Read the text below and answer the question.
Thought-in-Action Links
It is important to recognize that methods link thoughts
and actions, because teaching is not entirely about one
or the other. As a teacher of language, you have thoughts
about your subject matter – what language is, what culture
is – and about your students – who they are as learners and
how it is they learn. You also have thoughts about yourself
as a teacher and what you can do to help your students to
learn. Many of your thoughts have been formed by your own
experience as a language learner. With this awareness, you
are able to examine why you do what you do and perhaps
choose to think about or do things differently.
As an example, let us relate an anecdote about a teacher
with whom Diane Larsen-Freeman was working some time
ago. From her study of methods in Stevick (1980), Heather
(not her real name) became interested in how to work with
teacher control and student initiative in her teaching. She
determined that during her student teaching internship, she
would exercise less control of the lesson in order to encourage
her students to take more initiative, and have them impose
the questions in the classroom, since so often it is the teacher
who asks all the questions, not the students.
However, she felt that the students were not taking the
initiative, but she could not see what was wrong. When Diane
Larsen Freeman, who was her supervisor, visited her class,
she observed the following:
HEATHER: Juan, ask Anna what she is wearing.
JÜAN: What are you wearing?
ANNA: I am wearing a dress.
HEATHER: Anna, ask Muriel what she is writing.
ANNA: What are you writing?
MÜRIEL: I am writing a letter.
This pattern continued for some time. It was clear to see
that Heather had successfully avoided the common problem
of the teacher asking all the questions in the class. The
teacher was not asking the questions – the students were.
However, Heather had not achieved her goal of encouraging
student initiative.
(Larsen-Freeman, D. 2000. Adaptado)
