1. Politzer and Weiss

The question they explored is whether it is really the method that makes the difference in student achievement or the way in which individual teachers implement that method with respect to their own situation.

2. Hymes

Different methods require different roles on the part of the teacher.

In communicative language teaching, the teacher needs to fulfill at least the roles of a communicator, a model, a designer, an organizer, and a counselor. The teacher communicates with the students in the target language. His/her proficiency in the language is absolutely a pre-requisite in fulfilling the role of communicator. At the same time, he/she sets the students a model in using the target language. The younger the learners are, the more important the role of model is. He/she is a designer of the tasks and activities that engage the students, and he/she is an organizer of these. Finally, he/she diagnoses students’ errors and problems in the process of learning and gives advice accordingly.

3. The role of teacher

Those roles require that the teacher reflects upon his/her own teaching. Its value lies in these aspects: to increase the teacher’s understanding of the nature language; to develop the teacher’s awareness of the complexity of language and language learning; to sensitive the teacher in identifying errors and diagnosing their sources; to help the teacher to monitor his/her own use of the target language.