Context in Language

Teaching
Major Concepts
• Method, methodology and pedagogy
• Crystallization of the theoretical views of language, education and language
education into prescribed teaching materials and strategies, or methods
• Methods do not necessarily arise from a priori theorizing: they could also be
derived from successful practice (Krashen, 1987)
• The abundance of methods derived from different theoretical standpoints has
led to the emergence of methodology as a filed of study
• Heightened awareness in the literature of the significant role of the
sociocultural context in which language education is occurring has
undermined the notion of generalizability on which methods are premised.
Major Concepts
• Method, methodology and pedagogy
• Methodology denotes the study of the system or range of methods that are used in
teaching
• A method is a single set of practices and procedures, derived from theory or
theorization of practice, that impinges upon the design of a curriculum plan,
resources, and teaching and learning activities. 
• Methodology is more narrowly focused and tends to be more dogmatic in its
application, as it targets language learning as its main goal
• It is largely based on individual theoretical insights and is deemed applicable in
different contexts
• Pedagogy has broader educational goals, is influenced by a wider range of theories
and curricular influences and tensions, and is more rooted in and responsive to the
practical realities of a particular classroom.
Analysis of Method
• Richards and Rodgers (1982, 2001)
• Approach
• Design
• Procedure
• What are method’s origins?
• What are the salient features of methods that have been widely
promoted?
• How do they gain acceptance?
• Does methodology still have relevance in post-modernist contexts? 
The Origins of Method
• Method as a scientific construct
• Method as curricular resolutions as it interplays with different
curricular elements
• Method as a sociocultural artefact; the product of the reflections of
the time
Adoption of Method
• Adoption tends to occur when the methods have values that are in
harmony with those of major stakeholders in a particular educational
initiative, whether this is at the state level, school level or classroom
level.
• What does this mean in practice?
• Can you provide examples from the history of method? (reform
movement and its product direct method)
History of Methods
• Provide examples of methods linked to psychology.
• How is CLT different from the methods preceding it?
• How is 3Ps or 5Ps method linked to the weak form of CLT?
• How is task-based learning related to CLT? How is it different?
• In what ways the genre-based pedagogy linked to ESP?
• What are the implications of planned/intended, enacted and
experienced curriculum?
Methodology and Curriculum
• Curriculum (planned/intended, enacted, experienced)
• The methodological approach of a curriculum reflects the orientation
of the curriculum toward value systems.
• Classical humanism
• Social and economic efficiency
• Progressivism
• Reconstructionism
• What are the sources of the planned curriculum?
• How is intended curriculum changes when it is enacted?
Method as Sociocultural Artefact
• Method as the product of the time and place
• Language teaching in Iran
• Direct method
• Modified audio-lingual Method
• Modified CLT
• Kumaravadivelu (1994) argues that eclectic use of existing methods is
not enough:
• Methods cannot take account of classroom realities
• Teachers need to move to a “post-method” condition, in which they act as
principled pragmatists, shaping the classroom learning through informed
teaching and critical reflection.
• This classroom- centered pedagogy can involve selected borrowing from
existing methods, but also involves the teachers in constructing creative
solutions to address the issues that they face in their daily work.
• Stern observes that we can investigate the ‘sociology’ of ELT whereby
language teaching is ‘an enterprise . . . a set of activities in society’
(1983: 269) 
• Classrooms, both in themselves and in their relationship to the world
beyond their walls, are complex social and cultural spaces.
Pennycook (2000: 89)
• L2 teaching and learning takes place within specific institutional
environments and social, economic and ideological contexts.
• Stern’s (1983) framework:
• Language teaching
• school environment
• home environment and neighborhood
• Region
• national and international setting
• Educational
• economic/technological
• linguistic
• geographic
• sociocultural
• historical/political
• What is this English language we teach?
• How is the subject to be defined?
• The discussion brings together global trends, national and institutional
policies and values, and individual learners’ needs, beliefs and reasons for
learning.
• There are clearly differences in the expertise of English speakers (Rampton,
1990) and the variety of English spoken both within and between these
different groups.
• Why has English become so important in the world?
•  What are the links between English and globalization?
• What is the relationship between English and other languages?
• How has English changed as it has spread, and should we now refer to
Englishes?
•  What kinds of communication is English actually used for in the
world?
• Which variety?
• The linguistic characteristics and associated communication strategies used in
Lingua Franca contexts may differ from native speaker norms.
• In many contexts, the assumption that British or North American English is
the ‘natural’ variety for English language teachers and learners to focus upon
is potentially problematic, or, at least, open to review.
• There are, additionally, a number of practical difficulties with the idea of
teaching non-native or Lingua Franca English(es), such as resource availability,
syllabus and textbook norms and standards, and international testing
requirements.
• Notions of English, Englishes and ELF therefore require ELT professionals to
consider ‘whose usage [we are] to take as the model for language learners to
aspire to’ (Widdowson, 2003: 30).
• Language Description: What to learn?
• Notions of ‘real’ or ‘authentic’ language
• ‘Genuine’ or ‘artificial’ language content in class
• Corpus-based language description tends to assert native
speaker norms in ESL and ELF contexts
• ‘Real’ language can ever be ‘authentic’ once it is removed from
its original context and studied in the language classroom
(Widdowson, 1978; 1998)
• Questions of pedagogical effectiveness and appropriateness
• ‘Authentic’ texts and tasks draw upon more realistic models of
language use and leave learners better prepared for life outside
the classroom.
• From the 1980s onwards, these debates have been fueled by
descriptions of English language use derived from the study of
corpora
• A corpus being a principled (i.e., representative) collection of written or
spoken texts stored on a computer
• Actual language use is often quite different to the language features
recorded in standard grammars of English
• Naturally occurring spoken language includes many features not dealt
with in grammars or English language textbooks (Carter, 1998).
• Many teachers pay little attention to ‘the facts’ of English language
description and, in fact, take for granted a ‘mythology’ about English
language behaviour
• Teachers should ‘present real examples only . . . language cannot be
invented; it can only be captured’.
• In the presentation of language models, ‘it is essential for a learner of
English to learn from actual examples, examples that can be trusted
because they have been used in real communication’
• Contrived simplification of language in the preparation of materials
will always be faulty
• It is generated without the guide and support of a communicative
context.
• many teachers and applied linguists disagree with the suggestion that
only ‘real’ language should be presented in ELT classrooms.
• ‘Unreal’, scripted or simplified language may be more accessible for
learners and, thus, more appropriate, or, as Carter (1998: 47)
comments, more ‘real pedagogically’
• ‘Authentic’ English may be more difficult to comprehend or produce,
and thus less useful or real pedagogically
• Widdowson also argues that language in fact ceases to be ‘authentic’
when removed from its original context as learners cannot possibly
understand it in the same ways as its original users
• Learners are, by their very nature, outsiders to the original discourse
community and to the actual communicative purposes for which the
language was used.
• As most ‘real’ language descriptions within ELT are drawn from native
speaker usage, the language potentially ‘unnatural’ in many English
Lingua Franca ELT contexts
• It is ‘culturally marked’, reinforcing native speaker norms.
• Ways ahead?
• The extent and ways in which ‘real English’ is drawn upon in ELT
classrooms will depend upon a number of contextual factors:
• The extent to which learners, teachers and other ELT professionals (e.g.,
textbook and materials writers) regard ‘authentic’ language as both the aim of
learning and relevant to classroom life
• The learners’ social context, their reasons for learning and the relationship
between ‘real’ English and local Englishes
• The availability of relevant resources, ranging from, for example, textbooks
based around ‘real’ English to CALL facilities through which learners may be
able to explore corpus data themselves.
• There are a number of ways in which ‘real’ language data might be
used by or with learners:
• Self-directed language awareness tasks
• Teacher-led presentations
• Very few applied linguists or teachers ‘would ever advocate simply
dumping large loads of corpus material wholesale into the
classroom’ (McCarthy, 2001: 129).
• English and Learners’ needs
• In any classroom, the English taught reflects, either overtly or
implicitly:
• Practical concerns and more ‘ideological’ perspectives about why the learners
are studying English
• What they need to know
• The most effective ways of helping them achieve this
• The nature and role of English in the world
• The ways in which ELT professionals and learners understand these issues are
likely to be affected by the range of contextual factors identified by Stern
• In some contexts, an additional question is the extent to which
learners need to develop their overall linguistic competence in English
• Whether they might focus in particular on learning the language and
skills necessary to meet a specific need or to fulfil a particular role, in
effect, learning English for a Specific Purpose (ESP).
• What draws ESP approaches together is that classes and courses are
designed to help learners communicate effectively in a specific work
or study situation (Robinson, 2004).
• The debates surrounding ‘real’ and ‘authentic’ language are
particularly relevant within ESP contexts as learners work to discover
and use the preferred forms of spoken or written discourse used by
members of the target community, group or profession.
• The English that is taught and learned in ESP contexts is essentially
genre-based.
• Dilemmas
• whether ESP requires a basic level of language competence (e.g.,
intermediate) before learners can make satisfactory progress in
complex and specialized language
• How far teachers are teaching language, and how far work-related
non-linguistic content.
• whether some ESP programs, particularly short introductory courses,
really develop genuine linguistic competence or merely teach
‘language-like behavior’.
• The work-related focus of ESP teaching and learning makes clear the
links between the language classroom and wider contextual factors  
• Additionally, links between ESP, international business and
globalization can be seen in the emergence of ‘call-center English’
programs in India and elsewhere where historical, political and
economic trends link global trends to local contexts.
• It has been suggested that CLIL is more challenging for both teachers
and learners than a focus on ‘just’ language.
• How far do you agree with this perspective?