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Article
TESOL methods: Changing tracks, challenging trends (Invited Paper for the 40th Anniversary issue)
TESOL Quarterly (2006)
  • B Kumaravadivelu, San Jose State University
Abstract
This article traces the major trends in TESOL methods in the past 15 years. It focuses on the TESOL profession's evolving perspectives on language teaching methods in terms of three perceptible shifts: (a) from communicative language teaching to task-based language teach- ing, (b) from method-based pedagogy to postmethod pedagogy, and (c) from systemic discovery to critical discourse. It is evident that during this transitional period, the profession has witnessed a heightened awareness about communicative and task-based language teaching, about the limitations of the concept of method, about possible postmethod pedagogies that seek to address some of the limitations of method, about the complexity of teacher beliefs that inform the practice of everyday teaching, and about the vitality of the macrostruc- tures - social, cultural, political, and historical - that shape the micro- structures of the language classroom. This article deals briefly with the changes and challenges the trend-setting transition seems to be bring- ing about in the profession's collective thought and action.
Publication Date
March, 2006
DOI
10.2307/40264511
Publisher Statement
SJSU users: use the following link to login and access the article via SJSU databases
Citation Information
B Kumaravadivelu. "TESOL methods: Changing tracks, challenging trends (Invited Paper for the 40th Anniversary issue)" TESOL Quarterly Vol. 40 Iss. 1 (2006) p. 59 - 81 ISSN: 0039-8322
Available at: http://works.bepress.com/b_kumaravadivelu/11/