In a previous post we discussed teacher roles, and in a great comment to that post Bee has shared a nice resource for my ongoing quest for a “unified theory of BE teaching” which as of today mostly consists of questions I pose to myself (hopefully I can work out some answers via this blog). Bee is part of the triumvirate that launched the wonderful Dekita P2P for ESL community.

Anyway, Bee suggested checking out the Indiana State University site on instuctional design and teaching styles. The resource summarizes clusters of approaches/roles:
+ formal/authority
+ facilitator
+ demonstrator
+ delegator
It’s well worth a look. Something that struck me was the emphasis on learner training as a defining characteristic of facilitation. That’s logical, seeing as how facilitation focuses on the process rather than product, but I hadn’t made the connection strongly enough until now. So thanks Bee for that.

In this context: can anyone suggest a favorite resource that explicitly compares teaching language skills vs. teaching a “subject” (such as science or literature)? Specifically, I wonder how the constructivist approach could be modified to address the difference of domain. SLA isn’t the same as acquiring knowledge of, say, science: how does the constructivist paradigm address this? I could start by re-reading through Rod Ellis, but aside from that, any ideas?