TESOL

What do the terms ‘methods’ and ‘methodology’ mean and why do they matter?

Teachers often refer to ‘methods’ as surface activities, procedures and practices. They are
important because these are the concrete events that are part of a teacher’s daily practice, even
though teachers may label and describe them in different ways. ‘Methodology’ refers to the beliefs
and attitudes to learning, language and teaching which underlie what teachers do in the classroom.
Appreciating the way methodology leads to methods is important because this helps us to
understand our teaching decisions, and review and critique them in the light of new information and
experience.

How do methods and methodology connect with what teachers actually do in the classroom?

Methods are about what teachers actually do in the classroom. Thus there can be no fixed or
single idea of ‘methods that work’, because every teacher, class and learner is different. A post-
methods approach to teaching takes account of this diversity and places what teachers really do at
the centre of our understanding. Similarly, methodology – our underlying beliefs and attitudes – has
changed as a result of teacher experience in real classrooms, and will continue to do so as we learn
more and more about what really happens in language learning situations, and learn from the
diversity and complexity of these

What should the teacher know about designing the language lesson so that the four skills
are integrated and developed?
We have noticed that design principles are those that replicate natural and everyday
interaction. For example, in authentic interaction we exchange questions with a genuine
‘gap’ in knowledge; we transfer ideas and information from one setting to another. We have
also learnt about good classroom activities by looking at the qualities of engagement and
enjoyment in activities outside the classroom, such as games.
What does our understanding of the written and spoken language really mean in practice,
for planning and designing language lessons?
We have suggested that the classroom needs to reflect the variety of texts, written
and spoken, encountered outside the classroom. For the speaking context, this involves
developing not only language for understanding and interacting in all the contexts useful for
the learner, but also the language for repairing misunderstanding and dealing with ‘not
knowing’ as well as knowing the language. This can offer the learner a repertoire of useful
strategies with which they can continue to learn without the intervention of the teacher.
How has our understanding of the spoken and written language changed in the twenty-
first century? What does this mean for our approaches to teaching?
We have seen that rapid and global access to English is shaping ‘new’ worldwide
Englishes. Conventions and standards are no longer ‘owned’ by one language community,
but are shaped and adopted in different ways to reflect different communities and contexts.
We have also seen that this has led to a ‘hybrid’ language that lies somewhere between
written and spoken language. All this opens many questions for the language teacher: which
‘English’ should we teach, and why? What is our notion and standard of ‘correctness’? In
answer to these questions, we have suggested teachers and learners become observers of
the language, noticing it at every level – from the way sounds and spellings are linked, to
patterns of behavior and language in conversations.
How can digital developments in the language help us as teachers and learners? What
skills and competences do we need to take full advantage of these?
Throughout the history of ICT development, the various media have been and will
continue to converge and offer similar facilities; for example, with Facebook incorporating
messaging (one-to-one and one-to-many), texting, discussion fora, blogs, embedded video,
news feeds; a whole electronic CV portfolio. However, at the same time we witness again a
divergence of interests, as specialised groups emerge to make greater use of the tools for
their own specific purposes. Historically, this happened just before the emergence of the
World Wide Web, with Usenet newsgroups (see ,livinginternet.com/u/ui.htm.) becoming
more and more driven by the particular issues and interests of their users. From ELT
websites to Twitter groups (#ELTChat) and teachers ‘broadcasting’ channels on YouTube,
the personalisation pattern is easily discernible. The literacies may be changing, but many of
the older practices are not. Yet the ongoing impact of ubiquitous and multifaceted
technologies on teachers and learners alike cannot be discounted as they converge upon
the latter.
What is the interface between learning a language and learning ‘culture’? What does culture
actually mean, and how far should this be part of the language teacher’s role?

For some teachers and researchers culture is a content-rich way of teaching language; for
others it is a mission to open language learners to the ‘adventure’ of being a cultural traveller. For
others again, it is part of the knowledge base that lies behind English language literary texts.
Whichever position you take as a teacher of language, the key message conveyed within this chapter
is that language is never culturally neutral, and teachers position themselves on this question,
whether they do so consciously or unconsciously. The discussions, activities and readings in this
chapter are designed to give teachers the opportunity to be fully conscious and aware of their
position, so they can take a principled approach to this. Historically, within the English language
profession, ‘culture’ had a narrow definition as the cluster of assumptions related to the target
culture. As English has become the lingua franca globally, it becomes not only reductive but
unworkable to define what this ‘target culture’ actually is. Every speaker of the language contributes
to this target culture. This makes it an imperative for teachers to be open to new information,
comparison and analysis, to be ethnographers of the exchanges they engage in.

How do ‘beliefs and attitudes to learning’ affect language teaching methods?

This chapter has explored the ‘chain of connection’ between a teacher’s view of language
and learning and his or her teaching decisions in the class, and suggested that many teachers seek
their own answers in response to their learners, rather than following a prescribed method.
However, there is much to learn given that the English language is part of a global means of
communication, the teacher of English could also be seen as preparing learners to communicate
within, between and across cultures. This extends the skills of the learner beyond the practice of
language as a system, or even language as communication within a shared community. It demands
further skills of open-mindedness and sensitivity which the language teacher may not consider part
of his or her remit. However, intercultural competence has been anatomized and explored widely
within educational debates, and a capacity to understand and develop these will increasingly be part
of the expected skills-base of the language teacher learn from debates about language methods as
they change and evolve.

What difference does this understanding make to the methods we choose as teachers?

Understanding learner differences can also help the teacher to choose approaches which are
appropriate, and to understand why some methods work and others do not. A method is not in itself
successful or effective; it is ‘good or bad’ as a method, only insofar as it ‘fits’ with the learners
themselves. Thus, the more we understand about the learners and the context of learning, the
better we are able to adapt, select and refine our methods.

The digital revolution There are now multiple ways in which we communicate and exchange
messages. Text messages, Internet, Skype and social networking sites have all changed the way we
read and write, and many young people have grown up with this expectation of digital and cyber-
communication. Learners have access to their own rich learning resources: podcasts (Travis and
Joseph 2009), Web 2.0 weblogs (Raith 2009), blogging (Rourke and Coleman 2009), YouTube
(Watkins and Wilkins 2011) and technology for self-access learning (Warschauer and Liaw 2011) are
just a sample. These different media provide both incentive and opportunity for language learning.
Many learners have near-infinite access to information, resources for self-study and means for
global communication, and are proficient in using these – often more so than their teachers. This is a
development every classroom and every teacher needs to take account of, impacting as it does on
our understanding of methods and materials, and the roles of both learners and teachers. Section
8.3 explores this issue in more detail and offers opportunities for teachers to evaluate digital
resources and their impact on learning and teaching.

Learner strategies and the ‘good language learner’ What are strategies and why are they important?
A strategy might give us insight into the question: what do learners actually do when they learn?
Although this seems to be a very central and relevant question, researchers have only recently
begun to search for answers to this question. The most comprehensive attempt to do so was by
Oxford (2002), whose analysis of learner strategies is based on a core belief that learning is not
simply determined by cognitive or intellectual capacities, but by the ‘whole person’. She identified
six key categories in answer to the question: what does the learner actually do, when learning?
Language learning strategies Learners tend to:

1. seek to reduce anxiety about learning, by laughing and using praise and encouragement:
(affective strategies)

2. learn from and with others by asking questions, sharing and exchanging ideas (social strategies)

3. notice and correct errors, check their progress and appreciate correction (metacognitive
strategies)

4. develop their memories by means of grouping, visualising, patterns and rhymes (memory
strategies)

5. analyse, summarise and practice (cognitive strategies)

6. find ways of dealing with ‘not knowing’ –asking questions, guessing, finding alternative ways of
saying something (compensatory strategies) (Oxford 2002: 127