Ani br I dge

Providing people with pre-fabricated parcels of information is, as Freire (1970) has suggested, essentially oppressive, for it fails to take into account the fact that learning involves the personalised construction of meaning. Indeed, it may be that there is a certain contradiction in the role of the learner and the helper which has to be overcome if the learning process is to be successful.
In the place of the more traditional role of 'helper' and 'recipient', we are seeking a role relationship that is collaborative and consultative. The teacher is considered a co-investigator or co-explorer in the language classroom. The initiation for action and spirit of inquiry comes from the teacher. The role of the helper is to facilitate and guide learning, perhaps assist, where asked, in the identification of priorities or the provision of learning resources; essentially to respond rather than to initiate or steer.
An important part of this response from the helper assumes the capacity to accommodate and respect the learning style of the teacher in question. Just as, increasingly, language teachers are becoming sensitive to the need to recognise and accommodate the learning styles of language learners, so too teacher educators must be sensitive to the learning styles of teachers. Gebhard (1990) describes various choices of styles. The educator needs to choose wisely and judiciously, ever aware of how damaging prescriptiveness can be.