Supported by: Government of Indonesia (GoI) and Islamic Development Bank (idb)

Learners’ Roles 
 
In line with the different roles teachers need to perform, students also have different roles during their 
learning sessions. The roles of the students are as participants, discoverers, questioners, and recorders of 
information (Watkins, 2005:18). 
Participant 
By participating fully in the lesson, students gain practice. They can ‘test out’ how they think the 
language works in a non-threatening environment and may benefit from feedback from the teacher on 
their efforts. Practice in using language and exposure to it seem to be important elements in the learning 
process. However, teachers should be aware that some learners may feel uncomfortable about joining in 
certain situations, and some people may prefer to remain relatively quiet and observe others. Many people 
may learn very effectively in this way, and so learners need the opportunity to participate, but not 
necessarily be forced to. 
Discoverer 
The students can perform this role by taking the opportunities to work out patterns and rules for 
themselves, learners can benefit in the way described in that section. The teacher’s role in this case is 
mostly as the guide for the students to find the rules from a set of examples or a context provided by the 
teacher. 
Questioner 
By asking questions, learners can take responsibility for their own learning to some extent. They can 
set the agenda of what gets taught, rather than simply being the passive recipient of the teacher presents. 
They can also tap into and benefit from the teacher’s expertise.
Recorder of Information 
Students also need to write down important information so that they can refer back to the information 
when needed. Learners need to record new words and phrases, new bits of grammar and so on, to help 
them remember what they learn. They can also make these records outside the classroom when they study 
independently. Teachers may facilitate the students to perform their roles better.
Helping students to be good participants:
 Set up situations where students are encouraged to give opinions/ suggest answers either to the whole 
class or in groups.
 Show you value contributions by using praise and commenting positively on the responses. 
 Respect learners who chose to remain quiet and think about how you might be able to encourage them 
to participate another time. 

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Helping students to be good discoverers:
 Allow learner to work out rules for themselves.
 Resist the temptation to just tell them the answers-even though it can seem that this will save you 
time.
Helping students to be good questioners:
 Teach questions that encourage learners to ask for help and clarification e.g. How do you spell, Could 
you please say that again?
 The teacher can train students to acquire questioning skills by, for example, showing a picture and let 
students ask questions from simple ‘what’ questions to complicated ‘how’ questions. 
 Create an atmosphere where you promote a spirit of exploration and enquiry.
Helping students to be good recorders of information:
 Teach learners how to keep notes and record information in an organized way.
 Ask learners to refer back to notes during class.
 Encourage learners to read over and/or rewrite notes on what they have learnt in the lesson.

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