Think of your classes and the different roles you take, such as observer, friend, director of activities and so on, and for the students:collegue, group leader, and so on.

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The rewards of such activities are so noticeable that it would be beneficial to encourage students to do this systematically at any level of proficiency(Holthouse, 2002). Jim Scrivener has alsoidentified an ‘abdicating’ learner– “one who gives up the right to make any decision about his own future” (Scrivener 2001: 91). The teacher may know much about teaching, but he is not supposed to be an expert on such a student, moreover, to know if the latter just adopted such a role, or if it is his personality, which is to blame. J. Scrivener believes that every teacher should anyway try encouraging such learners to understand “that ‘learning’ is not another product that one buys ready-made off the shelf, but is something that has to be adjusted and remade every time” (Scrivener 2001: 91).KeithWillingdiscovered four more roles thatstudents can adopt:Convergers or ‘intrapersonal learners’, who, being self-reliant, avoid working in groups. They have analytic skills and are able to insist on their own organization of learning. Concrete learners or ‘questioners’ enjoy learning experientially, being keen on language use rather than learning ‘about language’. Conformists, on the contrary, prefer learning ‘about language’, conforming to the demands of “traditional teaching” (Scrivener 2001: 14).Communicative learners or ‘socializers’are keen on social interaction in and out of class, always interested in live communication with L2 speakers. They can easily do without the guidance of an instructor (adapted from Willing 1987 and cited in Harmer 2001: 43, 47).To conclude, teachers’ role in the classroom may change from one stage of activity to another.If teachers can change their roles smoothly, their effectiveness is significantly boosted. They can vary their roles of facilitators by adopting more roles depending on such factors as the age of the learners, their aptitude, their language levels, types of activity etc. As for learners, they may also assume certain roles. Those could be used by them as learning strategies irrespective,for instance, of their being intrapersonal or interpersonal learners. The role that learners adopt can greatly help teachers to direct their activities with them and adopt appropriate roles themselves. BibliographyBrown, H.D. 2000Principles of Language Learning and Teaching,(4thedn)Pearson Education Ltd.Curran, C.A. 1972Counseling Learning: A Whole Person Model for Education, New York: Grune & Stratton.Harmer, J. 2001The Practice of English Language Teaching,(3rdedn) LongmanHolthouse, J. 2002The role of the mother tongue in EFL classrooms. https://www.kansai-u.ac.jp/fl/publication/pdf_forum/5/027holthouse.pdfMcKay, S.L. 2003Teaching English as an international language: Rethinking goals and perspectives,New York: Oxford University Press, V.7, N1, 150 p.Rogers, C.R. 1983Freedom to Learn for the Eighties, Columbus, OH: Charles E. Merrill Publishing House. Scrivener, J. 2001Learning Teaching: The Essential Guide to English Language Teaching. (3rdedn) Macmillan Books for TeachersUr, P. 1996A Course in Language Teaching,Cambridge University Press.Willing, K 1987 Learning Styles in Adult Migrant Education,Adult Migrant EducationProgramme, Adelaide