THE TEACHER-LEARNER RELATIONSHIP AND CLASSROOM INTERACTION IN DISTANCE LEARNING - A CASE-STUDY OF THE JAPANESE-LANGUAGE CLASSES AT AN AMERICAN HIGH-SCHOOL

With a growing demand for Japanese language courses at secondary schoo ls, satellite language programs have become a solution to the shortage of qualified classroom teachers. In the distance learning Japanese cl asses of the high school where our research was conducted, various asp ects of the teacher's role in traditional foreign language classes wer e divided and handled by different people. This article examines the r ole of the facilitator in distance learning classes by analyzing the m echanism of distance teaching and describing students' perceptions of the teacher and their classroom interaction. It argues that the classr oom facilitator's function to mediate between the remote teacher and t he learner is a key factor in the successful operation of distance lea rning language classes.