A Study Of Teachers' Roles In The Development Of Students' Learning Styles

In the context of the English language teaching (ELT) reform in China in the past years, much attention has been transferred from language teaching to students' learning. Compared with traditional teacher-centered language teaching, this new trend tends more on students' side. There is no doubt that students dominate learning. But, without teachers' help and guidance, can students really attain a satisfactory language acquisition? The answer is no. Just like what constructivism tells us, knowledge is built on learners' previous knowledge construction while this construction is based on teachers' facilitation and mediation. Student-centeredness does not relegate teachers' interference in learning but makes their roles more prudent.The shift from teaching to learning makes students' personality-related variables, such as motivation, attitude, and learning styles, draw more and more attention. Learning style is regarded as being closely related to students' language achievements and a key factor in being a successful language learner. It is taken as cognitive, affective, and physiological traits which are indicators of how learners perceive, interact with, and respond to the learning environment. It is an individual's natural and preferred way of processing, absorbing and retaining new information and skills. It is learning style that leads students, in an unconscious way to take corresponding learning strategies in the learning process. In a sense, students' learning style is a decisive factor for a successful learner and effective learning. Language learners always prefer one or two certain styles which may or may not maximally enhance their learning. According to recent educational theories, the more flexible a learner's learning style is, the faster and easier he/she will adapt to a new learning environment. In language learning field, multi-style students will make themselves excellent language learners.However, many students haven't realized the existence and importance of learning style. They just know they have some irresistible difficulties in language learning and no matter what kind of methods or strategies they use, or no matter how hard they try, they can not attain the same language level like other students. Actually, that's the reason they do not know about their learning style thus they can not take useful strategies to ease their learning. Since learning is inseparable from teaching, it is thus very necessary for the teachers to help. The traditional way of teachers "passing on the truth, imparting knowledge and solving puzzles" can not keep pace with the modern times. Therefore, teachers should make full use of the classroom as a place not only to broaden students' knowledge, but also to strengthen and improve their language learning ability and skills, as well as helping them to develop adaptable language learning styles and strategies. The study in this thesis shows that most of the teachers are still trying very hard to help students improve their extraneous skills which may enhance short term achievements, but they usually overlook the long-lasting and intrinsic characteristics of students such as learning style. What's more, the current research from this perspective studying students' learning style both at home and abroad just remain at the theoretical level. How can teachers best help students to learn effectively? How can teachers help students to maximize and flex their learning styles? What Strategies teachers can take to achieve these goals thus become the main idea of this thesis.