This document discusses the history of language teaching methods and the move to a post-methods era. It describes how early methods like the direct method, audiolingualism, and total physical response aimed to improve on previous approaches. However, methods began facing criticism for being too prescriptive and not accounting for student and classroom contexts. By the late 1980s, the dominance of methods was waning as it became clear there was no single best way to teach and methods needed to be adapted based on student needs. The post-methods era emphasizes drawing from multiple sources, understanding issues and controversies, and adapting teaching based on students rather than rigidly following any single method.

1. THE POST-METHOD ERA
BY: SADEQ RAHIMI

2. DURING ONE HUNDRED YEARS HUMANS HAVE
BEEN SEARCHING FOR MORE EFFECTIVE WAYS
OF TEACHING SECOND LANGUAGE OR FOREIGN
LANGUAGE.
THE COMMONEST SOLUTION TO THE LANGUAGE
TEACHING PROBLEM WAS SEEN TO ADOPT A NEW
TEACHING APPROACH OR METHOD.

3. WHAT IS METHOD ?
WHAT IS APPROACH ?
Method: according to Richards and Rodgers was an
umbrella term for the specification and interrelation
between theory and practice” (1984:154)
Approach: refers to “theories about the nature of
language learning that serve as the source of practices
and principles in language teaching”. It is a “set of
Assumptions.”

4. Approaches and Methods in Language Teaching (1986, 2001)
According to Richards and Rodgers, “a Method is
theoretically related to an approach, is organizationally
determined by a design, and is practically realized in
procedure”. (2001, p. 20).
Approach is the underlying theory of language and
language learning.
Design is how those theories determine the objectives,
syllabus, teaching/learning activities, teacher/ learner roles,
and the role of the instructional materials.
Procedures are the techniques derived from a particular
approach and design.

5. The direct method was an answer to the dissatisfaction with
the older grammar translation method.
The outbreak of World War II pushed the United States into
world wide conflict. There was an absolute need for
Americans to become orally proficient. Therefore the
Audiolingual was thought to provide a way forward.
The Silent Way is a language teaching method created by
Caleb Gattegno that makes extensive use of silence as a
teaching technique.
Total Physical Response (TPR) is a language teaching method
built around the coordination of speech and action.

6. In suggestopedia the classroom has a living room atmosphere;
Lozanov has claimed that by using this method a teacher's
students can learn a language approximately three to five
times as quickly as through conventional teaching methods.
And then Task-based Instruction, Neurolingiustic
Programing, and Multiple intelligences had chance to present
their solutions.
But at the end in 1980s Community Language Teaching
suggested a language teaching methodology and it continues
as the most plausible basis for language teaching.

7. By the end of the 20th century,
some people spoke of
the death of the methods and
approaches
and the term “post-methods era”
was sometimes used.
The heyday of the methods has lasted
up to the late 1980s.
Are methods “dead”?
What if approaches are insufficient ??

8. POST METHOD:
• We are no longer doing one method, this is the post method
era.
• When you are teaching you are not gonna pick only one
method, you are gonna be concern about what it is you are
teaching , what type of students that you have, what their
needs and desires are so your teaching needs to be dynamic.
• Sometimes you are teaching students who really don’t want
to learn, they have to learn, they have no choice. We are
gonna have to approach them differently from students who
have tremendous desire to learn SOwe are gonna have to
change up, we are gonna have to modify our designs TO
meet the needs and personalities of students that we are
gonna teach in our classes. And it is crystal clear that there
is no one way of doing things.

9. You cannot lead a horse to water and you cannot
make him drink
But,
you can put salt in his food which will encourage
him to want to drink.
So,
We as teachers are supposed to find ways
to encourage students to want to learn.

10. SOME CRITICISMS
The top down criticisms:
Methods typically prescribe for teachers what and how to teach
Therefore,
• Good teaching is regarded as correct use of the
method and its prescribed principles and
techniques. Roles of teachers and learners, as well
as the type of activities and teaching techniques to
be used in the classroom, are generally prescribed.

11. SOME CRITICISMS
Role of contextual factors
Both approaches and methods are often considered
the only solutions to teaching problems that can be done
in any part of the world and under any circumstance.
As a result,
Teachers sometimes ignore what is the starting point in
language program design.
They simply forget to consider the context in which teaching
and learning occurs, including the cultural context, the
political context, the local institutional context, and the
context in their classrooms which constituted by the
teachers and learners.

12. SOME CRITICISMS
Curriculum development processes
• The careful examination of all available sources of
knowledge.
• Methods and materials which are judged most likely to
achieve the objectives which teachers agreed upon.
• The assessment of the extent to which the development
work has in fact achieved its objectives.
• The feedback of all the experience gained, to provide a
starting point for further study.
Curriculum is defined as the process of selecting, organizing,
executing, and evaluating learning experiences on the basis of the
needs, abilities, and interests of learners and
the nature of the society or community.

13. SOME CRITICISMS
Lack of research basis
Approaches and methods are often based on the assumption
Many of the books written are full of claims and assertions about
how people learn languages, few of them are based on second
language acquisition research or have been tested based on
scientific testing or practical experiences.
Besides,
Teachers themselves are reluctant (unwilling) to use approaches
and methods for teaching.
Because they know the “current knowledge” and style of
teaching they use are temporary and changing.

14. SOME CRITICISMS
Similarity of classroom practices
Another criticism is that it is very difficult for
teachers to use approaches and methods in ways that,
they can exactly reflect what the methods need.
Although
Teachers were following different methods, many of
the distinctions used to contrast method did not exist in
practice and they actually were following the same
procedures.

15. BEYONDAPPROACHES AND METHODS
NO METHOD IS GOoD ALONE
LEARN how to use different approaches and methods
UNDERSTAND some of the issues and controversies that
describe the history of language teaching
BE AWARE of the rich set of activity resources available
APPRECIATE how theory and practice can be linked from a
variety of different perspectives
REAMEMBER It is a mistake to believe that ‘a method’
exists can guarantee success. What works one day with
one class, does not necessarily work with different
class and different students.

16. TRY TO
THINK
OUTSIDE THE BOX
THANK YOU ALL