TELT

Shona Whyte:
An article in the US State Departement's English Teaching Forum (Vol. 50, 2012) by distinguished linguist and teacher educator Diane Larsen-Freeman which updates her 1987 state-of-the-art paper on 25 years of language teaching methodology by examining what the subsequent 25 years of research into language teaching have brought.

Regarding teacher education and teaching methods, she has this to say:

"It has been said that language teaching is in a “post-method” phase (Kumaravadivelu
2006). However, I think that not only is the term “method” in language teaching and language teacher education firmly established, but I also believe that teachers need knowledge of various methods. Methods are not intact packages of teaching practices imposed from above, but rather are coherent sets of thinking-in-action links available for teachers to interact with and learn from. Such investigations are vital to language teaching and to teachers’ defining their own sense of plausibility. When methods are seen as sets of coherent principles that link to practice, they help act as a foil whereby teachers can clarify their own pedagogical principles. They also contribute to a professional discourse in which we all may engage (Freeman 1991); they challenge
teachers to think in new ways; and they provide associated techniques with which teachers can experiment to come to new understandings (Larsen-Freeman and Anderson 2011)."

The 2012 article is available http://exchanges.state.gov/englishteaching/forum/archives/docs/12-50-2/50_2_5_reflectionspp21-27.pdf

And for those interested in the historical perspective, the 1987 one is here http://exchanges.state.gov/englishteaching/forum/archives/docs/12-50-2/50_2_6_larsen-freeman-pp28-38.pdf