作者：刘颖
【Abstract】Reading development is a process which involves listening intently to the texts， taking ownership of the ideas and externalizing the input. This paper aims to identify reading teachers’ roles in different instructional settings for an attempt to help reading teachers understand their roles and implement their tasks better.
【Key words】reading development； teachers’ roles； instructional settings
【作者簡介】刘颖（1978-），女，，汉族，湖北荆州人，湖南师范大学外国语学院，硕士，讲师，研究方向：翻译理论与实践，二语习得，英语教学法。
Facilitator Talk in EAP Reading Classes by Kate Wilson is a pedagogy-oriented article， shedding new light on teachers’ role in teaching reading from a sociocultural perspective. Basing on Vygotsky’s （1978） views on learning as intermental and intramental interaction， this article presents reading development as a process which involves “listening intently to the texts， taking ownership of the ideas and externalizing the input”（Wilson， 2008）. This process encourages teachers to reinvent their roles as a facilitator to set up a learning-teaching environment which can engage students in direct dialogue with texts. In order to achieve this aim， this article also identifies several features of facilitator talk， including “economical teacher talk， unobtrusive class management， re-redirecting students’ attention to the text， increasing prospectiveness and sensitive feedback” （Wilson， 2008） to help reading teachers understand and implement this task better.
Studies revolving around teachers’ roles in different instructional settings have been carried out substantially so far and the roles that teachers should assume seem to vary in line with the development of language acquisition theories. At one time， teachers may take the role of navigators， knowers， masters or supporters to fulfill a variety of responsibilities for a variety of purposes. In recent years， a growing concern in sociocultural pedagogical theory on dialogic learning （Wilson， 2008） has called on reading teachers to reconsider their current roles in an increasingly collaborative classroom setting. Learning to read occurs not only in teacher-student discourse but also in student-student discourse. Therefore this sociocultural interpretation of teachers’ role as facilitators takes a shift from the conventional pattern of teacher talk to a more cooperation-based pattern of teaching. This view on teachers’ roles corresponds to what we have learned about motivational theories. Van Lier （2004） has ever proposed that language learning emerges from participation in linguistic practices. Teachers’ roles in classroom settings are therefore to set up a student-friendly environment which motivates students to engage in learning rather than to purely transmit knowledge. As reading is a highly individual activity， students’ engagement plays a significant role in influencing teaching effectiveness. At present， with growing recognition of sociocultural theories in teaching reading， teachers may have to adapt their roles to fit in a more collaborative classroom setting which can offer ample opportunities for students to have a direct discourse with texts. As a result， reading teachers may work as a coordinator between students and texts to exploit this environment to its full advantage.
