Trends In Tesol Methods
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Publicado: 16 de diciembre de 2012
Trends in TESOL methods
When we talk about Teachers of English to Speakers of Other Languages (TESOL) methods we can divide it in two periods of time, before 1990 and after. We could talk about a period of awakening in first place (before 1990) and a period of awareness (after 1990). This global methodological transition happened appropriate to three principal shifts:
A) FromCommunicative Language Teaching to Task-Based Language Teaching:
CLT was a principled response to the perceived failure of the Audiolingual method, which was seen to focus exclusively and excessively on the manipulation of the linguistic structures of the target language. Along the 1980s, it acquired prominence and guided the form and function of almost all conceivable components of language pedagogy.CLT is best considered an approach rather than a method. It refers to a diverse set of principles that reflect a communicative view of language and language learning and that can be used to support a wide variety of classroom procedures.
Some teaching proposals focus more directly on instructional factors. Cooperative Learning for example, which shares many of the characteristics of CLT,promotes learning through communication in pairs or small groups. Cooperative organization and activities are central with this approach. Task-Based Language Teaching (TBLT) advocates the importance of specially designed instructional tasks as the basis of learning.
TBLT refers to an approach based on the use of tasks as the core unit of planning and instruction in language teaching. Some ofits proponents present it as a logical development of CLT since it draws on several principles that formed part of the CLT movement from the 1980s.
Today, Communicative Language Teaching thus continues in its “classic” form, as is seen in the huge range of course books and other teaching resources based on the principles of CLT. In addition, it has influenced many other language teachingapproaches and methods that subscribe to a similar philosophy of language teaching.
B) From Method-Based pedagogy to Postmethod pedagogy:
It’s important to understand this shift from Method-Based pedagogy to Postmethod pedagogy to start talking about two innovative papers published in TESOL Quarterly:
Pennycook (1989) and Prabhu (1990). Pennycook wanted to put an end to theprofession’s innocence about the neutrality of the method and Prabhu wanted to end with the infatuation looking for the best method; and they were not alone in the raising doubts about the concept of method. This doubts leaded to a new perspective about methods: what is needed is not an alternative new method but an alternative to methods. Now we are talking about the post-methods era.
We have take alook at many different approaches (such as CLT, CBLT, The Natural Approach, TBLT, Direct Method...) and we should take these as a set of beliefs and principles that can be used as the basis for teaching a language. Each of these approaches has in common a core set of theories and beliefs about the nature of language learning and a derived set of principles for teaching a language. A method (suchas Audiolingualism, Situational Language Teaching, The Silent Way, Suggestopedia, Total Physical Response...), on the other hand, refers to a specific instructional design or system based on a particular theory of language and of language learning.
The extent to which new approachesand methods become widely accepted and have a lasting impact on teachers’ practices also depends on the relative ease or difficulty of introducing the changes the approach or method requires. Curriculum changes are of many different kinds.
After his dead, Stern published a framework that consists of strategies and techniques which has three dimensions:
A) The L1-L2 connection, using L1 to...
When we talk about Teachers of English to Speakers of Other Languages (TESOL) methods we can divide it in two periods of time, before 1990 and after. We could talk about a period of awakening in first place (before 1990) and a period of awareness (after 1990). This global methodological transition happened appropriate to three principal shifts:
A) FromCommunicative Language Teaching to Task-Based Language Teaching:
CLT was a principled response to the perceived failure of the Audiolingual method, which was seen to focus exclusively and excessively on the manipulation of the linguistic structures of the target language. Along the 1980s, it acquired prominence and guided the form and function of almost all conceivable components of language pedagogy.CLT is best considered an approach rather than a method. It refers to a diverse set of principles that reflect a communicative view of language and language learning and that can be used to support a wide variety of classroom procedures.
Some teaching proposals focus more directly on instructional factors. Cooperative Learning for example, which shares many of the characteristics of CLT,promotes learning through communication in pairs or small groups. Cooperative organization and activities are central with this approach. Task-Based Language Teaching (TBLT) advocates the importance of specially designed instructional tasks as the basis of learning.
TBLT refers to an approach based on the use of tasks as the core unit of planning and instruction in language teaching. Some ofits proponents present it as a logical development of CLT since it draws on several principles that formed part of the CLT movement from the 1980s.
Today, Communicative Language Teaching thus continues in its “classic” form, as is seen in the huge range of course books and other teaching resources based on the principles of CLT. In addition, it has influenced many other language teachingapproaches and methods that subscribe to a similar philosophy of language teaching.
B) From Method-Based pedagogy to Postmethod pedagogy:
It’s important to understand this shift from Method-Based pedagogy to Postmethod pedagogy to start talking about two innovative papers published in TESOL Quarterly:
Pennycook (1989) and Prabhu (1990). Pennycook wanted to put an end to theprofession’s innocence about the neutrality of the method and Prabhu wanted to end with the infatuation looking for the best method; and they were not alone in the raising doubts about the concept of method. This doubts leaded to a new perspective about methods: what is needed is not an alternative new method but an alternative to methods. Now we are talking about the post-methods era.
We have take alook at many different approaches (such as CLT, CBLT, The Natural Approach, TBLT, Direct Method...) and we should take these as a set of beliefs and principles that can be used as the basis for teaching a language. Each of these approaches has in common a core set of theories and beliefs about the nature of language learning and a derived set of principles for teaching a language. A method (suchas Audiolingualism, Situational Language Teaching, The Silent Way, Suggestopedia, Total Physical Response...), on the other hand, refers to a specific instructional design or system based on a particular theory of language and of language learning.
The extent to which new approachesand methods become widely accepted and have a lasting impact on teachers’ practices also depends on the relative ease or difficulty of introducing the changes the approach or method requires. Curriculum changes are of many different kinds.
After his dead, Stern published a framework that consists of strategies and techniques which has three dimensions:
A) The L1-L2 connection, using L1 to...
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