Abstract:
The role of the teacher is to be facilitator of his students’ learning. Teachers are the managers of
classroom activities. They are charged with the responsibility of establishing situations likely to promote
communication. This paper is premised on a study which set out to determine if the role of the teacher in a
Listening and Speaking class is relevant to the tenets of CLT. A descriptive research design was adopted using
direct observation and interview methods for data collection. Note-taking and tape-recording were used to
record class proceedings and interviews. A total of twelve secondary schools were selected using stratified and
simple random sampling techniques. Fourteen teachers of English were involved. A descriptive analysis of data
was done. Frequency tables were used to highlight the data. The findings revealed that while learners were
passive participants in the process of learning the listening and speaking skills, the teacher played a very active
role. He took centre stage. The teacher concentrated on instructing the learner. He planned the lesson alone,
and while in class he talked, asked questions, demonstrated, gave notes, answered questions, explained,
narrated, described, responded and even read extracts. The learner was hardly involved. For communicative
competence to be achieved, there needs to be less teacher control and more pupil centeredness in any listening
and speaking task. The findings of the study may provide impetus for the teacher to reflect upon his own, and
other colleagues choice of methodology in the teaching of not only Listening and Speaking but also Reading and
Writing. This indeed will boost the performance of English language and make it more acceptable as a
language of communication.
