Roles of Teachers and Learners

0 Roles of Teachers and Learners is one of a series called Language Teaching: A Scheme for Teacher Education, edited by C.N. Candlin and H.G. Widdowson. The series, the purpose of which is to engage language teachers in a process of continual professional development (p. x), focuses on three areas: language knowledge, modes of behavior, and modes of action. Roles of Teachers and Learners belongs to the third category and is itself made up of three sections. The first defines social roles and factors affecting the roles of teachers and learners; the second describes the above roles in the classroom; and the third provides opportunities for application and investigation so that readers can discover for themselves critical characteristics of actual teaching situations. Tasks are provided throughout the book as a means of involving the reader more fully. The first section, approximately 50 pages long, provides basic information on roles in general and of teachers and learners in particular. The author then looks at factors that influence such roles and examines these in terms of interpersonal factors, including social roles and social distance, and task-related factors, including interactivity and interpersonality. He also discusses group processes, including types of behavior, communication patterns, and procedural and content topics. This section is one of the best parts of the book, as it draws on various disciplines, such as sociology and psychology as well as applied linguistics, to provide a coherent account of roles, networks, conflicts, and so on. Wright also addresses the differences between cultures and asks readers to examine their own values and beliefs in light of the teaching/learning situation. Tasks in this