ENG 345: Week 3

            In chapter 3 of Teaching by Principles it was about the postmethod era. It really helped to explain where we are now in the TESOL world after all of the methods were introduced, especially in the 1970’s. The book talked about CLT and TBLT as well as other approaches that we could use with all of the methods that we have. The author also talks about how there is not one catchall method that is yet to be discovered. I think this is a myth that a lot of people believe to be true. I think another myth that was proven false from the book was the fact that if it is a good method then it will always work. The method depends on the students, the teacher, the place, the time and many other different variables.

            In the article TESOL Methods: Changing Tracks, Challenging Trends it talks about the trends of TESOL since 1991. Kumaravadivelu talks about how the first period (before 1990) is a period of awareness and that the second period (after 1990) is a period of awakening. He also defines method as being used indiscriminately to refer to what theorists propose and to what teachers practice. I liked how simple this definition is and how it seems pretty practical. The article also goes into great depth talking about Communicative Language Teaching (CLT) and how that becomes Task-Based Language Teaching (TBLT).  CLT is an approach that seems like a catch-all method and is not very accurate in the results. The outcomes that were supposed to happen were not happening and there was a lot of dislike from different countries throughout the world on TESOL with the CLT approach. TBLT is a gradual erosion from CLT that focuses on the tasks of language learning. Some people view it as CLT by another name. He also describes a task as a curricular content rather than a methodological construct.

            Both of the readings were very similar and related to the postmethod area of TESOL. One thing I really agreed with is Bell (2003) stated, “by deconstructing methods, postmethod pedagogy has tended to cut teachers off from their sense of plausibility, their passion and involvement” (p. 333). I think this is so true and sometimes we can get so caught up in methods and approaches and anti-methods that we miss the point of language learning or why we wanted to be a teacher to begin with. I liked the way that Kumaravadivelu ended the article with saying that admirable intentions need to be translated into attainable goals and then from there into action. With all of this information on methods and postmethods now it is time to come up with some goals for future teaching and then teach to those goals using the method that works best for the certain circumstances that we are in.