A presentation on the need for EFL teachers to reconceptualize methods to be able to design their own teaching proposals.

1. EFL TEACHERS: REVISITING METHODS
AND APPROACHES IN ELT
LA SALLE UNIVERSITY
BA IN SPANISH AND FOREIGN LANGUAGES
YAMITH JOSÉ FANDIÑO PARRA

2. INTRODUCTION
Using the situations above, what do you think the following Chinese proverb means for ELT education: “A thousand te
A thousand methods”?

3. INTRODUCTION

4. INTRODUCTION

5. I. CONCEPTS
What is a teaching methodology?
• Pedagogical practices in general (including theoretical underpinning and related
research). Whatever considerations are involved in how to teach are methodological
(Brown, 2000b).
• Within the general area of methodology, people talk about approaches, methods,
techniques, procedures and models, all of which go into the practice of English teaching

6. • Method: An umbrella term for the specification and interrelation of theory and practice.
It is theoretically related to an approach, is organizationally determined by a design, and
is practically realized in procedure.
• Approach: Theories about the nature of language (structural, functional, interactional)
and language learning (psycholinguistic and cognitive processes or physical and human
conditions) that serve as the source of practices and principles in language teaching”.
• design: An instructional system that considers objectives, content choice and
organization (syllabus), learning activities, role of learners and teachers, and role of
materials.
• Procedure: The actual moment-to-moment techniques, practices, and behaviors that
operate in teaching a language. It concerns with how lessons are integrated to present,
practice, and evaluate language.
I. CONCEPTS

8. II. OVERVIEW OF TEACHING METHODS IN ELT

9. II. OVERVIEW OF
TEACHING
METHODS IN ELT

10. II. OVERVIEW OF TEACHING METHODS IN ELT
• The grammar-translation approach
• The direct method.
• The reform movement
Pre-twentieth-
century trends
• The reading approach.
• The audiolingual approach.
• The oral-situational approach
Early and mid-
twentieth-century
approaches
• The cognitive approach.
• The affective-humanistic approach.
• The comprehension-based approach.
• The communicative approach.
More recent
approaches to
language teaching

11. II. OVERVIEW OF TEACHING METHODS IN ELT
Designer
methods
Silent Way (Gattegno, 1976)
Community Language Learning (Curran,
1976)
Total Physical Response (Asher, 1996)
Suggestology, Suggestopedia, or
Accelerated Learning (Lozanov, 1978)

12. III. TEACHING METHODS TODAY IN ELT

13. III. TEACHING METHODS TODAY IN ELT
Communicative
language teaching (90’s
– 00’s)
Topic-based language teaching
Task-based language teaching
Project-based language teaching
Problem-based language teaching
Content and language
integrated learning
(00’s – 10’s)
Content
Cognition
Communication
Culture

14. IV. SELECTING A METHOD OR AN APPROACH
Match your teaching to a
method
Adapt methods to your local
needs
Develop your personal
approach or method
Study the methods and its
principles and then apply the
procedures it recommends to
their own teaching.
See methods as a set of
principles and procedures
that can be adapted and
modified according to the
teachers’ teaching contexts.
Shift the focus from methods
to the teacher creating a
change in agency in which
teachers are engaged in
developing their own
teaching methods and
approaches.
3 possibilities and alternatives.

15. IV. SELECTING A METHOD OR AN APPROACH
Using principled
eclecticism
The teacher's task is to review, select, and blend different principles and
practices based on an analysis of local circumstances and needs.
Using personal
principles and
practical knowledge
The teacher's task is to develop their own teaching philosophy,
teaching styles, and instructional strategies. In other words, the teacher
needs to create personal practical knowledge (PPK), which is a moral,
affective, and aesthetic way of knowing life’s educational situations.
Theorization of
practice
The teacher's task is to view teacher learning as the development of a
theoretical understanding of his/her teaching from his/her experiences
of teaching.
The teacher’s knowledge and believes change as a result of new
understandings of themselves and their learners, their understanding
of their classroom context and the curriculum, as well as their
acquisition of new kinds of professional knowledge (readings,
workshops, courses, etc.)

16. IV. SELECTING A METHOD OR AN APPROACH
A. Familiarity with established methods: It consists of immersing teachers in
particular approaches or methods according to the needs and interests of
institutions and programs.
B. Familiarity with a variety of different methods and a focus on eclecticism: It
consists of preparing teachers to teach flexibly and creatively drawing on
relevant methods and procedures according to the teaching contexts they find
themselves in.
C. A post-method pedagogy: It consists of developing a framework of principles
and strategies that can be used to support an individual and personal teaching
approach. It Involves having teachers engage in critical reflection, exploratory
practice, classroom research, and related procedures.

17. V. PRINCIPLES OF TEACHERS’ PERSONAL PRACTICAL
KNOWLEDGE

18. V. PRINCIPLES OF TEACHERS’ PERSONAL PRACTICAL
KNOWLEDGE

19. 6. REFLECTION
Based on the contents from this presentation, answer the following
questions:
- Do you agree that methods might be more suitable for novice teachers?
In what other situations might you recommend use of methods?
- Post method perspectives on teaching consider that teachers should
develop personal practical knowledge (a set of procedures that guides
their teaching). To what extent do you agree with this statement?

20. 7. REFERENCE
Celce-Murcia, M. (2014). An Overview of Language Teaching Methods and Approaches. In M.
Celce-Murcia, D. Brinton, & M. Snow (eds.), Teaching English as a second or foreign language
(pp. 2-14). Heinle & Heinle.
Richards, J., & Rodgers, T. (2017). Teachers, approaches, and methods. In J. Richards, and T.
Rodgers, Approaches and methods in language teaching (3rd edition). Cambridge University
Press.