Page 38 - Beyond Methods

26 Understanding postmethod pedagogy
That is, they believe that the linguistic systems are simple enough and that our explanatory power sophisticated enough to provide explicit rules of thumb, and explain them in such a way that the learner can understand and assimilate them.
Learner-Centered Methods
Learner-centered methods are those that are principally concerned with language use and learner needs. These methods (e.g., some ver- sions of communicative methods) seek to provide opportunities for learners to practice preselected, presequenced grammatical struc- tures as well as communicative functions (i.e., speech acts such as apologizing, requesting, etc.) through meaning-focused activities. The assumption is that a preoccupation with both form and func- tion will ultimately lead to target language mastery and that the learners can make use of both formal and functional repertoire to fulfill their communicative needs outside the class. In this approach, as in the case of language-centered methods, language development is considered largely intentional rather than incidental.
Learner-centered methods aim at making language learners gram- matically accurate and communicatively fluent. They take into ac- count the learner’s real-life language use for social interaction or for academic study, and present necessary linguistic structures in com- municative contexts. Proponents of learner-centered methods, like those of language-centered methods, believe in accumulated enti- ties. The one major difference is that in the case of the latter, the accumulated entities represent linguistic structures, and in the case of the former they represent structures plus notions and functions. Furthermore, just as language-centered methods advocate that the linguistic structures of a language could be sequentially presented and explained, learner-centered methods also advocate that each functional category could be matched with one or more linguistic forms and sequentially presented and systematically explained to the learner.
Learning-Centered Methods
Learning-centered methods are those that are principally con- cerned with learning processes. These methods (e.g., the Natural Approach) seek to provide opportunities for learners to participate in open-ended meaningful interaction through communicative ac- tivities or problem-solving tasks in class. The assumption is that a