1. LANGUAGE TEACHING METHODOLOGY: PAST, PRESENT, AND FUTURE
MARIANNE CELCE-MURCIA
Intermountain TESOL Conference
October 12-13, 2012

2. Presentation Outline Pre-Twentieth Century Trends
Early & Mid Twentieth Century Approaches
More Recent Approaches
Current ‘Post Methods’ Era
Future Challenges

3. PRE-TWENTIETH CENTURY TRENDS

4. Classical Era (Greek and Latin)— pre printing press
focus on listening and speaking
no textbooks-some handwritten texts and dictionaries

5. Rise of European Vernaculars
Gutenberg- invented printing press-1440
J. Belot (l580) Earliest known ESL textbook; published in England for Protestant refugees.
Comenius- one of the first widely acknowledged teacher-practitioners. (published )

6. GRAMMAR TRANSLATION (Karl Ploetz, 1819-1881)
Instruction and explanation in L1
Little use of target language
Focus on parsing parts of speech, inflections
Translate from L1 to L2 (and vice versa)
Result: inability to use the L2
(Beginning of pedagogical tension: analysis vs. use)

7. THE DIRECT METHOD F. Gouin-began to publish in l880
No use of L1 allowed (teacher must be proficient)
Use of actions, pictures to give meaning to dialogues and anecdotes
Grammar is learned via exposure
Literature read for pleasure, not parsing
Result: ability to use L2
Can we get rid of the red underlining?

8. THE REFORM MOVEMENT (IPA founded 1886): Sweet, Vietor, Passy, etc.
Spoken language is primary- teach first
Apply phonetics to language teaching
Train language teachers in phonetics
Give learners basic phonetic training in L2
Please delete final dot that has no text after it. Can we get rid of red underlining?

9. EARLY & MID TWENTIETH CENTURY APPROACHES

10. THE READING APPROACH Teach only the grammar needed for reading
Control vocabulary initially then expand
Translation is once more respectable
Only reading comprehension is emphasized
Result: Learners can read but not speak/understand L2.

11. AUDIOLINGUALISM (U.S.) Begin lessons with dialogues (constructed)
Mimicry and memorization are used to reflect that lg. learning is habit formation
Grammar is sequenced; rules taught indirectly
Skills are sequenced (L, Sp, R, Wr)
Accurate pronunciation is emphasized early
Vocabulary is very limited initially
Effort is made to prevent errors
Lg. is often manipulated with minimal attention to meaning or context.

12. ORAL-SITUATIONAL APPROACH (U.K.)
Spoken language is primary
Lg. is practiced orally before any reading or writing occurs
Only the target language should be used
The most useful and general vocabulary is taught
Grammar is sequenced: simple to complex
New vocabulary and grammar are introduced and practiced in situations (post office, bank, dinner table, etc.)

13. MORE RECENT APPROACHES

14. THE COGNITIVE APPROACH
Lg. learning is rule acquisition, not habit formation 
Instruction is individualized and learners are responsible for their learning 
Grammar can be taught either deductively or Inductively
Pronunciation is de-emphasized
Reading and writing are as important as speaking and listening 
Vocabulary is important again, especially for intermediate and advanced learners 
Errors are inevitable and useful for feedback and correction

15. AFFECTIVE-HUMANISTIC APPROACH
Lg. learning is a process of self-realization
Respect for each individual’s feelings emphasized (teacher and students) 
Class atmosphere is more important than methods or materials 
Priority given to personally meaningful communication 
Instruction often involves pair- or group-work 
Peer support and cooperation help learning 
Teacher is a counselor or facilitator (instead of the ultimate source of knowledge) 
Translation can be used, especially in the early stages

16. THE COMPREHENSION-BASED APPROACH
Listening comprehension is the basic skill that allows other skills and lg acquisition to develop  
Learners begin with an initial silent period so they can just listen and understand 
Learners do not speak until they feel ready to  
Exposure to meaningful input that expands their experience in the L2 leads to acquisition 
Explicit rule learning is helpful in monitoring and editing one’s L2 production but not for acquisition or spontaneous production 
Error correction is unnecessary if the learner’s message is understandable

17. THE COMMUNICATIVE APPROACH
Communication is the goal of L2 learning
Semantic notions and social functions are as important as linguistic structure
Content (academic or job-related) is often taught along with lg.
Students work in pairs or groups to transfer information and negotiate meaning
Role play and dramatization help achieve register flexibility and social sensitivity in L2
Tasks often make use of authentic texts and tasks or involve the completion of projects
The 4 skills (L, Sp, R, Wr) are integrated
Teacher (1) facilitates communication and (2) offers feedback and correction

18. THE 1970’S “DESIGNER METHODS”
Silent Way (Gattegno)
Community Language Learning (Curran)
Total Physical Response (Asher)
Suggestology/Suggestopedia (Lozanov)

19. RESEARCH-BASED CONCLUSION
 (Strevens, Richards, Prabhu)
No single method or approach is optimal for all learners under all circumstances

20. CURRENT ‘POST-METHODS’ ERA (a transition)

21. Kumaravadivelu
Base pedagogy on principles established by research. He offers 10 ‘macrostrategies’
Maximize learning opportunities
Facilitate negotiated interaction
Minimize perceptual mismatches
Activate intuitive heuristics
Foster language awareness
Contextualize linguistic input
Integrate language skills
Promote learner autonomy
Raise cultural consciousness
Ensure social relevance
Teachers should design situation-specific materials and procedures to achieve the above objectives

22. TEACHER PREPARATION SKILLS
(needed for post-methods language teaching)
Assess learners’ needs
Examine instructional constraints
Determine attitudes, learning styles, and cultural backgrounds of students to tailor materials/activities
Identify the discourse genres, speech activities, and text types students need to learn L2 when designing materials
Identify assessment instruments and requirements and prepare learners to deal with such tasks as part of classroom instruction
(Note: This is in addition to the traditional teacher preparation core subjects such as methodology, pedagogical grammar, syllabus/curriculum design, practical phonetics, teaching listening & speaking, teaching reading & writing, etc.)
In 5th item, change “test types” to “text types” please. My typo!

23. FUTURE CHALLENGES

24. How to integrate everything we now know into better, more encompassing practices?
Research into the following six areas could yield new methodological paradigms (Canagarajah):
Motivation
Learner Variability
Discourse Analysis
Corpus-based Research
Cognitive Processing
Social Participation
To this list we can add:
New Technologies
Second Language Acquisition (new ways to study it)
Others?