English Language Teaching in its Social Context

168 JACI< C. RICHARDSa basis for establishing basic language patterns. Others recommend that speaking be delayeduntil the learner has built up a receptive competence in the language. Some make use ofmemorized dialogues and texts; others requirc that learners attempt to communicate witheach other as soon as possible using their own language resources. Common to all methodsis a set of prescriptions on what teachers and learners should do in the language classroom.Prescriptions for the teacher include what material should be presented and when it shouldbe taught and how, and prescriptions for learners include what approach they should taketoward learning. Specific roles for teachers, learners, and instructional materials are henceestablished (Richards and Rodgers 1986). The teacher’s job is to match his or her teachingstyle as well as the learners’ learning styles to the method. Special training packages andprograms are available for some methods to ensure that teachers do what they are supposedto do and teach according to the method.Despite the appeal of methods, their past history is somewhat of an embarrassment.Studies of the effectiveness of specific methods have had a hard time demonstrating that themethod itself, rather than other factors, such as the teacher’s cnthusiasm or the novelty ofthe new method, was the crucial variable. Likewise, observers of teachers using specificmethods have reported that teachers seldom conform to the methods they are supposed tobe following. Swaffar, Arens, and Morgan (1 982), for example, investigated differencesbetween what they termed rationalist and empiricist approaches to foreign languageinstruction. By a rationalist approach they refer to process-oriented approaches in whichlanguage is seen as an interrelated whole, where language learning is a function ofcomprehension preceding production, and where it involves critical thinking and the desireto communicate. Empiricist approaches focus on the four discrete language skills. Wouldclassroom practices reflect such differences? “One consistent problem is whether or notteachers involvcd in presenting materials created for a particular method are actuallyreflecting the underlying philosophies of these methods in their classroom practices” (Swaffaret a/. 1982: 25). Swaffar et a/. found that many of the distinctions used to contrast methods,particularly those based on classroom activities, did not exist in actual practice:Methodological labels assigned to teaching activities are, in themselves, notinformative, because they refer to a pool of classroom practices which are useduniformly.The differenccs among major methodologies are to be found in the orderedhierarchy, the priorities assigned to tasks. (1 982: 3 1)Methods hence make assumptions about the nature of teaching that are not based on studyof the process of teaching. The findings of Swaffar et a/. account for the difficulty teachersupervisors often have in recogni~ing which method a teacher is following. Nevertheless,the future for methods continues to look good. Several new ones have appeared in recentyears, and at conferences where salespersons for the new methods are present, teachersflock to hear prescntations on the current supermethods. Yet there are serious limitationsin conceptualizing teaching in terms of methods.The basic problem is that methods present a predetermined, packaged deal for teachersthat incorporates a static view of teaching. In this view specific teacher roles, learner roles,and teaching/learning activities and processes are imposed on teachers and learners. Studiesof classroom events, however, have demonstrated that teaching is not static or fixed in timebut is a dynamic, interactional process in which the teacher’s “method” results from theprocesses of interaction between the teacher, the learners, and the instructional tasks andactivities over time (Chall 1967; Dunkin and Biddle 1974; Swaffar et a/. 1982). Attemptsto find general methods that are suitable for all teachers and all teaching situations reflect