only is the teacher a model, a drill conductor and a linguist, but possibly also a
counselor, facilitator, technician, collaborator, learner trainer, and most recently, an
advocate (Larsen-Freeman 1998a).
The other type of difference is one that is contradictory. For instance, notice that the
use of the students’ native language in the Direct Method and Comprehension
Approach (Chapter 8) is proscribed, whereas in the Grammar-Translation Method and
Community Language Learning, it is prescribed. Most recently, the restriction to
avoid use of the students’ language has been challenged, with the students’ L1 not
being seen as an impediment to, but rather as a resource for language learning
(Widdowson 2003; Cook 2010).
Witness also the divergent views regarding the level of control of the input that
learners receive, from highly controlled input in the Audio-Lingual Method, to less
controlled in the Natural Approach, to virtually uncontrolled in task-based, content-
based, and participatory approaches. Contrast the views regarding what to do with
learners’ errors, which range from doing everything to prevent them in the first place
(Audio-Lingual Method), to ignoring them when they are made under the assumption
that they will work themselves out at some future point (for example, TPR).
There are no doubt other differences as well. However, it is the existence of
contradictory differences that leads us to the question we will be discussing next: How
is a teacher to choose?
Choosing among Language Teaching Methods
At the end of this book a reasonable question to ask is, ‘Which method is best?’ After
all, while we have seen that many of the methods presented in this book have
characteristics in common, there are also some fundamental differences among them.
And so in the end, one does need to choose. However, there is a two-part answer to
the question of which method is best. The first is to remember what we said at the
beginning of this book: There is no single best method. The second part of the answer
to this question is that for individual teachers and their students, there may be a
particular method that they are drawn to—which it is not likely to be a decision a
teacher reaches once and for all. It is also the case that a teacher will have to make
many other decisions besides that of choosing a method. In any case, the matter of
deciding needs some careful thought because:
... if we intend to make choices that are informed and not just intuitive or
ideological, then we need to expend no little effort first in identifying our own
values, next in tying those values to an appropriate set of larger aims, and only
then devising or rejecting, adopting or adapting techniques.
(Stevick 1993: 434; see also Edge 1996)The first step in the Stevick quote, identifying values, is what this book has been all