A Study Of Learner-Centered English Teaching

Human beings are always motivated in their behaviors , and so are English learners . Motivation is a major learner factor in SLA research . In this respect, there are mainly two types of motivation : instrumental motivation i.e. learning the language as an instrument to achieve practical goals , and integrative, i.e. learning the language out of interest in or desire to identify with the target culture . To explore to some extent motivation it is necessary to have a look at curriculum first.Compared with traditional curriculum , learner-centered curriculum in which needs analysis is considered to be the prerequisite of any course design takes many advantages and gains popularity nowadays.Although English language teaching to non-major English major minority students in Xinjiang Institute of Finance and Economics ( XJIFE) began in 1989 ,a large majority of learners are inexperienced , our students communicative abilities are still weak .Besides , in our English language classroom the teaching pattern is monotonous and learning atmosphere is dull , which greatly demotivate our minority students . All this caused to the author's understanding , first of all by the absence of an English teaching syllabus appropriate for non-English major minority students , the use of traditional language teaching ( TLT ) methods and employment of structure-based textbooks .Therefore this thesis raises the questions : What is the students' needs ? Why are some learners unsuccessful or poorly-motivated ? And then this thesis is trying to suggest and justify that to combine TLT with CLT in English language teaching to our non-English major minority students is both desirable and feasible.