The post-method era

CONTENT

•The post-method era(Nesrin Demirbaş)

•The «top down» criticism•The role of contextual factors(Ercan AKSOY)

•The need for curriculum development processes •Lack of research basis•Similarity of classroom practices(Hülya ÖZGER)

•Beyond approaches and methods•Looking forward (Elham COŞKUN)

Recent explorations in L2 pedagogy signal a shift away from the conventiional and traditional concept of method toward a post method condition so that the teachers are empowered to devise for themselves a systematic, coherent and relevant alternative to method.

The post-methods era

It also signifies a search for an alternative to method rather thanan alternative method. It also signifies teacher autonomy.

It is different from eclecticism which has long been advocatedto overcome the limitations of any given method.

•The Grammar Translation Method (19th century)•Direct Method (end of 19th century)•The Audiolingual Method (in the 1950s)• Silent Way• TPR• Suggestopedia

•Communicative Language Teaching (in the 1980s)

•Communivative Language Teaching•Competency-Based Language

Teaching•Content-Based Instruction•Cooperative Learning•Lexical Approaches•Multiple Intelligences•The Naturalistic Approach•Neurolinguistic Programming•Task-Based Language Teaching•Whole Language

• A method refers to a specific instructional design or system based on a particular theory of language and of language learning. It contains detailed specifications of content, roles of teachers and learners, and teaching procedures and techniques. It is relatively fixed in time and there is generally little scope for individual interpretation. Methods are learned through training. The teacher’s role is to follow the method and apply it precisely according to rules. The following are examples of methods in this sense:

• Audiolingualism• Counseling-Learning• Situational Language Teaching• The Silent Way• Suggestopedia• Total Physical Response

To sum upThere is often no clear right or wrong way of teaching according to an approach and no prescribed body of practice. Methods solve many of problems beginning teachers have to struggle with because many of the basis decisions about what to teach and how to teach it have already been made for them.

The “top-down” criticismThe post-methods era

Approaches tend to allow for varying interpretations in practice, methods typically prescribe for teachers what and how to teach.

Approaches Methods

Teacher have toaccept the claims or theory underlying the

methodand appy them to their own practice.

Good Teaching regarded as • Correct use of method• its prescribed principles and techniques

The role of teacher is marginalized

His role or her role is to understand the method and apply its principles correctly.

Learners are sometimes viewed as the passive recipients of the method.They must submit themselves to its regime

of exercises and activities.

In other words,

•Learners bring different learning styles and preferences to the learning process, that they should be consulted in the process of developing a teaching program, and that teaching methods must be flexible and adaptive to learners’ need and interest.

Role of contextual factorsThe post-methods era

Both approach and methods are often promoted as all-purpose solutions to teaching problemsIn trying to apply approaches or methods,

teachers sometimes ignore what is the starting point in language program design, namely, a careful consideration of the context.

Teaching and learning occurs

The cultural context

The political context

The local institutio

nal context

The context

constituted by T

and learners

CLT and cultural imperialism nearly is same thing according to their educational traditions.•In this respect, CLT is used in Britain and

United States, other speaking countries. And so, this situation is related to target culture and the assumptions of CLT.

•Similarly, Counseling-learning and cooperative learning and their assumption about the roles of teachers and learners are not necessarily culturally universal.

THE NEED FOR CURRICULUM DEVELOPMENT PROCESSESThe post-methods era

These traditionally involve:

•The careful examination, drawing on all available sources of knowledge and informed judgement, of the teaching objectives.

•The development and trial use in schools of those methods and materials which are judged most likely to achieve the objectives which teachers agreed upon.

•The assessment of the extend to which the development work has in fact achieved its objectives.

•The final element is therefore the feedback of all the experience gained, to provide a starting point for further study.

LACK OF RESEARCH BASISApproaches and methods are often based on the assumption that the process of second language learning are fully understood.

SIMILARITY OF CLASSROOM PRACTICESBrown (1997:3) makes similar point:Generally, methods are quite distinctive at the early, beginning stages of a language course, and rather indistinguishable from each other at a later stage.

Beyond approaches and methods to learn how to use different approaches and methods and understand

when they might be useful

to understand some of the issues and controversies that characterize the

history of language teaching

to participate in language learning experiences based on different

approaches and methods as a basis for reflection and comparison

to be aware of the rich set of activity resources available to the

imaginative teacher

to appreciate how theory and practice can be linked from a variety of

different perspectives

Looking Forward

• Responses to technology; The potential of the internet , the World

Wide Web, and other computer interfaces and technological

innovations is likely to capture the imagination of the teaching

profession in the future as it has in the past and will influence both the

content and the form of instructional delivery in the language teaching.

 

• Learner-based innovations; Learner-based focuses recur in laguage

teaching and other fields in approximately 10-year cycles, as we have

seen with individualized instruction, the learner-centred curriculum,

learner training, learner strategies, and Multiple Intelligences. We can

anticipate continuation of this trend.