THE STUDENT CENTEREDNESS IN ENGLISH LANGUAGE TEACHING IN TECHNICAL EDUCATION (Pages 28-37) by Mr. Sarakanam Srinivas in THE INTERNATIONAL RESEARCH SPECIALIST / ISSN: 2350-1499 (Online); 2350-0751 (Print)

The student is placed at the centre of the class in the Learner Centered Education. In this System, the focus however is not on ‘how a teacher teaches’ but on ‘how the students learn.’ English Language Teaching is impossible with lecturer centered one as language is rather learnt and practiced than it being taught. Communication skills are acquired by students only in the climate of cordiality. Learner Centered Teaching facilitates us to have this kind of environment in the class room. But ‘How far is it possible for us to transform a conventional class room into a student centered one’ is a crucial question. And at the same time, the question ‘How long should a language teacher proceed with ‘read and explain’ method in the usual theory classes?’ is also worthy enough for discussion This paper aims at looking into the possibilities for turning a ‘Traditional Lecture oriented English Language Teaching Class’ into a ‘Student Centered Teaching Class’ and for making students autonomous. The pre-requisites such as adequate infrastructure, learner - centered favorable curriculum, resourcefulness of faculty etc., that support the student centered teaching are discussed. Also the helpfulness of the language lab and how productively and strategically English language ‘theory classes’ are handled is discussed. The opportunities of a language teacher in motivating and raising the self – esteem of students is also discussed. Moreover, feasibility of the transformation of the traditional teacher centered class into a student centered class in the setting of Technical Education is analyzed. In order to achieve the aim mentioned above, inductive method of analysis is employed. This method makes use of particular facts and examples to form general rules and principles. Key Words: Learner centered education -- Lecturer centered education -- adequate infrastructure – conducive curriculum -- pre-requisites for student centeredness etc.