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Methods, post-method, and mtodos

Submitted byScott Thornburyon 27 May, 2009 - 15:06

This is the first of two articles by Scott Thornbury for TeachingEnglish.

'A language teaching method is a single set of procedures which teachers are to follow in the

classroom. Methods are usually based on a set of beliefs about the nature of language and

learning.' (Nunan, 2003, p. 5).

Ask teachers what method they subscribe to, and most will answer either that they dont

follow a method at all, or that they are 'eclectic', and pick and choose from techniques and

procedures associated with a variety of different methods. Some might add that, essentially,

their teaching follows the principles laid down by the communicative approach, itself a mixed

bag, embracing anything from drills to communicative tasks, and everything in between. But

the concept of a single, prescriptive 'method' - as in the Direct Method, or the Oral Method

seems now to be dead and buried.

The end of methodsThe demise of method is consistent with the widely held view that we are now in a 'post-

method' era. Thus, as long ago as 1983, Stern declared that 'several developments indicate

a shift in language pedagogy away from the single method concept as the main approach to

language teaching' (1983, p. 477). One such development was the failure, on the part of

researchers, to find any significant advantage in one method over another. As Richards

(1990) noted, 'studies of the effectiveness of specific methods have had a hard time

demonstrating that the method itself, rather than other factors, such as the teachers

enthusiasm, or the novelty of the new method, was the crucial variable' (p. 36). Moreover,

recognition of the huge range of variables that impact on second language learning fuelled a

general disenchantment with the notion of a 'quick fix', or what, in the social sciences, is

sometimes called the 'technical-rational approach', i.e. the notion that social change and

improvement can be effected through the strict application of scientific method. This had

very much been the mind-set that impelled the spread of audiolingualism, founded as it was

on (now largely discredited) research into animal behaviour. The last decades of the last

century, however, witnessed a challenge to 'scientism' in the social sciences, a challengeassociated with the advent of postmodernism, and its rejection of the idea of universalist,

objective knowledge. Accordingly, Pennycook (1989) argued that methods are never

'disinterested', but serve the dominant power structures in society, leading to 'a de-skilling of

the role of teachers, and greater institutional control over classroom practice'(p. 610).

The postmethod eraAt around the same time, Kumaravadivelu (1994) identified what he called the 'postmethod

condition', a result of 'the widespread dissatisfaction with the conventional concept of

method' (p. 43). Rather than subscribe to a single set of procedures, postmethod teachers

adapt their approach in accordance with local, contextual factors, while at the same time

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being guided by a number of 'macrostrategies'. Two such macrostrategies are 'Maximise

learning opportunities' and 'Promote learner autonomy'. And in a much-cited paper in 1990,

Prabhu argued that there is no one method, but that individual teachers fashion an approach

that accords uniquely with their 'sense of plausibility.'

Nevertheless, and in spite of the claims of the postmethodists, the notion ofmethoddoes not

seem to have gone away completely. In fact, it seems to be doggedly persistent, even if the

term itself is often replaced by its synonyms. In the on-line advertising for language courses,

for example, we find the following:

'Developed and used over years in the classroom, the earworms mbt method has shown

phenomenal success.'

'The Byki approach to learning languages is the fastest possible way to lock foreign words

and phrases in your long-term memory.'

'Rosetta Stone software is built around a concept called Dynamic Immersion, an [sic] unique

learning method that uses a computer to mimic the ways in which you learnt your firstlanguage.'

It seems that in the public mind, at least the method concept is not dead. As Block

(2001) notes, 'while method has been discredited at an etic level (that is in the thinking and

nomenclature of scholars), it certainly retains a great deal of vitality at the grass-roots, emic

level (that is, it is still part of the nomenclature of lay people and teachers)' (p. 72). This is a

view echoed by Bell (2007) who interviewed a number of teachers on the subject, and

concluded:

'Methods, however the term is defined, are not dead. Teachers seem to be aware of both the

usefulness of methods and the need to go beyond them.' (p. 143).

On the other hand, in a recent paper, Akbari (2008) suggests that, in EFL contexts such as

Iran, it is textbooks that have largely replaced methods in their traditional sense:

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'The concept of method has not been replaced by the concept of postmethod but rather by

an era of textbook-defined practice. What the majority of teachers teach and how they

teach... are now determined by textbooks' (p. 647).

Textbooks and mtodoIn fact, the conflation of method with textbook is an idea with a long history, especially in

the Spanish-speaking world, where the two concepts share a single name: mtodo. Direct

Method and Grammar-Translation courses, in particular, were often named after their

progenitor, as in El Mtodo Kucera (Barcelona, 1954), El Mtodo Girau (Barcelona, 1925),

and the El Mtodo Mass-Dixon(Barcelona, n.d.).

I, too, contend that the concept of method is not only alive and well, but has been

reincarnated in the form of coursebooks, such that it would be valid to talk about the Soars

and Soars Method, or the Cunningham and Moor Method, since it is coursebook series

like Headwayand Cutting Edge that more than any other factor determine and define

current teaching practice. That is to say, rather than the mtodo embodying a specific

method, the mtodo is the method.

What is a method?What is it, after all, that defines a method? In their Dictionary of Language Teaching and

Applied Linguistics (2002), Richards and Schmidt make the reasonable claim that 'different

methods of language teaching... result from different views of:

a. the nature of language

b. the nature of second language learningc. goals and objectives in teaching

d. the type of syllabus to use

e. the role of teachers, learners, instructional materials

f. the activities, techniques and procedures to use'

(p. 330)

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Even a cursory glance at their content and at the way they are marketed confirms the fact

that the writers and publishers of coursebooks take particular positions, either explicitly or

implicitly, with regard to each of these areas. The theory of language that coursebooks

instantiate, for example, is clear from their contents pages, where language is typically

construed as a system of 'accumulated entities' (Rutherford, 1987), or what I have referred

to elsewhere as grammar McNuggets. As Basturkmen (1999) concluded, after reviewing thecover blurbs of a number of current coursebooks, 'the emphasis [is] on the underlying

generative base or language rules rather than on surface level aspects of use' (p. 34).

Coursebooks and second language learningThe 'nature of second language learning', as evidenced from coursebooks, seems generally

to follow a cognitive model, where declarative knowledge is proceduralised through

successive practice activities. The back cover ofInside Out(Kay and Jones, 2001), for

example, makes the claim that 'easy-to-use exercises put rules into practice and are then

recycled as speaking activities'. As for 'the goals and objectives of language learning', thesetend to be loosely aligned with those of the communicative approach. Inside Out, for

example, 'has been designed to develop real-life communicative skills and powers of self-

expression' (Kay and Jones, op. cit), while Cutting Edge(Cunningham and Moor, 1998) aims

at 'improved confidence and fluency' as well as 'a clearer understanding of how language is

used'. (There is, of course, no recognition that the discrete-item focus of the syllabus might

be at odds with these more holistic objectives.) With regard to the syllabus, the grammar

'canon' predominates, but the influence of the lexical approach (Lewis, 1993) and of corpus

linguistics is now apparent. Innovations (Dellar and Hocking, 2000) 'has a strongly lexical

syllabus, presenting and practising hundreds of natural expressions which students will find

immediately useful', and Natural English (Gairns and Redman, 2002a) offers 'a new syllabus

area called natural English accessible, high-frequency phrases which intermediate students

can pick up and use'.

The role of the teacherThe 'role of teachers, learners and instructional materials' is most clearly demonstrated in

the Teachers Book component, where the teachers role is both didactic and facilitative, and

serves primarily to mediate the coursebook materials, by, for example, explaining,

demonstrating and modelling language items, and by setting up and monitoring student

interactions. For example (from Gairns and Redman, 2002b):

'Once learners have thought about exercise 1, go over the language in the natural English

box. You could model the phrases and replies yourself and ask learners to repeat them, then

practise the two-line dialogues across the class' (p. 24).

The guidelines typically construe the teacher as the locus of control in the classroom and

even at times imply that the learners are potentially disruptive:

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'Dont let the false beginners dominate the real beginners or pull you along too quickly

Encourage [the false beginners] to concentrate on areas where they can improve (e.g.

pronunciation) and dont let them think they know it all!' [Oxenden and Seligson, 1996, p.

15]

Nevertheless, occasional reference is made to the need to encourage learner agency and

autonomy. For example, 'Choices within tasks encourage learners to take charge of

interactions' (Kay and Jones, op. cit). Unsurprisingly, though, the coursebook forms the core

component of instruction: it is both the medium and the message.

Finally, the types of 'activities, techniques and procedures to use' draw on a range of

methodological approaches (but scarcely ever involve translation, or encourage the use of, or

any reference to, the learners L1). The influence of the communicative approach appears to

be strong, with most courses including information-gap tasks, and texts that, if not

authentic, attempt to simulate the same. There is a strong skills focus, and the distribution

of the material is weighted more towards skills-based activities than language-focused ones.

The dominant model for representing English is a native-speaker one, and both the topics

and the design of the materials reflect an 'aspirational culture' (Gray, 2002) of travel,

consumerism and popular culture.

ConclusionsHere, then, are the ingredients of a method, enshrined in a mtodo. Teachers who claim not

to be following a method, but who are using a coursebook, are as much method-bound as

the Direct Method practitioners of Berlitzs day, or the Audiolingualists of Lados. Of course,

teachers will argue that they use coursebooks selectively, in accordance with their own

principles as well as the needs of the learners. Fair enough, but however selective a teacher

is, he or she is still tied to a theory of language, embodied in the way that the course selects

and describes language, and to a theory of learning, as manifested in the way the course

prioritises certain types of activity over others.