The Secret Life of Methods

JACK C. RICHARDS 1984

Amirali Mojtahedzadeh, Fall 2017

Three Perspectives to the Status of
Methods in Language Teaching

 Are methods based on a theory of language or a theory of

learning?
 The reasons for the adoption and influence of methods
 Methods are discussed in terms of the broader concerns of
curriculum development
The History of Language Teaching
 According to Richards….

While differences between methods often reflect

opposing views of the nature of language and of
language learning processes, the reasons for the rise
and fall of methods are often independent of either
the theories behind those methods or their
effectiveness in practice
There are Three Major Elements (issues that
methods are a response to):

Language Theory
Instructional Theory
Implementation Factors
Methods and Language Theory:

Definition of the Term Method

 In using the term method, I refer to a language teaching

philosophy which contains a standardized set of
procedures or principles for teaching a language that
are based upon a given set of theoretical premises
about the nature of language and/or language
learning.
Richards and Rodgers 1982
 Two Routes to the Development of
Methods

Through the syllabus

Through a theory of learning processes and
instructional procedures
The Syllabus Route
 Purpose of Methods

All methods are concerned with creating

opportunities for learners to acquire language

But….
Different Definitions of Language
For some, language is identified with grammar and
vocabulary
For some, it is an abstract set of semantic, syntactic,
and lexical features
For others, it is the ideas, concepts, and norms of
social and linguistic behavior that humans
exchange and manifest in daily life

Each of these is a particular view of what we ultimately teach, that is, a model
of a language syllabus
Importance of definitions

 Many current trends in language teaching, such as the

notional-functional syllabus or the English for Specific
Purposes (ESP) approach to program design, reflect the
influence of particular accounts of language content
and specific proposals as to what the syllabus underlying
a method should contain.
Attempts to introduce a scientific or
empirical basis to syllabus design
 The first major attempts to elaborate a systematic and rational
foundation for methods in the twentieth century arose out of the
movement toward vocabulary control in the 1920s and 30s. This
movement saw vocabulary as a major component of a language
syllabus. It led to word frequency lists, to Basic English (Ogden 1930),
to the Interim Report on Vocabulary Selection (Faucett, West,
Palmer, and Thorndike 1936), and to the General Service List (West
1953). These were the products of people like Palmer and West,
Bongers, and Ogden, who attempted to introduce a scientific or
empirical basis to syllabus design (Mackey 1965)
The British Approach to TEFL (Palmer & West)

 The graded sequence of sentence patterns and structures

which served as syllabuses for courses and course materials
was known as a structural syllabus
 a situational approach to contextualizing and practicing
syllabus items

Structural-situational Approach
The American Approach to TEFL (Fries & Fries)

 This time the word lists were produced by Charles Fries and
his colleagues at the University of Michigan
 The substitution tables became the "frames" which served as
the basis for "pattern practice”
 They applied "structuralism" to language teaching and
syllabus design. The result was the "aural-oral method

Aural-oral Approach
The First Challenge to lexico-structural
syllabuses
 The structural-situational, aural-oral, and audiolingual
methods were all designed to teach English for general
purposes.
 Notional syllabuses (Wilkins 1976)
 English for Specific Purposes (Robinson 1980)
The Notional syllabus
 The notional syllabus proposed by Wilkins simply
redefined the language content needed for English for
general purposes to include not only grammar and
vocabulary but also the notions or concepts the learner
needs to communicate about, the functional purposes
for which the language is to be used, the situations in
which the language will be used, and the roles the
learner might typically play
English for Specific Purposes
 In circumstances where English is taught for specific and
narrowly defined purposes rather than for a more
general communicative goal, the content of language
can no longer be identified with the same grammar,
vocabulary, notions, topics, and functions which serve
the needs of English for general purposes. Rather, the
specific linguistic requirements of the target learners will
have to be determined as a basis for syllabus design,
and this is the philosophy behind ESP
Strange but True!

Structural-situational, aural-oral, audiolingual,

notional-functional, and ESP approaches to
language teaching, while seemingly odd
bedfellows, have one thing in common: they
are built around content variables
The Route Through a theory of learning
processes and instructional procedures
 An instructional theory in language teaching
incorporates a psycho- linguistic theory of language
learning and a rationale for teaching procedures.
 1) a psycholinguistic dimension, containing a theory of
learning that describes learning strategies and processes
and that specifies the conditions necessary for these
processes to be effectively utilized by learners
 2) a teaching dimension, containing an account of the
teaching and learning procedures to be followed and
of the role of teachers and learners in the instructional
process
The Route Through a theory of learning
processes and instructional procedures

 Asher’s TPR (1977)

 Curran’s Counselling-Learning (1972)
 Gattegno’s Silent Way (1976)

 These operate without an Explicit Syllabus Model

 They result from individual instructional philosophies and
personal theories concerning the factors that promote
successful learning
 Asher’s TPR (1977)
 is designed to provide language learning experiences that
reduce the stress and anxiety adults experience in foreign
language learning
 One way to reduce stress is to delay production and to
build up receptive competence first
 One of the primary conditions for success is through relating
language pro- duction to physical actions
 Curran’s Counselling-Learning (1972)
 is based on Curran's "whole-person" model of learning and
is an application of group counseling procedures. Curran
saw the problems of adult foreign language learning as
resulting from emotional or affective barriers created by
learners, and his method is designed to counter the anxiety
and negative emotions of defense which he believed
impede foreign language learning in adults
 Language learning involves a progression from total
dependence on the teacher (the counselor or "knower," in
his terms) to a mature independent relationship
 Gattegno’s Silent Way (1976)
 draws on his individual philosophy of learning, which
involves the conscious use of one's intelligence to heighten
learning through listening, generalizing, and expressing one-
self
 Word charts, pictures, and colored rods are used to
stimulate speech. There is, however, a strong linguistic focus
to Silent Way. Vocabulary, grammar, and accuracy are
emphasized, although mastery of language is claimed not
to be the only goal
Implementation Factors

 The rise and fall of methods depends upon a variety of

factors extrinsic to a method itself and often reflects the
influence of fads and fashions
 The Form a Method Takes
 Publish or Perish
 Support Networks
The Form a Method Takes

 Some methods exist in the form of Textbooks

 Structural-situational
 Aural-oral
 Notional functional

 Some others appear in the form of instructional

philosiphies
 Lozanov’s Suggestopedia
 Gattegno’s Silent Way
The Form a Method Takes
 The former-the text-based methods-can be used without
additional training. The latter may require teachers to
undertake special courses, involving an investment of both
time and money. Consequently, methods that lead to texts
have a much higher adoption and survival rate than those
which do not. Audiolingual and communicative methods are
widely known for this reason; they merely require that a
teacher buy a text and read the teacher's manual. Methods
such as those of Lozanov (Lozanov 1979) or Gattegno, on
the other hand, are known in practice only to those who
have received special training in their use.
Publish or Perish

 Where there are student texts and the possibility of

widespread adoptions and sales, there are also publishers

 Anyone who has an innovative instructional philosophy to

market had better make it dependent upon the use of a
student text; otherwise, no major publisher will take it seriously
Support Networks
 Methods need more than the support of the publishing
industry to gain credibility
 They need the support of academics and the sanction of
professional teaching organizations
 they need the visibility which adoptions by universities and
educational agencies afford
 Direct Method
 Stevick’s Books in favor of Silent Way and Counseling Learning
 The Support of British Council and John Munby
And the Missing Element
Curriculum and Evaluation
 if the study of methods is to assume a more significant
role within the applied linguistics of language teaching,
it must focus on more than merely the descriptive and
implementational aspects of methods.
 It must, above all, address the issue of accountability
 very few methods developers or their supporters have
made any attempt to gather evidence that could be
used to evaluate their claims.
Curriculum development in language
teaching includes the following additional
procedures:
 1. Situation analysis
 2. Needs analysis
 3. Task analysis
 4. Goal setting
 5. Selection of learning experiences
 6. Evaluation, both formative and summative, product-
and process- oriented (Long 1983).
Curriculum Development in Language
Teaching
 The important issues are not which method to adopt,
but how to develop procedures and instructional
activities which will enable program objectives to be
attained
 This is not a question of choosing a method but of
developing methodology
 The largely anecdotal and poorly researched literature
on methods in language teaching demonstrates the
need for a more informed approach to methods issues
in our profession.
 A claim that all methods make

 the adoption of a specific method will lead to higher

levels of language achievement than the use of other
methods

Absolute Effectiveness True Experimental Design

 To test it we
can look for
Relative Effectiveness Experimental Design
True Experimental Design

 As Long (1983) points out, it is necessary not only to

compare pre-test and post-test results but also to show
that the results obtained were achieved as a result of
the method or program rather than despite it
Experimental Design

 To demonstrate the relative effectiveness of a method

we would have to demonstrate that the method
produced better results than an alternative method or
program.
 Wagner and Tilney, 1983 (Suggestopedia)
Criticisms from Richards

 Studies of this kind are all too rare in the vast promotional
literature on methods
 techniques and instructional philosophies are
advocated from a philosophical or theoretical stance
rather than on the basis of any form of evidence.
 Methods are promoted and justified through reference
to intuitively appealing assertions and theories which,
when repeated by those in positions of authority,
assume the status of dogma.
A Shocking Example!
 Both the Natural Approach (Terrell 1977) and
Communicative Language Teaching are based on the
assumption that "communicative" classrooms provide a
better environment for second language acquisition
than classrooms dominated by formal instruction
 Yet no studies have been undertaken to demonstrate
that classrooms in which learners are encouraged to use
the target language for problem solving and
communicative tasks are indeed more successful
language learning environments than classrooms in
which the teacher dominates much of the teaching
time or where the primary focus of activities is on more
controlled and less creative uses of language
Richards’ Point
Rigorous evaluation procedures has to be
taken in planning methodological
innovations
Research has to be carefully designed
(Prahbu)
For the syllabus the selection of items
needs to be valid (Pearson)
Conclusion
If the methodology of language teaching is to
move beyond the domain of speculation and
dogma, its practitioners must become more
seriously concerned with the issues of
accountability and evaluation than its recent
history has evidenced