Page 56 - Beyond Methods

CHAPTER 3
Maximizing Learning Opportunities
We cannot really teach a language; we can only create conditions under which it will develop in the mind
in its own way.
—VON HUMBOLDT, 1836, as paraphrased in Noam Chomsky, 1965, p. 51
Our first and foremost duty as teachers is to maximize learning op- portunities for our learners. To say that is to state the obvious. It is difficult to disagree with such a commonplace statement. We may, however, disagree on the details. That is, we may have different re- sponses to questions such as: What constitutes learning opportuni- ties? How do we know learning opportunities have or have not been created? Do learners utilize learning opportunities created by teach- ers? Is it the responsibility of the teacher alone to create learning opportunities? Can learners also create learning opportunities? Do teachers recognize learning opportunities created by learners? Do learners see learning opportunities as learning opportunities? These are some of the questions that I will be addressing in this chapter.
Teaching, however purposeful, cannot automatically lead to learning for the simple reason that learning is primarily a personal construct controlled by the individual learner. Every teaching act will be seen through the prism of what the individual learner brings to it as well as takes from it. If learning is indeed controlled by the learner, then teachers can only try to create the conditions nec- essary for learning to take place. The success of their attempt is, of course, dependent on their learners’ willing cooperation to make use of the conditions that have been created. It is because of this collaborative nature of learning and teaching that Dick Allwright (1986, p. 6) defined classroom instruction as “the interactive pro-