“Current research/methodologi

es – second language

teaching”

Graham CrookesProfessor, Department of Second Language

Studies, University of Hawai’i

self-introduction

who am I to be in a position to make claims about SL teaching, research, etc?

www2.hawaii.edu/~crookes/

What is a methodology, in the field of ES/FL?

a "studied" or developed method

What is a method?

• A set of techniques, or is there more to it than that? A perspective on learning? A syllabus type? An approach?

a list of methods, approaches, etc.

• the audiolingual method

• communicative approaches (CLT, Natural Approach...)

• (the) content-based approach(es)

• critical pedagogy

• culture learning

• drama

• (4) feminist pedagogy grammar-translation

• (5) humanistic education learner autonomy

• (6) literature

• (7) music

• (8) simulations

• suggestopedia, CLL, silent way task-based approaches whole language

• feminist pedagogy

• grammar-translation

• humanistic approaches

e.g. suggestopedia,

CLL (Community Language Learning, or Counseling-Learning),

silent way

• learner autonomy

• literature

• music

• (8) simulations

• suggestopedia, CLL, silent way task-based approaches whole language

• simulations

• task-based approaches

• whole language

• critical literacy

• extensive reading

What is a capital-M Method?

• A fixed set, a package, a one-size-fits-all phenomenon

• usually promoted by publishers and governments

• NOT a good thing

• “the field” thinks we’re past that...

Where do Methods come from?

• Historical flows of ideas (often not well-understood)

• individual teacher-experts and/or research specialists

• people who think there's only one way and it's their way

Is there an Asian Method?

• Perhaps worth some discussion...

• need to avoid stereotypes

• the role of China as a central cultural influence

• but let’s not ignore contact with western educational systems in the 19th century, notably Prussia!

If locally-developed, structured, and studied sets of techniques and associated concepts serve local needs and are both understood and capable of being implemented effectively by local teachers,

they should take precedence over any others.

However, when local needs change, or are believed to have changed, local methods may be revised using both internal and external sources of information and stimulation.

The study /the story of Methods as part of professional development of teachers of ES/FL

and part of the academic field of Applied Linguistics

• usually presented as a story of progress from the "traditional" era of the 19th and first half of 20th century to the "modern" era - the latter part of the 20th century to early 21st century

• In light of the criticism of the concept of "Progress" and in the face of obvious ignorance of the much longer history of L2 teaching, recently this “story” has been reworked

• in terms of the coexistence of "formal" and "functional" poles, with an emphasis on one or the other sometimes becoming dominant in certain places, times, and subsections of the educational environment.

A three-part division of the area

• the formal pole (still fairly dominant in practice)

• the functional pole (dominant among theorists, researchers, and in some specialized settings)

• a range of "alternative" or "innovative" methodologies

Breaking News

Technological changes!

Globalization!

Postmodernity!

Hybridity!

Teaching by principles

Another way to view the area is to look for principles that cut across methods, and take them (rather than methods) as guidelines.

H. D. Brown. (1994). Teaching by principles.B. Kumaravadivelu. (2003). Beyond methods: macrostrategies for language teaching.

These may be presented as largely “value-free”, derived from research, but may contain implicit values; or may have some explicit aims or values associated with them.

•Maximize learning opportunities. .. teachers must strike a balance between managing teaching acts and mediating learning acts

•Minimize perceptual mismatches

•Facilitate negotiated interaction... meaningful learner-learner and learner-teacher interaction in which learners are entitled and encouraged to initiate topic and talk, not just react and respond

•Promote learner autonomy... teach learners how to learn, equip them with the means to monitor and self-direct their learning

Kumar’s principles

• Promote learner autonomy... teach learners how to learn, equip them with the means to monitor and self-direct their learning

• Foster language awareness... draw learners' attention to formal and functional properties of L2

• Activate intuitive heuristics... provide rich textual data so learners can infer underlying linguistic and sociolinguistic rules

• Contextualize linguistic input... language shaped by linguistic, extralinguistic, situational, and extrasituational contexts

• Integrate language skills...

• Ensure social relevance... teachers need to be sensitive to the societal, political, economic, and educational environment in which L2 learning and teaching take place

•Raise cultural consciousness... treat learners as cultural informants so they are encouraged to engage in a process of classroom participation that puts a premium on their power/knowledge

•Particularity - "opposed to the notion that there can be an established method with a generic set of theoretical principles and a generic set of classroom practices" - "any language pedagogy, to be relevant, must be sensitive to a particular group of learners pursuing a particular set of goals within a particular institutional context embedded in a particular sociocultural milieu"

•Practicality - there should be a teacher theory of practice, generated by the teacher(s) out of the practical conditions of the specific situation... (p. 35)

•Possibility - "any pedagogy is implicated in relations of power and dominance, and is implemented to create and sustaing social inequalities" - recognize the role of language in individual identity, recognize teachers' and learners' subject-positions - their class, race, geneder and ethnicity...

Kumaravadivelu's 3 "riders"

•Practicality - there should be a teacher theory of practice, generated by the teacher(s) out of the practical conditions of the specific situation...

•Possibility - "any pedagogy is implicated in relations of power and dominance, and is implemented to create and sustain social inequalities" - recognize the role of language in individual identity, recognize teachers' and learners' subject-positions - their class, race, gender and ethnicity.

•to test ideas in vitro; (experimental work)

•to explore the details of practice in very constrained and careful ways (that are usually not available to the regular teacher)(“classroom research”/ field-based studies

•to provide evidence-based practice

•to develop theory; to extend conceptualizations

and the role of research?

but that’s another story...