Methods, post-method, and métodos
Submitted by
Scott Thornbury
on 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 don’t 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 methods
The 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 teacher’s 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 challenge associated 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 era
At 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 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 of
method does 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 first language.'
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:
'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 método
In 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: método. Direct Method and Grammar-Translation courses, in
particular, were often named after their progenitor, as in El Método Kucera
(Barcelona, 1954), El Método Girau (Barcelona, 1925), and the El
Método Massé-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 Headway and Cutting
Edge that – more than any other factor – determine and define current
teaching practice. That is to say, rather than the método embodying a
specific method, the método 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 learning
c. 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)
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 the
cover 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 learning
The '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 of
Inside 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',
these tend 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 teacher
The 'role of teachers, learners and instructional materials' is most clearly
demonstrated in the Teacher’s Book component, where the teacher’s 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:
'Don’t 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 don’t 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.
Conclusions
Here, then, are the ingredients of a method, enshrined in a método.
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 Berlitz’s day, or
the Audiolingualists of Lado’s. 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.
References
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