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THE POST-METHODS ERA
Approaches and Methods in Language TeachingRichards and Rodgers, 2001
Lemmuela Alvita Kurniawati (136332040)
The Nature of Approaches
Having a core set of theories and beliefs about the nature of language, language learning, and principles in language teaching
Having a variety of interpretations on how principles of language teaching are applied
Allowing individual interpretations and application
Consisting of prescriptions and techniques in English language teaching
Having a long shelf
life
Approaches in English Language Teaching
Communicative Language Teaching
Competency-Based Language Teaching
Content-Based Instruction
Cooperative Learning
Lexical Approaches Multiple Intelligences
The Natural Approach
Neurolinguistic Programming
Task-Based Language Teaching Whole Language
Are linked to specific claims and to prescribed practices.
Contain what to teach and how to teach it.
Are seen as a rich resource of activities, some of which can be adapted from one’s own ideology.
Are relatively fixed in time and there is generally little scope for individual interpretation.
The Nature of Methods
Audiolingualism Counseling-Learning
Situational Language Teaching
The Silent Way Suggestopedia Total Physical Response
Methods in English Language Teaching
Questions Affected the Extent to Which a New Approach or Method is Adopted
1• What advantages does the new approach or method offer?
2
• How compatible is it with teachers’ existing beliefs and attitudes and with the organization and practices within classroom and schools?
3
• Is the new approach or method very complicated and difficult to understand and use?
4
• Has it been tested out in some schools and classrooms before teachers are expected to use it?
5
• Have the benefits of the new approach or method been clearly communicated to teachers and institutions?
6• How clear and practical is the new approach or method?
The Disadvantages of Methods and Approaches
Approaches and Methods
Unlikely to be widely adopted
Difficult to understand and use
Lack clear practical application
Post method era
Criticism of Approaches and Methods
The Top-down Criticism
Role of Contextual Factors
The Need for Curriculum Development Process
Lack of Research Basis
Similarities of Classroom Practices
1
2
3
4
5
1. The Top-down Criticism
ApproachesMethods
Approaches tend to allow for varying interpretations in practice, methods typically prescribe for teachers what
and how to teach.
1. The Top-down Criticism (continued)
The role of teachers
To accept the theory underlying the
method and apply them
To use method and its prescribed techniques
and principles appropriately
The role of students
To receive the method passively
To submit themselves to exercises and activities in the applied method
Good teaching
MethodThe opposed
view of method
Teaching methods must be flexible and adaptive
to learners’ need and interest
Students bring different learning styles and preferences to the learning process
Students are consulted in the process of
developing a teaching program
2. Role of Contextual Factors
In 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 in which teaching and learning occurs.
Richards & Rodgers, 2001
Teaching learning occurs
The cultural context
The political context
The local institutional
context
The context constituted by the teachers and learners
Education
al
planning
and
implement
ation
practices
involve:
The careful examination 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 uponThe assessment of the extent to which the development work has in fact achieved its objectives
The feedback of all the experience gained, to provide a starting point for further study
3. The Need for Curriculum Development Process
3. Lack of Research Basis
FEW books written by method gurus are based on second language acquisition research.
Researchers who study language learning reluctantly dispense prescriptions for teaching based on the results of the research.
Researches on language learning do not support the simplistic theories and prescriptions found in approaches and methods.
Lack of research basis in adopting
methods and approaches
4. Similarities of Classroom Practices
Are not informative because they refer to a pool of classroom practices which are used uniformly (Swaffar, Arens, and Morgan 1982: 31).
Are quite distinctive at the early, and rather indistinguishable from each other at the later stage (Brown 1997: 3)
Some scholars criticized the use of methods believe that methods:
LEARN how to use different approaches and methods and understand when they might be useful
UNDERSTAND some of the issues and controversies that characterize the history of language teaching
PARTICIPATE in language learning experiences based on different approaches and methods as a basis for reflection and comparison
BE AWARE of the rich set of activity resources available to the imaginative teacher
APPRECIATE how theory and practice can be linked from a variety of different perspectives
Beyond Approaches and MethodsApproaches and methods can still be usefully studied and selectively mastered in order to:
Looking Forward