Method and Postmethod in Language Teaching

Method and Postmethod in Language Teaching provides a comprehensive, accessible, and engaging guide to the much-debated notions of ‘method’, ‘methods’, and ‘postmethod’ in language teaching. Divided into three sections − ‘Contexts’, ‘Concepts’, and ‘Debates’ – the book sets out ‘traditional’ understandings of method(s), examines alternative accounts and critiques that inform, and at times go beyond, postmethod thinking within language teaching, and finally relates these issues to key practical debates and dilemmas that teachers navigate in the classrooms. Highlighting the importance of teachers’ understandings of their own professional contexts, the volume uses the notion of method as a ‘lens’ through which teachers and other language teaching professionals can clarify their understandings of language teaching, both in terms of pedagogic practices and classroom possibilities, and with regard to the development of this diverse field more generally. Throughout, readers are encouraged to develop their own thinking and practice in contextually appropriate ways, supported by discussion questions and key readings that accompany each chapter, a glossary of key terms, and suggestions for additional reading. This book is an indispensable resource for language teachers and other language teaching professionals, as well as postgraduate and upper-level undergraduate students of Applied Linguistics, Language Teacher Education, and ELT/TESOL and other language teaching programmes.

Method and Postmethod in Language Teaching provides a comprehensive, accessible, and engaging guide to the much-debated notions of ‘method’, ‘methods’, and ‘postmethod’ in language teaching. Divided into three sections − ‘Contexts’, ‘Concepts’, and ‘Debates’ – the book sets out ‘traditional’ understandings of method(s), examines alternative accounts and critiques that inform, and at times go beyond, postmethod thinking within language teaching, and finally relates these issues to key practical debates and dilemmas that teachers navigate in the classrooms. Highlighting the importance of teachers’ understandings of their own professional contexts, the volume uses the notion of method as a ‘lens’ through which teachers and other language teaching professionals can clarify their understandings of language teaching, both in terms of pedagogic practices and classroom possibilities, and with regard to the development of this diverse field more generally. Throughout, readers are encouraged to develop their own thinking and practice in contextually appropriate ways, supported by discussion questions and key readings that accompany each chapter, a glossary of key terms, and suggestions for additional reading. This book is an indispensable resource for language teachers and other language teaching professionals, as well as postgraduate and upper-level undergraduate students of Applied Linguistics, Language Teacher Education, and ELT/TESOL and other language teaching programmes.