores and low abilities".

What society really needs is talents who know both professional knowledge and foreign languages and can deal with foreigners directly, which should be the real goal of foreign language teaching in our university. The current traditional teaching methods are challenged by the times and social development.

Second, communicative teaching method: teacher assistant

In the early 1970s, the functional teaching method came into being centering on Britain. Functional teaching method is also called communicative teaching method. Social linguists such as Hymes put forward the concept of "communicative competence". Weidson divides language into two categories: language form and language communication, and advocates that foreign language teaching should shift from language form system to communication system. With the development and prosperity of sociolinguistics, pragmatics, discourse analysis theory and cross-cultural communication, communicative approach has been promoted to the teaching stage [2] 56. Communicative teaching method pays attention to the social function of language, and holds that function is the starting point and destination of foreign language teaching, and communication is the most basic function of language. Based on this understanding, functionalists put forward the "communicative principle". This new teaching method advocates that language, as a tool of social communication, can be mastered most effectively only through communicative activities. The process of foreign language teaching should be designed as vivid and reasonable as possible, aiming at foreign language communication, so that the teaching process can be improved. Communication is not only the main purpose of foreign language teaching, but also the basic means, and it is also the main criterion to test the quality of teaching.

A remarkable feature of communicative approach teaching is that it is student-centered, shifting the focus of teaching from "teaching" to "learning" and attaching importance to learners' personal situation and psychological factors. Learners' own personality and ability play an important role in the learning process, which is related to the success or failure of language acquisition. This learner-centered teaching concept comes from humanistic psychology. This school advocates giving full play to personal potential and realizing self-worth, and its premise is to establish harmonious interpersonal relationships. Influenced by humanistic psychology, the emotion, personality and learning environment of foreign language learning have always been concerned. It requires foreign language teachers not only to teach students language knowledge, but also to teach them to use language effectively and appropriately, and at the same time to consider students' emotional factors and become a helper in language learning.

The advantage of communicative teaching method is that communication is highly unified as teaching purpose and teaching means, and learning and application are combined, so that students can easily see their own achievements and further mobilize their enthusiasm. The disadvantage is that students lack basic language training, it is difficult to understand complex sentences accurately, and they are not good at expressing their thoughts accurately and coherently.

To sum up, foreign language teaching method should conform to the development of the times, absorb the advantages of translation teaching method and take the advantages of communicative teaching method, so as to organically unify and integrate traditional teaching method and communicative teaching method into a new foreign language teaching method suitable for China's national conditions.

Third, learning strategies: teachers-promoters, designers, trainers, evaluators, learners and researchers.

The study of learning strategies shows that students' "learning" is the direct factor that determines the learning result. Therefore, we advocate student-centered teaching. This research result coincides with the proposition of communicative teaching method. Therefore, the authoritative position of teachers in the traditional sense has been challenged, and the role of college foreign language teachers has changed from an authoritative instructor to an assistant to students' learning. Through the study of foreign language learning strategies, foreign language teachers should play the following roles in students' learning:

1. Sponsor. As a promoter, teachers should have profound foreign language professional knowledge and the ability to stimulate students' active learning, stimulate students' cognitive drive with personality charm, and let students combine cognition and emotion into one; Encourage students to actively participate in colorful classroom language teaching activities; Introduce the culture, history and customs of foreign language countries appropriately to stimulate their interest; As a teacher, the measure of success is not how many short sentences and simple sentences students can remember, but whether they can construct new sentences in this language. Foreign language teachers can create opportunities and conditions for students, stimulate their memory mechanism of language learning, and cultivate their methods and habits of autonomous learning.

2. Designer. Foreign language teachers should make students understand their goals and directions; And help students design feasible long-term and short-term study plans according to their own characteristics; According to the requirements of teaching content and teaching purpose, design compact and orderly classroom activities; Help students choose and use learning materials scientifically; In addition, teachers are also the designers of study groups, and implement collective learning-group cooperative learning, combined with individual independent learning. In the process of interactive learning, students' cooperative spirit and self-management ability are cultivated.

3. Trainer. It is necessary to teach and train students' learning skills. For example, lectures are held to introduce learning methods, non-foreign language majors and teachers are invited to discuss foreign language learning methods and experiences with their classmates, learning strategies and skills are interspersed in language teaching with limited classroom time, and students are encouraged to choose materials according to their own weaknesses and explore effective learning strategies and skills.

4. Evaluator. Teaching evaluation is an indispensable part of teaching activities. Teachers should combine formative evaluation with summative evaluation. Formative evaluation focuses on the learning process and tries to change the learning results by changing the learning process. In addition to evaluating quantifiable aspects such as knowledge and skills, it is more suitable for evaluating qualities such as interest, attitude, strategy and cooperative spirit that are not easy to quantify. Formative evaluation is not only an evaluation method, but also a learning method. Summative evaluation refers to the evaluation of students' performance and ability at the end of a learning stage. It focuses on the results of learning. As evaluators, teachers should regularly check the completion of students' learning tasks and make timely evaluations. Teachers can also consider increasing the proportion of ordinary grades in the final comprehensive evaluation as appropriate, which will keep students interested in the whole learning process. In addition, teachers should also help students to carry out self-assessment, including level assessment in the initial stage of learning, monitoring progress and peer assessment.

5. Learners and researchers. Foreign language teachers themselves always play the role of learners. Only by constantly "recharging" can teachers adapt to the requirements of college foreign language teaching in the new era. In addition to improving professional knowledge, teachers should always collect students' feedback, observe with an open mind and communicate with peers inside and outside the school. University teachers in the new era should be responsible for both teaching and scientific research, so foreign language teachers themselves are playing the role of researchers. Teachers should always consult relevant academic journals, pay attention to the latest scientific research trends, actively think about various problems in teaching, and explore effective solutions to promote teaching through scientific research. To promote students' autonomous learning, teachers should focus on effective learning guidance programs, especially how to guide students to consciously extend their learning behavior outside the classroom and how to effectively monitor students' extracurricular learning behavior; How to grasp the "precision" of intensive lectures and the screening of intensive lectures [3] 52.

The change of the role of foreign language teachers does not mean that teachers have lighter tasks and less responsibilities. The student-centered foreign language teaching advocated by the Institute of Learning Strategies makes the foreign language classroom no longer a personal performance of foreign language teachers. Foreign language teachers should pay more attention to understanding students' learning situation, learning purpose and psychological activities, so as to guide students to adopt appropriate learning strategies according to their own cognitive characteristics, cultivate students' autonomous learning ability and make them take more responsibility for foreign language learning.

In addition, Stern pointed out that the role of emotion in foreign language learning is at least as important as cognitive skills, or even more important; Schumann even thinks that emotion is the essential motivation to start cognitive skills. A good foreign language teacher should enjoy a high reputation among students. They are full of enthusiasm and inspiring in teaching. They can influence students by example. Their teaching methods are flexible and diverse, so we should pay attention to feedback information to students in time, so that students can always maintain a high degree of learning motivation [4] 124.

To sum up, under the background of implementing quality education, the role of foreign language teachers must be changed accordingly, which is the call of the times.

References:

[1] Yu Yuefa. Research on the main schools of foreign language teaching methods [C]// Russian teaching and research series of Heilongjiang University: series 13.

[2] Chang Fang. The evolution of the role of foreign language teachers from the perspective of the development of language learning theory [J]. Journal of Xi International Studies University, 2004( 12).

[3] Zhou Song, Xu Weiai. On the role change of English teachers from the study of foreign language learning strategies [J]. Journal of Liaoning Economic Vocational and Technical College, 2004(3).

[4] Wang Liming. Psychological factors affecting students' language acquisition [J]. Journal of Harbin Institute, 2005( 1).

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