English Language Teaching in its Social Context

Chapter 8Paul KnightTHE DEVELOPMENT OF EFLMETHODOLOGYIntroductionHEN PLANNING THIS CHAPTER I CONSIDERED myownUK-basedtraining as an EFL teacher and the fact that it contained virtually no explanation ofthe practices I was trained in. Further training informed me how Communicative LanguageTeaching had superseded Audio-Lingualism, but it was not until later that further studiesmade me aware that the field of foreign language teaching has a long and rich methodologicaltradition.Ways of tcaching English have been shaped by developments in many disciplinesincluding linguistics, psychology and education. They havc been informed by empiricalresearch, purely theoretical developments and thc practical hands-on experience ofclassroom teachers. In order to take part in the current methodological debates, anunderstanding of these influences is necessary. I hope this chapter can help foster thatunderstanding by presenting an overview of the debates and issues, illustrated by referenceto a variety of approaches, practices and materials.First, it is important to remember that most second language learning, both in the pastand today, has not been influenced by any of the methodologies that I will review here.Outside of the UK and North America, the prevalence of multilingualism across the globeshows that monolingualism is the exception rather than the norm. Most second languagesarc still learnt informally. Formal methodologies have tried to copy certain features ofinformal second language learning and this is something to look out for as we proceed.While the term ‘method’ might bc used to describe any practical procedure for teachnga language, the term ‘methodology’ implies the existence of a set of procedurcs related byan underlying rationale or theory of teaching and learning language. The approaches I willlook at have all been thought of by their advocates as constituting a ‘methodology in thatsense. I will examine cach of them by considering three questions:123What is the desired outcome?What model of language is it bascd on?What model of learning is it based on?