The role of approaches and methods in second language teacher education

This chapter investigates the relationship between language teachers’ declared pedagogic approaches and their actual practices, and the relevance of this to second language teacher education. It opens with a discussion on the established concept of approaches and methods in English Language Teaching (e.g. Richards and Rogers 2001) and its role in curriculum specifications and teacher education programmes. While it has been argued that we are in an era of post-methods pedagogy (Kumaravadivelu 2006) and that contextual factors rather than approaches should be the starting point for pedagogical decisions (Bax 2004), teachers nevertheless tend to espouse particular pedagogical affiliations which can be used as a point of entry for empirical research into their professional theory and practice. Based on 4 case studies involving observation of experienced teachers combined with semi structured interviews with the same teachers about their beliefs, principles and practices, we analyse the way in which teachers combine knowledge of an approach and its underlying principles with their own experiential knowledge and beliefs to form a personal approach to apply in a particular context. It is argued that adapting an approach and combining it eclectically with aspects of other approaches requires a good understanding of underlying principles and sensitivity to what works best in particular contexts. A good understanding of different approaches and their underlying principles therefore provides an essential set of tools for teachers embarking on a process of development or curriculum change.