Journal of English Language Teaching

Multinational English Language Teachers’ Understanding of Theory and Praxis of English Language Teaching Methods: A Survey

Dr. C. Ramamuni Reddy

Asst. Professor, Dept of ESL Studies, School of English Language Education, The English and Foreign Languages University, Hyderabad, India

Dr. M. Udaya

Asst. Professor, Dept of ESL Studies, School of English Language Education, The English and Foreign Languages University, Hyderabad, India

Dr. G. Suvarna Lakshmi

Professor, Dept. of ELT, School of Distance Education, The English and Foreign Languages University, Hyderabad, India

Keywords: language teaching methods, knowledge of methods, post-method era, teaching practice, communicative purpose

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Abstract

This paper is based on a survey-study conducted with one hundred and sixty two English language teachers who are teaching English in ESL and EFL contexts at various schools and colleges in eighteen different countries. The study has twin aims: the first one is to check and explore if these teachers have the knowledge of ELT pedagogy, specifically, methods, and if they do, can they recognize which method is being used when they actually teach. For the first one a survey was conducted. Keeping the survey responses of these teachers in hand, a few classes of these teachers, randomly selected,  are observed to check if they are able to relate their knowledge of the ELT pedagogy (collected in the survey) to their actual praxis in the classroom. The study revealed interesting facts about their awareness of classroom teaching techniques, procedures, and methods. Though most of the teachers were rather unable to distinguish ELT approaches, methods, and techniques, they successfully made their classes predominantly learning-centered. It is further observed that most of these teachers are aware of their roles as teachers in the learning process and how to make their classes an effective language learning hub. The respondent teachers have a comprehensive understanding of the purpose of language teaching and the prominence to be given to each language skill and element while teaching English for communicative purposes.

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