Postmethod ELT in the Posmethod Era

Of methods and post-methods According to Douglas Brown (2002, p. 9), “a method is a set of theoretically unified classroom techniques thought to be generalizable across a wide variety of contexts and audiences.” In his view, methods are prescriptive, overgeneralised and developed a priori in terms of place of implementation and actors involved in it. He adds that a method is quite distinct at the beginning of a course but it becomes less clear as such a course progresses.

Postmethod Definition From a distinctively critical pedagogy lens, Kumaravadivelu (2003) defines methods as colonial constructs conceptualized by theorists, not methods actualized by teachers in their everyday practices. As a sign of growth and challenge, he views postmethod as a postcolonial construct which is bottom-up and comes to place context, teachers, and the observed curriculum in a relevant place away from marginalization.

From a distinctively critical pedagogy lens, Kumaravadivelu (2003) defines methods as colonial constructs conceptualised by theorists, not methods actualised by teachers in their everyday practices. As a sign of growth and challenge, he views postmethod as a postcolonial construct which is bottom-up and comes to place context, teachers, and the observed curriculum in a relevant place away from marginalisation. More recently, Richards (2013, p. 18) offers a definition of postmethod in postmethod teaching: This term is sometimes used to refer to teaching which is not based on the prescriptions and procedures of a particular method nor which follows a predetermined syllabus but which draws on the teacher‟s individual conceptualizations of language, language learning and teaching, the practical knowledge and skills teachers develop from training and experience, the teacher‟s knowledge of the learners‟ needs, interests and learning styles, as well as the teacher‟s understanding of the teaching context (Kumaravadivelu, 1994). The teacher‟s „method‟ is constructed from these sources rather than being an application of an external set of principles and practices. The kinds of content and activities that the teacher employs in the classroom as well as the outcomes he or she seeks to achieve will depend upon the nature of the core principles that serve as the basis for the teacher‟s thinking and decision-making.. Post-method pedagogies are to be shaped by three context-driven parameters: particularity, practicality, and possibility. As regards particularity, Kumaravadivelu (2001, p. 538) advocates that any postmethod pedagogy has to be a pedagogy of particularity. That is to say, language pedagogy, to be relevant, must be sensitive to a particular group of teacher teaching a particular group of learners pursuing a particular set of goals within a particular institutional context embedded in a particular sociocultural milieu.

In turn, practicality should be understood as the relationship between theory and practice or professional/external theories and personal/internal theories. Practicality lends itself to autonomy, reflective teaching, and action research for the development of context-sensitive pedagogic knowledge. Last, the parameter of possibility is related to pedagogy as power inequality. Through possibility, we aim at empowering teachers and learners.

Richards’ Definition. More recently, Richards (2013, p. 18) offers a definition of postmethod in postmethod teaching: This term is sometimes used to refer to teaching which is not based on the prescriptions and procedures of a particular method nor which follows a predetermined syllabus but which draws on the teacher's thinking… individual conceptualizations of anguage, language learning and teaching, the practical knowledge and skills teachers develop from training and experience, the teacher's knowledge of the learners‟ needs, interests and learning styles, as well as the teacher's understanding of the teaching context (Kumaravadivelu, 1994). The teacher's „method‟ is constructed from these sources rather than being an application of an external set of principles and practices. The kinds of content and activities that the teacher employs in the classroom as well as the outcomes he or she seeks to achieve will depend upon the nature of the core principles that serve as the basis for the teachers’ thinking and decision-making.

language, language learning and teaching, the practical knowledge and skills teachers develop from training and experience, the teacher's knowledge of the learners‟ needs, interests and learning styles, as well as the teacher's understanding of the teaching context (Kumaravadivelu, 1994). The teacher's „method‟ is constructed from these sources rather than being an application of an external set of principles and practices. The kinds of content and activities that the teacher employs in the classroom as well as the outcomes he or she seeks to achieve will depend upon the nature of the core principles that serve as the basis for the teachers’ thinking and decision-making.

Can’s Proposal As Can (2010) proposes, while methods involve the presence of theorizers constructing knowledge -oriented theories, post-method involves practitioners doing, eventually, the same thing constructing their own classroom- oriented teaching theories on principled grounds.

Conclusion From these authors’ perspectives, therefore, methods are dead. Teachers no longer need to rely on a fixed set of procedures externally imposed on them and can rely on their own beliefs and assumptions regarding language teaching and learning. In other words, by relying on data gathered in the classroom, teachers are able to make informed choices that involve an understanding of the learners‟ needs, of their linguistic strengths and weaknesses, as well as an insightful knowledge of the possible variations in the learners‟ socio-economic and cultural milieu.