Classroom Activities Viewed from Different Perspectives: Learners' Voice and Teachers' Voice Anthony Seow Zohreh Eslami-Rasekh <zeslamicoe.tamu.edu> Texas A&M University Katayoon Valizadeh Abstract

The present study aimed at investigating learners' beliefs about different learning activities and the degree of discrepancy between learners' preferences and instructors' awareness of those preferences in foreign language learning. The study involved 603 EFL students majoring in different fields who responded to a questionnaire on their preferred activities in the "General English" course. In addition, 27 instructors who taught the "General English" course were asked about their perceptions of students' preferences in the same context. The questionnaire included 40 classroom activities. A comparison was made between these two participant groups' responses. The results indicate that, in communicative activities, there is a significant difference between students' preferences and instructors' perception of those preferences. Students' preferences for communicative activities were significantly higher than their instructors' beliefs. The results indicate that instructors are not highly aware of students' preferences in relation to communicative activities. The results have implications for syllabus and material design and classroom practice

Keywords: ESL,EFL,second language acquisition, learning preferences, materials, methods