What is Your Opinion - Teacher Lecture or Classroom Dialogue for Learning?

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This quote about learning from blogger Steve Kaufmann absolutely fascinated me: "Chinese learners are accustomed to teacher-directed lectures and do not see classroom discussion or dialogue as part of language learning. When British teachers use dialogue, discussion, and small-group work for language-learning, Chinese learners think that the teachers are being lazy and that the activities are a waste of time." http://thelinguist.blogs.com/how_to_learn_english_and/2008.07/research-into-1.html I find this quotation interested on a variety of levels. Recently, I have taken an interest in China, and so this statement begs for confirmation. Perhaps more importantly, I am intrigued on account of my own educational experience - which has been a mix of the lecture-style and the discussion/dialogue style for learning. I certainly have my opinions on the topic (and the memories are still fresh enough in my mind for me to remember what I thought about these particular models at the time that they were being used with me...), but I am interested in hearing what you have to say. First, if you are from China, do you think that this is an accurate quotation? If you are from some other location in the world, do you find that this is an accurate reflection of the general opinion of poeple where you live? And secondly, do you personally agree with this statemenet - that "anything other than a teacher lecture is a waste of students' time"?