Page 88 - Beyond Methods

76 Maximizing learning opportunities
tions. However, what seems to be clear is that both teachers and learners—teachers more than learners—have a responsibility to cre- ate and utilize learning opportunities in class. What is also clear is that, more than anything else, the classroom is the prime site where the success or failure of any attempt to generate learning opportu- nities will be determined.
The authentic classroom interactional episodes used and ana- lyzed in this chapter are very short, and together constitute no more than a few minutes of talk between the participants in classroom events. But, even such simple and short exchanges are sufficient to show the significance of the interactive process of learning and teaching while at the same time revealing the limitations of pre- determined teaching agenda, the textbook, and the syllabus. It is only through collaborative work that teachers and learners generate classroom discourse, and in generating classroom discourse, they also generate a wide range of learning opportunities. Considering their collaborative role in the classroom, “we can no longer see teach- ers simply as teachers, and learners simply as learners, because both are, for good or ill, managers of learning” (Allwright, 1984, p. 156).
If teachers and learners are jointly vested with the task of man- aging learning in the classroom, then it is imperative that there is a considerable degree of understanding between them about the aims and activities, and the processes and the procedures govern- ing classroom learning and teaching. What could easily undermine their joint effort are potential mismatches between teacher inten- tion and learner interpretation. We turn to that subject in the next chapter.