SEMINAR ON ENGLISH LANGUAGE AND TEACHING

Teacher-Centered Learning: The Effects and Its Solutions

Weldiana Muthia Yasmin

15202241048

weldianamuthia@gmail.com

This paper is made as a requirement to fulfill the assignment for Seminar on English
Language and Teaching course on the 7th semester

ABSTRACT

This article discusses the kind of teaching and learning approaches teachers use in the school.
The approaches that can be used such as teacher-centered and students-centered. In this
modern era, the study of language learning is more varied and well-developed. The
traditional method has been left behind. The teacher should use the method which is
appropiate to apply in latest situations, where the students also have a deal in the learning
process instead of being the receiver only. In fact, there are still many teachers in Indonesia
who still use a traditional method to teach English, whereas L1 learners could not easily
engaged in L2 language learning. This also occurs in SMPN 3 Pakem, where the teacher
apply teacher-centered learning approach. Those problems lead to the effects of using
teacher-centered learning. This article offer solutions regarding the problems that happen.

Key words: teacher-centered learning, students-centered learning, effects, solutions.

Introduction

Nowadays, the use of English is more frequent to find, so that people are supposed to aware
that learning English is important. Alongside the fact that English is an international
language, numerous things such as electronics require English as a platform to operate them.
In addition, more and more people in the world use English as their daily communication
although it is not their first language. This further concludes that the need of learning English
could not be placed on the backburner.

There are two types of learning approaches, students-centered learning and teacher-centered
learning (traditional). The vivid contrast of these approaches is found in its focus. Students-
centered learning focuses on how students learn instead of how teacher teach. They are
actively learning and they have greater input into what they learn, how they learn it, and
when they learn it. This means that the students take responsibility of their own learning and
directly involved in the learning process (Weimer, 2002, and Wohlfarth et.al, 2008.).

Meanwhile, in teacher-centered learning, the center of the classroom is the teacher itself. The
teacher make all the decisions concerning the curriculum, teaching methods, and the different
form of assessment. The teacher is responsible in a whole learning process and fully has
control in the classroom. The students only follow the teacher’s instructions and sit still while
paying attention to the teacher’s explanation.

In teacher-centered learning, teachers play important roles in the learning process. Teachers
are information providers or evaluator to monitor students to get the right answers, yet
students are viewed as learners who passively receive information. In the teaching of EFL,
the main focus is getting the students to perform well on state-mandated tests rather than
catering to students’ need (Zohrabi, et al., 2012).

In an ideal classroom, the interaction involves two-way process, where both the students and
the teacher have a deal in the learning process. However, there are still found that the teacher
applied the traditional way to teach the students. The teacher does not give the students any
chance to develop their skills in their own way, whereas the students have to be active and
creative to face a problem either in the classroom or in their real life. This leads to some
effects which influence the students’ cognitive skills, affective skills, and their attitude.
Literature Review

Currently, the significance of English seems growing up day by day to the point that English
can be easily found everywhere, either as a tool in daily conversation or information link on
several items. Based on the previous explanation, it can be seen that people will face
difficulties if they do not have background knowledge of English. On the other hand, it is not
easy for non-native speaker to learn English which is not their first language. Therefore, the
appropiate learning approaches should be considered in the first place. Learning approach can
be defined as the way how to reach the learning objectives, including the method and the
strategies of teaching and learning. This has a relation with the success of the teaching and
learning process, whether the students could absorb the information the teacher explains or
not. It is the teacher’s responsibility to arrange the planning, method, and process of the
learning. The teacher plays the main role to make the students engaged in learning English.

Over the last three decades, with the emergence of communicative language teaching (CLT),
learner-based approach as a reaction to teacher-based approach was taken into consideration
in teaching English as a second or foreign language (Richards, 2006).

Lynch (2010) claims that learner-centered approach (active learning) is a method of teaching
in which the learner is in the center of learning process and the teacher has the least
impression in (reading comprehension) language teaching and learning. According to
Richards and Schmidt (2010), learner-centered approach is defined as “a belief that attention
to the nature of learners should be central to all aspects of language teaching, including
planning teaching, and evaluation. Learning is dependent upon the nature and will of the
learners” (p. 326).

In comparison with learner-centered approach, teacher-centered approach or learning (passive

learning) is a method of teaching in which the teacher is in the center of learning process and
the student has the least impression in (reading comprehension) language teaching and
learning. In other words, teacher centeredness approach occurs in a situation that the teacher
plays the main role in the process of learning and teaching. Accordingly, teacher-centered
approach can be defined as a teaching style in which instruction is closely managed and
controlled by the authority of the classroom (i.e., the teacher), where language learners often
respond in agreement to teacher questions, and where whole-class instruction is preferred to
other methods (Richards & Schmidt, 2010).
Huba and Freed (2000) remark that teacher-centered learning can be described as students
passively receive information, emphasis is on acquisition of knowledge, and teacher’s role is
to be primary information giver and evaluator. There is no room for student’s personal
growth. While learner-centered language teaching has been advocated in higher education in
recent years, teachercentered teaching styles may be still dominant in actual practice. Results
of their study show that most instructors still use traditional, teacher-centered styles in
university settings despite the call for a paradigm shift to learner-centered ones (Liu, Qiao &
Liu, 2006).

Mutlaq Al-Zu'be (2013) examined the difference between the learner-centered approach and
the teacher-centered approach in teaching English as a foreign language. The results of the
research revealed that “the comparison of the two approaches in terms of their efficiency and
effectiveness in student’s proficiency showed that each approach has its own strengths and
weaknesses, hence choosing one approach lead to avoiding the advantages of the other. The
student-centered approach, however, was recognized as more suited for teaching English as a
foreign language.

Brown (2008) believes that students’ strategies are more beneficial than teachers who lead
them to a deeper understanding level and critical thinking, “teachers can be agents for change
in a world in desperate need of change: change from competition to corporation, from
powerlessness to empowerment, from conflict to resolution, from prejudice to
understanding”. Also, teaching is a complex activity influenced by teacher quality, which is a
crucial factor in student’s performance by initiating critical thinking. This means that
teacher’s success occurs with better knowledge of the concept.

Here are the significant differences between teacher-centered and students-centered:

Teacher-centered focus on the teacher. The main role in this approach is the teacher, which
has full control in the learning process without letting the students to develop their skills
themselves. The teacher make all the decisions concerning the curriculum, teaching methods,
and the different form of assessment. On the other hand, the students-centered focus on both
students and the teacher. The students have chance to be active in the learning process. As
confirmed by Molungo (2013: 157)’s research findings, group work can stimulate learning
because students are involved in the class activities. This finding indicates that it is vital to
use teaching technique that allow student to work in groups.

In teacher-centered learning, the teacher explains the materials in front of the class while the
students sit still and listen to the teacher’s explanation. In contrast with students-centered
learning, the students have interaction with the other as well as the teacher. Here, the
teacher’s role is the model in the learning process.

In teacher-centered learning, the learning evaluation is committed only by the teacher.

Meanwhile, in students-centered learning, the students can evaluate each other’s learning
together with the teacher.

The teacher is the only monitors and resources in the teacher-centered learning process.
When the students have something to ask, it is the teacher’s job to answer the question. In
contrast with the previous statement, students-centered learning provide a chance for the
students to answer each other’s questions, based on the information they acquire from the
teacher.

A more detailed account of teacher-centered learning is given in the following section.

Teacher-centered learning have some disadvantages that teacher mostly overcome. By way of
illustration, the students get easily bored in the classroom where they are intended to listen to
the teacher’s explanation while sitting in a whole time of learning process. A teacher have to
face the students’ boredom everytime they teach them. Once the students feel bored, they will
try to find a way to obliterate the boredom, such as talking with their friends, throwing paper
to their friends and minor offences like poking each other or hitting. If this happens, a chaos
could not be refrained and the teacher will overcome another difficulty to condition the
classroom to be conducive.

Another disadvantage of teacher-centered learning is that it involves the teacher doing all the
talking with little or no input from the students. This is problematic because the student takes
on a passive role, which can hinder learning. Students need be active learners to keep the
brain working and integrating new information. The teacher must make sure to involve the
students by asking the students questions and encouraging participation so they learn the
material.
Discussion

Teacher-centered learning are frequently found in some schools, one of which is SMPN 3
Pakem. Most of the teachers apply a traditional method to teach their students. This artcile
will focus on the English teacher, based on the author’s observation in the school.

In teaching, learning resources are the crucial components since it is the root of the learning
process where the students learn the materials from; where the teacher arrange the materials
from. Therefore, the resources should be varied so that the students could get maximal
exposure.

According to Acat & Dönmez (2009), in teacher-centered learning, teachers usually use
particular textbooks, which are mostly grammar oriented and to compare the language
structures of native and target languages. In this situation students tend to be more
competitive and individualistic because they have less opportunity to think aloud or interact.

This also happens with the teacher in SMPN 3 Pakem. The teacher only uses LKS for
teaching the students. It causes the limits of student’s English exposure. The students only
stick on the materials from the book so that they can not explore English in broader range of
situations. To get rid of this problem, the teacher should have initiative to search more
resources. In this era, where technology is more well-developed, the humans’ needs to gain
information must be easily fulfilled. A technology could support the teachers’ needs to collect
some information or learning resources. It will be in vain if a teacher could not make use all
the technology provide for people in the world.

The book is also used by the teacher as the only media for teaching. Meanwhile, in this
modern era, there are bunch of tools that teachers can use as media such as songs, videos,
movies, games, etc. By applying a monotous media everytime, this will make the students
does not have positive attitude towards the learning process. They will feel some burden
during the class. The result is that the students do not enjoy the learning at all. To make this
thing fixed, the teacher need to make various communicative and non-communicative class
activities through interesting teaching media. Emaliana (2011:199) suggests that teachers
need to select teaching media which meet the students’ needs. As stated in the research
findings, Indonesian students like to listen English songs, watch English movies, and read
non-fiction books. Besides, students expressed a strong desire in culture learning in EFL.
This finding alerts teachers to the need to develop a pedagogy which can integrate culture
into EFL education. The findings on students’ attitudes towards compensation strategies
show that communicative strategies are needed to be taught to EFL students, like how to use
gestures, words or phrases that mean the same things. The needs to know appropriate
communicative strategies will enhance the teaching and learning of English. Besides that, the
students’ attitudes toward social strategies are highly positive. Therefore, teachers need to
encourage and motivate the students to improve their involvement in extracurricular activities
or after-class activities to practice their English.

Part of the teacher-centered learning is that the teacher is in control of what material the
students will learn. Since the teacher only use a book as a learning resource and media, also
giving the students tasks from a book, the students does not have a chance to sort more things
out there by themselves. This affect the students’ independence in learning. Actually, they
could learn from other things and find the relation with their background knowledge.
However, since the teacher always stick with a book as the learning resource, the students do
not understand how to implement a self-discovery learning, where the teacher’s guidance is
not really dominate in the learning process. There is only minimal guidance and explanation
which is needed. Mostly, a self-discovery learning require the students’ critical thinking to
solve the tasks, such as problem solving with multiple solutions. Therefore, the students do
not need to memorize the theory to do such tasks. There is minimal repetiiton and
memorization in a self-discovery learning.

There are multiple essential components that are required for successful discovery-based
learning which include the following:

 Teacher guidance where the emphasis is on building upon students’ reasoning and
connecting to their experiences
 Classroom culture where there is a shared sense of purpose between teacher and students,
where open-mindedness and dialogue are encouraged
 Students are encouraged to ask questions, inquire through exploration and collaborate
with teacher and peers

Small group teaching is often incorporated into the body of a lesson. The teacher may begin
with a whole class approach, introducing the lesson and discussing the main teaching points.
When the teacher has completed this section of the lesson, the students may move into small
groups for an activity. These activities will often be developed around specific objectives or
outcomes for the group. The teacher may move around the groups as they work, or focus the
teaching on one group for the particular session.

The teacher could start by asking them to discuss a certain topic with their friends. Another
way might be applied by giving them a problem to solve together with their friends in a
group. It promotes student exploration and collaboration with teachers and peers to solve
problems. Children are also able to direct their own inquiry and be actively involved in the
learning process which helps with student motivation. Students learn best by interacting with
each other rather than by learning from adults.

The next problem that can be found is the students’ lack of critical thinking. As discussed
above, the teacher only uses a LKS book as the tasks or practice. As we know that the tasks
in LKS mostly contains such questions which need memorization to solve. This result the
students frequently learn English by remembering. This leads to the students’ lack of critical
thinking. They could not relate a real situatuion outside their classroom with the knowledge
they have learnt.To get this straight up, the teacher should give the students tasks which
require them engaged with a real situation. For example, from the simplest one, the students
have to list a certain number of nouns that can be found in their school area. The teacher may
let them to walk around the school, directly have a contact with their surroundings.

Related to the previous explanation, the teacher only uses the book only as the learning
resource and media. Same goes with the method the teacher applies, which is not varied. The
method the teacher uses is lecture method, which is definitely monotous. It is the oldest
teaching method applied in educational institution. This teaching method is one way channel
of communication of information. Students’ involvement in this teaching method is just to
listen and sometimes pen down some notes if necessary during the lecture. Teachers need to
select appropriate teaching method that promotes learning, so, they need to be professional.
Hartatik (2011: 422) mentions teachers are expected to be active in both in-service training
and on-service training programs to improve their competences and professionalism. Deal
with major difficulties encountered in students’ learning process, it is obvious that teachers
need to concern with their teaching method. Appropriate teaching method that can promote
learning will solve the problems faced by the students. To select suitable element in
determining the success of English language learning, the selection and preparation of
teaching materials are important. Materials which tailored to students’ need is effective to
facilitate better learning and to enhance students’ learning experiences (Indrianti, 2012: 380).
Projects, group work, field trips, almost any other approach is to be preferred.

Turning now to the next problem, it is crucial for L2 learners to practice the language instead
of learning the theory. The learners should implement what they have learned to their real
life, so that they will be able to relate their knowledge in every context and situation.
Unfortunately, the teacher do not require the students to practice. The students are intended to
do the worksheet after the teacher explain the materials. They do not have the chance to at
least pronounce a single word, let alone to speak a sentence. In fact, L2 learners often find it
difficult to speak English properly since their first language is not English so that their tongue
is not used to making some kinds of English sounds such as alveolar approximant /r/, which
requires you to put your tongue near the roof of your mouth and voice out; the voiced dental
fricative /ð/ (as in “this”); the voiceless dental fricative /θ/ (as in “think”). Those are few
examples that the researcher found in the classroom. If the students are not used to practice
the sounds that they find it unfamiliar, they will face a significant problem to speak English.
To fix this problem, It is much better if the teacher gives them the teacher should ask the
students to practice pronouncing words, by either repeating the audio or repeating the teacher.
examples directly so the students can witness themselves how to pronouncing through the
teacher’s mouth.

The previous problem leads to another problem, that is students’ lack of confidence. They are
not used to express their ideas in different language. Some anxieties are found among the
whole students’ groups when they are asked to speak out in class. Because of infrequent
chance the sudents have to practice speaking, they become hesitated to spit even a word. The
students are afraid to make some mistakes, either the pronunciation or the grammatical rule,
whereas L2 learners are supposed to be confident to speak English. These factors are
commonly caused by their fear of being laughed at by their friends. Thus, the possible
solution is the teachers should be more aware of their students’ hindrance to speak out in
class.The teacher should be creative to find a way how to boost students’ confidence. For
example, a teacher could increase their motivation by giving them some points addition if
they are active, like answering aquestion. There is also another way to make them motivated
in learning English. Applying a game could be the effective way since most students like to
play games. They could unconsciously become active in the learning process. Those activities
are finished by them without enforcement and burdensome so that they enjoy during the
activity.

Conclusions

In conclusion, teacher-centered learning have some effects which are considered significant
as they can not explore English in broader range of situations, the students does not have
positive attitude towards the learning process, could not implement a self-discovery learning,
the students lack of critical thinking, they do not have a chance to practice which make them
lack of confidence. Beside that, not only the students, it also affects the classroom situation
which can ruin the teaching and learning process.

Those show that teacher-centered learning could not be wholly applied in teaching and
learning process. Both students-centered learnng and teacher-centered learning could possibly
be used in a classrroom, not just teacher-centered learning. By involving the students could
enhance teaching and learning process, such as applying communicative learning in class
through games, discussion, etc. Beside that, the teacher should also have initiative to search
more resources besides a book, let them to directly have a contact with their surroundings, the
teacher should ask the students to practice pronouncing words, by either repeating the audio
or repeating the teacher, increase their motivation by giving them some points addition if they
are active, like answering aquestion, etc.
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