The Postmethod Era

            Of the three readings this week, I took the most from Brown’s chapter entitled “The Postmethod Era: Toward Informed Approaches”. It did the best job explaining what the postmethod era is. My favorite quote from the chapter is that language teaching needs to be “sensitive to a particular group of teachers teaching a particular group of learning pursuing a particular set of goals within a particular institutional context embedded in a particular social milieu.” This quote puts to rest the idea that method is a strict way of conducting a classroom. It focuses on the fact that we need to cater our teaching to our students. The chapter also touched on the fact that there is a divide between theorists and practitioners. People need to see theorists as researchers who are involved in the classroom and practitioners as people who are not just participants or people who use the work of others. Communicative Language Teaching was talked about in detail in the chapter. From what the book described it as, I think that I am a fan of CLT, especially the real-life communication in the classroom. I like that it focuses on fluency as opposed to just accuracy. The seven characteristics on pages 46 and 47 are important in language acquisition. CLT involves spontaneity, such as unrehearsed situations guided by the teacher. I do this in my ELI classes. I give the students situations about the skill I am teaching and have them act it out as if it were real life. The students then can apply what they learn in class directly to the outside world.

            Kuma’s chapter 3 “Understanding Postmethod Pedagogy” talked about the concept of method. Something I found interesting is that what appears to be a radically new method is usually a variant of existing methods presented with “the fresh paint of a new terminology that camouflages their fundamental similarity.” There are three main types of methods: language, learner, and learning-centered methods and most methods fall into these categories. When I learned an L2 (Spanish) in a formal, classroom context, it was language-centered. I was taught Spanish as a linear, additive process. Rules of thumb were provided and taught to the students as a way to learn the aspects of the language. When teaching, each method needs to be investigated to see which one best fits the students and the teacher. The chapter also states that there are limitations to the concept of method. Concerned with the instructional strategies, methodology ignores the fact that the success or failure of classroom instruction depends on the unstated interaction of factors such as teacher cognition, cultural contexts, and societal needs, which are all interwoven. The macrostrategic framework consists of guiding principles derived from insights related to L2 learning and teaching. Besides the ones listed on page 39, such as  integrating language skills, maximizing learning opportunities, and promoting learning autonomy, etc, can you think of any others to add to the list?

TESOL Methods: Changing Tracks, Challenging Trends is about TESOL’s evolving perspectives on language teaching methods from communicative language teaching to task-based language teaching, from method-based pedagogy to postmethod pedagogy, and from systemic discovery to critical discourse. Any size shift creates a new state of awareness and awakening in the TESOL profession. The next step is for educators to devise a concrete plan of how to implement these changes in everyday lessons.