March 2006 Volume 9, Number 4
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The English Teacher as Facilitator and Authority

Shaun O'Dwyer
David English House, Hiroshima Prefecture, Japan
School of Philosophy, University of New South Wales
<shaunodwyeryahoo.com.au>

Abstract

Over the past eighty years or so, some education theorists have repudiated the notion that it is the teacher's role to act as an authority in the classroom, transmitting knowledge to students "who do not know." In English as a second or foreign language education, a notion of the teacher as "facilitator" is considered to be more compatible with students' felt needs and autonomy. This paper argues that there are epistemological flaws in prominent rejections of transmission theories of learning. Drawing on British philosopher Michael Oakeshott's distinction between technical and practical knowledge, it argues for a modified understanding of the English teacher both as an authority capable of transmitting these types of knowledge in language, and as a facilitator of cooperative language learning.

Keywords: EFL, ESL, Second Language Teacher Education, cooperative language learning, transmission theory

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