An Introduction on Post-Method Condition
152
profession is faced with an imperative need to construct a post method pedagogy
(Kumaravadivelu, 2001).
After a century of proliferation of methods and approaches in language teaching, we have
what Kumaravadivelu (1994) coined, and later referred to by Brown (1997) and Richards
and Rogers (2001) as ‘the post-methods era’ in which discussions on language teaching
are engaged in without using the word
method or approach. Nevertheless, the method
concept in teaching is still a powerful one as evidenced in a number of new editions of
publications widely adopted in MA methods survey courses and teacher training
programs (e.g., Celce-Murcia, 2001; cited in Zakeri, 2014 )
The 1990s witnessed a rare congruence of refreshingly new ideas that can
fundamentally restructure second/foreign language teaching and teacher education.
Among them are two mutually informing currents of thought: one emphasizes the
need to go beyond the limitations of the concept of method with a call to end an
alternative way of designing effective teaching strategies (Clarke, 1994;
Kumaravadivelu, 1994; Prabhu, 1990), and another emphasizes the need to go beyond
the limitations of the transmission model of teacher education with a call to end an
alternative way of creating efficient teaching professionals (Freeman & Johnson, 1998;
Johnson, 2000; Woods, 1996).
In spite of the changing status of methods and approaches in language teaching, the study
of past and present teaching methods continues to form a significant component in
teacher preparation programs because 1) it provides teachers with a view of how
language teaching has evolved as a field; 2) teachers can adapt methods and approaches
as sources of well-used practice rather than prescriptions to suit their own teaching
contexts and needs; and 3) they can provide teachers (especially novice teachers) with
basic teaching skills with which they can expand their own teaching repertoire (Richards
& Rodgers, 2001).
Dostları ilə paylaş: