Second Week: Dr. Muna Alkhateeb The Direct Method 1

6. The Teachers’ Role
In direct method, teachers introduce a new target language word or phrase to the students and there is no 
mother tounge. Therefore, the role of the teacher is as demonstrator because the teacher demonstrates the 
meaning of words through the use of realia, pictures, or pantomime; they never translate it into the students’ 
native language. The teacher is also a facilitator because he facilitates the students with the target language. 
The teacher is the source for the students to know the words in target language. The teachers provide 
information of the target language including the culture consisting of the history of the people who speak the 
target language. The teacher is the partner of the students. Teachers interact with the students a lot, asking 
them questions about relevant topics and trying to use the grammatical structure of the day in the conversation. 
The teacher can be the monitor of the students. He watches the students’ progress in using the target language. 
The teacher has the students self-correct by asking them to make a choice between what they said and an 
alternative answer supplied. Another possibility is for the teacher to repeat what the student said, stopping just 
before the error. The student knows that the next word was wrong. The teacher is also the initiator. He finds 
various techniques to get the students to self-correct whenever possible. The teacher uses map drawing as a 
technique to give listening comprehension. The teacher can use paragraph writing as a technique for writing 
activity. He asks the teacher to write paragraph with their own words about the lesson studied. The students 
can use their memory or use the passage in the lesson as the model.