The Effect of Shifting to Student-Centered Learning: Implementing Student-Centered Reading

Abstract

The "traditional" forms of teaching are extremely familiar to students, who frequently favor learning that is focused on receiving instruction and reproducing knowledge. This study aims to examine the effects of these traditional forms of teaching practices, such as teacher-centered learning on EFL learners' engagement in implementing student-centered reading. The study uses an observation checklist and interview as tools for collecting data from twelve EFL elementary reading classes and their teachers. The statistically analyzed data has shown that whenever reading activities demand deeper, personalized discussion, the learners engage less and rely more on their teachers for assistance. When interacting with non-communicative tasks, EFL students take full ownership of their own learning; however, when interacting with communicative tasks, they require teacher prompting. Furthermore, learners' collaboration with each other on achieving reading tasks was, in most cases, either done to some extent or in a very limited range. Thus, EFL learners maintained dependency in carrying out reading activities through their preference for non-communicative tasks over communicative tasks and their collaboration upon reading activities in a limited range. Based on this, the design of communicative reading activities demands prompting, and learners need to be encouraged and guided for engagement. Students may be more receptive and interested if they are more informed about the advantages and effectiveness of student-centered learning. In spite of the effectiveness of student-centered learning in many contexts, it needs to be redefined to fit within the culture and specific EFL learning and teaching contexts.