Page 13 - Beyond Methods

Introduction
“It is not instruction,” said Ralph Waldo Emerson, “but provocation that I can most accept from another soul.” What I have attempted to offer in this book is not instruction but provocation, though provocation of the positive kind. I have tried to
• stimulate the critical thought processes of those involved in sec- ond and foreign language (L2) learning, teaching, and teacher ed- ucation;
• spur them to self-reflective action that is firmly grounded in a sit- uational understanding of their own learning and teaching envi- ronment, and
• urge them to go beyond the limited, and limiting, concept of method and consider the challenges and opportunities of an emerging postmethod era in language teaching.
What This Book Is About
This book is about language teaching in a postmethod era. It re- flects the heightened awareness that the L2 profession witnessed during the waning years of the twentieth century:
• an awareness that there is no best method out there ready and waiting to be discovered;
• an awareness that the artificially created dichotomy between theory and practice has been more harmful than helpful for teachers;
• anawarenessthatteachereducationmodelsthatmerelytransmit a body of interested knowledge do not produce effective teaching professionals; and