Student-Centered Teaching And Teacher's Role In English Major Freshmen's Integrated English Course

Over the last two decades, some western scholars have put forwards"student-centered"as a pedagogical principle for language teaching. The"student-centered teaching"puts students at the center of the teaching process and attaches great importance to students'needs. It emphasizes the value of collaborative learning, autonomy and shared decision-making in the classroom. Different from traditional English teaching mode, which is teacher-centered, examination-oriented and text-based, student-centered teaching encourages students'learning autonomy. An autonomous student can be defined as an active participant in the learning process.The teacher's role, therefore, should be shifted from traditional teaching, in which knowledge is transmitted through the teacher who acts as an authority and a knowledge-giver. The teacher's function becomes less dominant than before but not less important, and the role of the teacher should be emphasized instead of being neglected. The teacher acts as the facilitator of the language learning and pays attention to students'learning autonomy. He should be aware of students'needs and skilled in using various methods and techniques to help the students to achieve their learning goals.This paper mainly explores the teacher's role in English major freshmen's Integrated English course in the background of student-centered teaching. The theoretical bases are constructivism, humanism and affective factors.A study is done among two classes of English major freshmen in Zhejiang Wanli University (ZWU). Based on the data collected from questionnaires and examinations, these students are slightly different in their affective factors, learning styles, difficulties, expectations in different periods of freshmen year, and that they have low English language proficiency and low learning autonomy.A conclusion is drawn from the study. There are factors affecting student-centered teaching in freshmen's Integrated English course, which are students'affective factors, low English proficiency and low learning autonomy. So the teacher needs to analyze students'conditions, try to meet their needs and promote their learning autonomy to achieve better teaching effects.