Page 41 - Beyond Methods

Understanding postmethod pedagogy 29
correction was considered necessary; at another, it was frowned upon. These extreme swings create conditions in which certain as- pects of learning and teaching get overly emphasized while certain others are utterly ignored, depending on which way the pendulum swings.
Yet another crucial shortcoming of the concept of method is that it is too inadequate and too limited to satisfactorily explain the com- plexity of language teaching operations around the world. Concerned primarily and narrowly with classroom instructional strategies, it ignores the fact that the success or failure of classroom instruction depends to a large extent on the unstated and unstable interaction of multiple factors such as teacher cognition, learner perception, societal needs, cultural contexts, political exigencies, economic im- peratives, and institutional constraints, all of which are inextricably interwoven.
The limitations of the concept of method gradually led to the realization that “the term method is a label without substance” (Clarke, 1983, p. 109), that it has “diminished rather than enhanced our understanding of language teaching” (Pennycook, 1989, p. 597), and that “language teaching might be better understood and better executed if the concept of method were not to exist at all” (Jarvis, 1991, p. 295). This realization has resulted in a widespread dissat- isfaction with the concept of method.
Dissatisfaction with Method
Based on theoretical, experimental, and experiential knowledge, teachers and teacher educators have expressed their dissatisfaction with method in different ways. Studies by Janet Swaffer, Katherine Arens, and Martha Morgan (1982), David Nunan (1987), Michael Le- gutke and Howard Thomas (1991), Kumaravadivelu (1993b), and others clearly demonstrate that, even as the methodological band played on, practicing teachers have been marching to a different drum. These studies show, collectively and clearly, that
• teachers who are trained in and even swear by a particular method do not conform to its theoretical principles and class- room procedures,
• teacherswhoclaimtofollowthesamemethodoftenusedifferent classroom procedures that are not consistent with the adopted method,