English Language Teaching in its Social Context

66 ROD ELLISFor Widdowson, the applied linguist’s task is to mediate between disciplinary theory/research and language pedagogy. He suggests that this mediation involves two interdependentprocesses. The first is appraisal, which involves interpretation (i.e. the explication of ideaswithin their own terms of reference), followed by conceptual evaluation (i.e. ‘the processof specifying what might be called the transfer value of ideas’ (ibid. : 3 1 )).The second processis application, which also involves two phases. In the case of operation, specific techniques areproposed based on the conclusions of the conceptual evaluation. Alternatively, specifictechniques taken from teachers’ customary practices can be subjected to scrutiny, a processthat both draws on the results of prior conceptual evaluation and potentially contributes toit.The result of this process is a rationale for proposed action.The second phase of applicationis whatwiddowson calls ‘empirical evaluation’ .This is undertaken by teachers, possibly withthe assistance of applied linguists, and involves monitoring the effects of their actions byexamining the relationship between teaching and learning. It calls for teacher research.Widdowson’s framework provides a basis for applying SLA in the following ways:1 Making SLA accessibleThis function involves interpretation. Because the bulk of SLA publications were written forresearchers and not practitioners, there is an obvious need for summaries of the mainfindings. Such summaries will have four major purposes: to make a principled selection ofthose findings that arc likely to be of interest to teachers; to provide surveys of the findingsof a wide range of research which has addressed these issues; to evaluate the findings in theirown terms (i.e. to establish which ones are valid, reliable and trustworthy); to present thesurveys in a language that makes them accessible to practitioners and which provide themeans by which teachers can receive a foundation in SLA.The organization of these summaries bears some thought. One possibility is to structurethem around the issues identified in the research. This would lead to surveys of such issuesas learner errors, input and interaction, fossilization, thc role of formal instruction, etc. Analternative, however, is to base the surveys on pedagogical concepts. This would lead tosurveys of research findings that are relevant to such issues as error treatment, the use of thelearner’s L1 in the classroom, and options in grammar tcaching.This latter approach is clearlymore demanding but is likely to increase the perceived relevance. It provides a bridgebetween interpretation and conceptual evaluation.2 Theory development and its applicationOne way of conducting conceptual evaluation is through theory construction. As Krashen(1 983) has noted there are dangers in trying to apply the results of individual research studiesand a more principled approach is to use research to construct a theory which can then beapplied. One advantage of such an approach to conceptualization is that it provides anopportunity for developing a pedagogically relevant theory. As Brumfit (1 983) has noted,teachers necessarily operate with category systems. A theory of instructed language acquisitioncan assist them in creating appropriate categories. We noted earlier, however, thatthere are also dangers in such an approach. In particular, so much investment may be madein a theory that it becomes petrified, resistant to modification in the light of counterarguments and new research findings. If this happens, of course conceptual evaluation givesway to persuasion.The application of the hypotheses that comprise a theory is one way of operationalixingSLA for pedagogy.This operationalization takes the form of specific proposals for the practiceof teaching. The proposals may concern overall approaches, the aims of the languagecurriculum, the content and organization of a syllabus, teaching activities, methodological