Why do you think there have been so many language teaching methods (Hall, 2011, p. 78)?

Why do you think there have been so many language teaching methods?
I believe there has been so many language teaching methods because, firstly, as Brown & Lee stated, there was a search performed from the 1880's to the 1980's for the right 'method' that would successfully apply to all foreign language speakers. (2015). There was an idea that there must be one method that would work for all teachers and all students and this led to a continuous cycling of methods as they came about. Meaning new methods would replace the old, another new method would be released, would be adapted and so on and so forth. 
It is clear that, nowadays, our methods are much more comprehensive and not so strictly limited to one type of language teaching. I believe this is because of the expansion of globalization. The ESL industry, with the invention of technology, has greatly expanded its borders. Teachers are now able to connect with other professionals from all over the world and this has led to ideas and methodologies from a variety of sources. It has also led to a more generalized idea of methodologies rather than the cycling idea of using one after the other. 
Our field is young and teachers are still learning. This has caused such a great expansion of language teaching methods as teachers learned what did and did not work for their students. This has caused language teaching methods to become more fine tuned over time. Because as the methods were cycled, they took the best and most positive aspects from the old methods (Brown & Lee, 2015), leading to now which, in my opinion, is the best time for teachers to evaluate and choose the best language teaching methods for their classroom. I believe this trend will continue as we continue to take courses like these, share our resources and work to continuously improve as language teachers. 
References
Brown, D. & Lee, H. (2015). Teaching by principles: An interactive approach to language pedagogy (4th ed. revised). Upper Saddle River, NJ: Pearson Education.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

First Language Acquisition versus Second Language Learning

Image
First Language Acquisition versus Second Language Learning Above you can find a diagram I made about the differences and similarities about first language acquisition and second language learning. In my research, I was surprised by how different the two are and how truly fortunate I am to be born with English as my first acquired language. To learn that Second Language learners will, truly, never reach the point of competence of first language acquisition is quite surprising. Even those who are bilingual will still have one language more dominant than the other. I’m curious to see if this changes in the oncoming years as second language learning and children being taught two languages at a young age becomes more and more common. In my personal experience, I think I am a clear example of the differences between FLA and SLL. As a child, I spoke only English but upon entering school I was enrolled into a French immersion program. From ages 5 to 13 all of my schooling was in Fr...
Read more

Unit 4 - Assignment 3: Adaptation or Creation of ESL Materials - TESL 0150

Assignment 3: Adaptation and Creation of ESL Materials Introductory Paragraphs Profile of Target Learners Learner Type : International Students Age: 18 and up English Level: IELTS 5 Goals: To prepare students for future College programs and courses Specific Needs: Academic English, Knowledge of essay writing, Note Taking Proficiency with Technology : Students MUST have a laptop and internet access to participate in the class. Learning Objectives This course is designed to develop academic reading, writing, listening and speaking skills. The students will learn relevant grammar to write strong sentences, paragraphs and essays. They will develop effective oral communication skills in order to listen and speak in common academic scenarios. Students will expand their academic vocabulary to assist them in future college programs and courses. Lesson Objectives By the end of this lesson, the learners should be able to: §   Identify ‘hooks’ and thesis stateme...
Read more

The 'Fine Line' of Student Interaction

What can teachers do to 'discourage interaction'? Teachers walk a fine line when creating a classroom that fosters interaction. It only takes a few simple errors for an instructor to 'discourage interaction.' Firstly, in regards to error correction, Brown & Lee advise that their must be an optimal balance between positive and negative cognitive feedback in order to be effective. Too much negative feedback will lead to a learner shutting themselves off from communication while too much positive feedback can lead to the "fossilization" of certain errors and develop bad habits. (2015) For example, if a student continues to drop the 's' when reading out loud at the ends of words and the instructor decides it is more worthwhile to correct other pronunciation errors, this could lead to the student continuously dropping 's''s and causing later confusion in their speaking.  Another example of the fine line that teachers walk when it c...
Read more