The aim of this presentation is to call the attention of the audience to what is known today as humanistic Approach to English Language Teaching.

It may seem that radical changes in our social, political and economic life have little to do with foreign language teaching. But they do. The world we live in today is gradually becoming one big community. We teach people to communicate in a foreign language. Thus we actually prepare them for living in this international club. We also have to admit that today, with travel which has become more available to us, with computer technologies in many of our homes, the nature of social contacts and therefore communications is changing. They are rapidly becoming more cosmopolitan and relaxed, less egocentric and considerably more democratic. This calls for new approaches in the classroom, the approaches that may help meet the social needs today. Whether we like it or not, the methods we choose are, in a way, a social response to the changing world, a kind of feed-back.

Humanistic Approach in ELT is an attempt to respond to these needs. Its basic principle is in shifting the focus in education from teaching to learning, so that the teacher is no longer the focal point in class but someone who facilitates the process of education.

The Learner
The new approach implies an entirely new role of the learner. It aims to make the learner more independent, since the responsibility for the learning process is to some extent handed over to him.

The main idea is that the content of a lesson or syllabus is taught and learned from the point of view of the learner. This new centrality changes the conventional concept of instruction. It radically changes the roles in the classroom and may be hard to accept.

Yet it seems worth discussing. It may work very well and be very effective, if it is not the only one but one of the approaches used.

The new role of the learner brings about some psychological problems related to his performance in the classroom. It is quite natural that if the burden of what is happening in class is shifted to the learner, while the teacher only facilitates the process creating the appropriate psychological climate, the performance of the learner will most likely involve psychological stress. Or more stress than before.

In the new context, being in a group, with the teacher who only coordinates and facilitates the process, the learner, more than before, faces such challenges of psychological nature as: self-assertion, self-determination and self-esteem. He must demonstrate the ability to cooperate with the teacher and compete with his fellow-students, he has to learn to cope with success and failure. The learner has to be very sensitive to how his fellow-students feel in relation to himself and to each other. As was said above, the new approach implies more psychological stress on the learner. But I dare suggest that this stress is stimulating and creative. It stimulates the learner’s intelligence and curiosity which work for his benefit.

Let us now view Humanistic Approach as applied to a Russian learner. It seems it has special meaning to us, since the lesson, especially at our schools, revolves around the authoritative role of the teacher. The centrality of the teacher is generally a dogma that is seldom questioned. It is not very common that the learner feels at ease and relaxed, unless he is lucky to have a teacher (or teachers) who practices humanistic approach often without being aware of it. He is just guided by intuition.

For this particular reason Humanistic approach acquires a special significance for the Russian learner. It may fill some gap which is essential in shaping his/her personality. The situation in class, with the learner as the center, calls for realizing the learner’s individuality and unique potential. It also awakens the teacher to the fact that the learner can be a lot more independent, come up with his own judgement, and attempt a performance which is enjoyable because he/she is at ease and happy. Humanistic approach or some of its practices offers the learner an opportunity to perform in a new relaxed way, to be the master of what’s happening in class. It is a situation which might be most welcome in our classroom.

The Teacher
Undoubtedly, it makes new demands on the teacher, since the teacher will have to give up some of the conventional practices. On the one hand, the teacher must become a facilitator by giving up the dominating role to the learners. On the other hand, and this seems essential, it is the teacher who creates the special atmosphere of the learners’ independence and the new psychological climate in class.

If we want Humanistic Approach to work, the teacher must be sensitive and skillful in helping the learners face these issues. It does not seem that any special training is required. What is important for the teacher is tact, empathy, a genuine interest in the learners’ performance and of course, friendliness. The teacher cooperates with the students on equal terms, rather than dominates. This cooperation is special. It calls for finding an appropriate balance in the teacher- learner relationship. This balance is a very sensitive substance: it is individual and different in each particular case. This teacher-learner cooperation should be very skillfully orchestrated by the teacher, who can now be referred to as facilitator.

I also invite you to view Humanistic approach not so much as another technique of language instruction but rather as something that makes the learner less constraint, more relaxed, independent and uninhibited. He/she learns to cooperate with his peers and with the teacher, developing more respect for himself and others, thereby releasing the energy that drives learning.

The Lesson
Let us now try to visualize a lesson when Humanistic approach is practiced. It seems that the most effective are such techniques which provide the learners’ group involvement. Therefore discussions, all kinds of pair work and group work, as well as role play and games ( with kids ) seem to work best. Very good are the tasks that make the students’ personal experience the topic of the language class, which is natural. It is very important for each little team to have its leader for solving the tasks and for decision-making.

A few words should be said here about giving the learner an opportunity for decision making. Let us visualize three different scenarios for starting a lesson.
Scenario 1. The teacher may start the lesson with the words:
- Here are the things we’re going to do today: first we will read the text and then....
Scenario 2.
In another scenario the teacher may say:
- There’re quite a few things we must do today. But it’s up to you to decide what we should begin with.....
In still another scenario, which is our objective, it is the students who begin the lesson.
Scenario 3.
- Last time we had such fun role playing. Let’s try and do it again....

In scenarios 2 and 3 the students are decision-makers. What is important is that though the decisions are made by the learners, the scenarios are orchestrated by the teacher. All the efforts of the learners are supported and encouraged by the teacher. Of all the qualities of the teacher - empathy and unconditional acceptance of the learner are of paramount significance.

Evaluation of the Learners’ Performance
There are various suggestions as to how we teachers should feel about the students’ mistakes when this approach is practised.

Many believe that the objective of some lessons (not all ) is to give the learner a chance to communicate something rather than to get him to say every single word formally right. Here much is left to the judgement of the teacher. It is indeed a very controversial issue. Not correcting the students’ mistakes looks to me a disadvantage of Humanistic approach because the teaching element is gone. Yet there are no gains without losses.

Conclusion
1.The idea of Humanistic approach presented here is invitation to think about making English language instruction more learner-oriented, which has a special meaning in this country.
2. In practising this approach we should consider the age of the learner: at the initial stage of language instruction the teacher certainly dominates in the classroom, trying to gradually shift the centrality to the learner as the latter grows and becomes more mature.
3. It is realistic to view Humanistic approach as one of the techniques practiced in class.
4. Any sort of Humanistic approach is doomed to failure if it is imposed on students against their will, if they criticize and reject it. It is only possible when it is welcomed by both the learner and the teacher.
5. It is known that human behavior is culturally determined. With this in mind, we have to admit that humanistic techniques are most successful when they are practised in what we might call "extravert" societies and by the teachers of "extravert"  personalities. There is no doubt that many teachers have successfully practiced this approach or its elements. Hopefully, many more may be tempted to give it a try and see what happens.

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