English Language Teaching in its Social Context

THE DEVELOPMENT OF EFL METHODOLOGY 163This approach is perhaps better known and more widely applied in Australia, wheremuch of the theory was developed, than elsewhere. Its development there has primarilyoccurred within the provision of English as a second language for migrants, as well as moregenerally in language and literacy programmes. English for Academic Purposes (EAP)programmes havc also been influenced by its innovations.Systemic-Functional Grammar describes language not only in terms of linguisticsystems, but relates these to the social interaction they are used to undertake and the widerculture in which they are used. This model of language was first proposed by Halliday andalso greatly influenced CLT (Halliday 1973).The model of learning upon which this method is based is informed by research in firstlanguage acquisition. Learning is seen as a process of acculturisation into the ‘culture’ of thetarget language with learners perceive as going through an ‘apprenticeship’ process as theylearn more and increase in independence. The degree to which learners are expected todevelop declarative knowledge about the target language has been debated by proponentsof text-based methodologies and, in general, some declarative knowledge is seen asdesirable, in other words, learners are expected to become, to some degree, languageanalysts (see Figure 8.5 for example). This contrasts with both the ideas of Audio-Lingualismand CLT, where declarative knowledge is not seen as a necessary outcome of learning.This brings us to the question of learner and teacher roles within this approach. Textbasedapproaches can be seen as more teacher-centred than other current methodologiesas the role of teacher as ‘expert’ is central. Typically, the teacher would lead the initialexploration of a text type, then the teacher and learners jointly construct a text, followedby sole production by the learners.This model is based on first language acquisition parentchildroles, as well asvygotskian notions of the social interactional nature of communicationand learning.It will be interesting to see this methodology develop further as more materials basedon it become available and it becomes taken up more widely.ConclusionHow does one conclude an outline of a process which has been underway for centuries ~namely the search for better ways to teach languages?This search has probably never beenas intense as it is today, with universities, classroom teachers and publishers all active. Therealisation that this is an ‘on-going’ process is perhaps the first step. This might make usapproach more critically the claims of researchers and publishers who are trying to promoteparticular solutions. Instcad, with a sense of historical perspective, we should assess eachnew development ourselves. This assessment should draw on the disciplines which informour field, not only second language acquisition theory, but psychology and general educationas well. Our three questions from the introduction that we have used to examine themethodologies presented here can provide a starting point. We should not ignore our ownexperience either; classroom-centred research has been one of the most important stepsforward in recent years. In this way the field of language teaching methodology will remainvibrant and exciting.