Write a reflection paper on the article "Post-method Era” by Kumaravadivelu (1994). Please do not forget to make references to the following points in your paper:
a) your own perspective as a prospective EFL teacher related to the significance of and the level of applicability of macro and microstrategies offered by Kumaravadivelu (1994) in the EFL context in Turkey
b) your own perspective as a prospective EFL teacher about the ways the macro and microstrategies are and should be integrated into the EFL classes in the Turkish education system
c) your own perspective into the possible challenges and obstacles on the way to the proper integration of the macro and microstrategies mentioned in the article
d) the new roles assigned to EFL teachers and learners in Turkey, the responsibilities and requirements of EFL teachers
e) To what extent and in what ways do you think your previous EFL teachers in Turkey reflect the characteristics of the post-method era?
f) To what extent and in what ways do you find yourself as a prospective post-method era teacher? Where do the macro and microstrategies concerning the post-method era stand in your own teaching philosophy as a prospective teacher?
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On the issue of the post method era, as a prospective teacher, I think it enables us to shape our own classes more autonomously and more realistically. Rather than fitting the existing approaches and methods to our classroom, the post-method condition gives us the opportunity to develop our own approach to our own teaching on the basis of the conditions we are in. The macro and micro strategies stated by Kumaravadivelu (1994) seem useful and applicable in all contexts because they are the general rules regardless of any prescriptive theory and method.
ReplyDeleteSince these micro and macro strategies are the basics of language teaching, as long as the teachers are qualified enough to be aware of them, I think, there won’t be any challenge in the application of most of the strategies except in the macro strategy 2: facilitate negotiated interaction. The problem with it is that in EFL context, there is a limited opportunity for negotiated interaction among the learners.
When we look at the teacher profile in Turkey, as I remember from my primary and high school years, it is hard to make any positive comment in terms of post method condition. In Turkey, teachers somehow don’t seem to follow trends and they generally are stick to traditional non-communicative methods. For instance, grammar teaching is given much importance and the way grammar is taught is deductive and explicitly as in traditional approaches and methods. Thus, the macro strategy 5 stated in the article, which is the fostering language awareness, seems to be ignored by most of the teachers in Turkey because language is taught on the bases of rules through repetition and memorizing. Then automatically we can say that macrostrategy 6, contextualizing the linguistic input, doesn’t seem to be followed by Turkish teachers. Another ignored important strategy is the integration of language skills. In Turkey, language classes are divided into four skills as listening, reading, speaking and writing. Generally grammar teaching takes place in speaking classes and indeed there is no speaking class although it exists in the schedules. Also, the ninth macrostrategy, raising the cultural awareness cannot be accomplished because of general policy. I remember that in 2005 the authentic books were replaced by the ones prepared by Turkish teachers due to the fact that the authentic books brought from abroad were seen as the tools of cultural imperialism. Those problems actually show us that the responsibility of EFL teachers is to know the basics of language teaching like maximizing learning opportunity that increases the exposure of learner to language, and to follow new research studies and trends in language teaching area.
Lastly, as a prospective teacher, I believe that these strategies suggested as post method condition are the basics of language teaching which all teachers should be aware of because these strategies should be followed one way or another although one is not the supporter of post- method condition.
Reflection Paper on “The Post-method Era” by Kumaravadivelu
ReplyDeleteAs a prospective EFL teacher, in my opinion macro and micro strategies stated in the article “The Post-Method Era” by Kumaravadivelu propose a different approach to teaching and learning language. Unlike previous methods, which have specific rules and techniques to be applied in class, The Post-method Era does not constrain the teacher and the learner with some specific rules. It provides the flexibility to change according to conditions of the class and learners. It tries to create autonomous teachers and learners which is a need in language teaching and learning. I think the macro and micro strategies can be applied in EFL classes in Turkey though it may be very difficult at first. However, this difficulty will certainly lead to good outcomes in the long run. When it comes to the difficulties when applying the macro and micro strategies in the EFL classes in Turkey, as the language classes in our country are mostly grammar based all the ten macro strategies will be difficult to apply. First of all, the education system requires the teacher to follow the curricula and the institution may cause some problems. However, in my opinion these ten macro strategies can be applied in language classes in Turkey.
When we consider the responsibilities and requirements of EFL teachers, firstly the teacher should not be the one that teaches and finishes. The teacher should also act as a learner in the class with the learners. Teacher should be aware of the mismatches in the class and he/she should promote learner autonomy. The most important thing is that the teacher should be autonomous. The teacher should reflect their own teaching, evaluate their teaching and make changes in the class. The post method era changes the traditional teacher concept.
When I think of my previous teachers, if I say that there was no sign of post method era, it will not be wrong or unfair. May be I had very little in my prep class in high school. My teachers were using the grammar translation method. Especially, in primary school it was just memorizing the rules and that is it. There was no listening and speaking. In prep class in high school, we had listening and speaking classes, but we did not do any speaking or listening. Grammar was perfect, but it was just the grammar. The rules were explained by the teachers and we were there to memorize them. In my opinion, in language classes most of the macro strategies in the post method era are not applied. Although there are external restrictions like the curriculum, the school manager and school policy etc. at least the teachers try to apply some of them and I think that can be managed.
As a prospective teacher, I think the strategies presented by the post method era compose the basis of the language learning. All of them can lead to a competent L2 user. They stand in the center of teaching so as a future teacher, I am sure that I will at least try to apply these strategies in my classes. According to me, in fact all language teachers should try to use these strategies in their classes.
Reflection Paper on “The Post-method Era” by Kumaravadivelu
ReplyDeleteWhen were taking “Approaches and Methods in ELT” course, Dr.Savaş taught us all the approaches and methods in ELT from grammar translation to audio lingual method.
Although each method was strongly applied in the period in which they were devised, all of them were replaced by another in succession, which could be because of two sensible reasons; the academic concern to renew or further the methodology in Foreign Language Teaching (FLT) towards a better condition, or by some political reasons. Each method was developed to be best in the area of language teaching but each has advantages and disadvantages. At the end of the semester Dr.Savaş told us about post method era and gave us a final group project. As a group of six, we developed our ecliptic methods. We did a great deal f brain storming and took some parts of each method which we taught useful. Then, I realized that developing your own ecliptic method is the best because you can use the “chunks of lexical approach” and “comfortable cushions of suggestopedia” at the same time. Micro and macro strategies allow freedom in ELT rather than prescriptions and strict rules. I believe that is the crucial part of language teaching because there is no best way of teaching. It depends on personality, culture and student profile. Thus, post method era allows teachers to develop an eclectic method according to various circumstances. To illustrate, in Turkey students take SBS exam in primary school. This exam includes English questions as well and students are expected to give correct answers to these questions so that they can be accepted by a good school. Of course their proficiency in speaking writing and listening is important but their primary goal is to answer those questions correctly. Therefore, teacher need to adopt an approach according to this circumstance and post method era allows teacher to handle this issue. I think, one of the best points of the article is that Kumaravadivelu draws upon the themes of earlier writings. He discusses how methods evolved and what their originators were trying to achieve, and then critically evaluates those methods. A theme emerges that methods and predetermined materials and strategies lack the flexibility to be applied to the many varied contexts of English Language Teaching. This failing triggered the present post method state, in which post method pedagogies can be differentiated from methods by a broader focus, an emphasis on developing teachers’ skills, and flexibility to meet students’ needs. In my opinion best part of the article and the post method are is that it does not constrain teachers but only gives some aspects of teaching English.
In the article, Kumaravadivelu firstly explains what post-method means and how it has emerged briefly. Then, he suggests a framework for post-method condition. This framework consists of 10 macrostrategies and some microstrategy suggestions for the application of the macrostrategies.
ReplyDeleteI especially chose this article to write a reflection paper on as the idea of “post-method” is an interesting one. Also, it is an idea that can help us as prospective EFL teachers in the process of structuring our own ideas about teaching.
Firstly, before reading the article, I hadn’t had clear distinctions in my head between the concepts of “eclecticism” and “post-method”. Although this distinction is not the main focus of the article, I personally find the explanations about it important as it drew my attention to the point, that these two ideas are different from each other.
The part I like most about post-method is that it takes the classroom practise as a basis and values knowledge and experience that teachers gain from classroom practises, but, at the same time, it doesn’t forget to include the important research findings and principles in the basis. The methods and theories that have emerged to this day had the common problem of not being able to answer real classrrom problems. On the other hand, giving up these methods because of these problems or trying to combine different techniques and ideas from different methods as in the example of eclecticism had the danger of (and in most cases caused) creating unprincipled, uneffective, random “personal methods” when inexperienced teachers or teachers lacking theory-based knowledge tried to form these “personal methods”. Considering these problems, I find post method as a beneficial suggestion in the process of solving them. It aims to give teachers autonomy and place for creativity considering classroom practises, without ignoring research and study findings.
In this aspect, I think the suggestion of 10 microstrategies is a concrete suggestion which can be evaluated and applied by all teachers. These 10 macrostrategies give us in quite general lines what should be important in any EFL classroom without depending on learner profiles or L2 learning purposes. The author doesn’t form these strategies according to any methods but according to the ideas whose importance and necessity have been proved and understood. We, as teachers, can form our own microstrategies according to these macrostrategies, considering our learner profiles and needs. So, these macrostrategies give teachers freedom and autonomy, and don’t ignore the importance of their experience. Also, stating 10 macrostrategies prevents the possibility of excluding or forgetting necessary principles in language teaching. It gives use a framework which suggests the essence of any L2 teaching environment.
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ReplyDeleteIn my opinion, `post-method Era` has useful points for L2 teaching with its descriptive not prescriptive suggestions. As it is a method that every teacher can use according to his\her conditions, it can help me,too, in ny teaching. I think, as far a I observed from my previous EFL teachers, every teacher more or less used some of the macro strategies in the article by Kumaravadivelu, even in some of the most teacher-centered classes, the the teacher could use some of the macrostrategies such as `raise cultural conscious`.
ReplyDeleteAbout the implementation of this method in Turkish education system, I think, the teacher can be successful, to some extent if s\he apply the strategy `maximize learning opportunities`. Actually. In high school in Mardin, even if we had limited opportunities, our teachers made use of the given opportunuties as well as they could. They maximized our learning opportunities. But, our teachers had to be very careful with the school administrator and the rules in the class, not to be cross with the existing rules. We can see that the teachers can face some problems in the schools while implementing all the strategies if the school principle and the education system does not have enough knowledge about these strategies.
In my teaching L2 years in the future, I will try to use the macrostrategies stated in the article, but I also think that even if I hadnot read the article I would use some of the strategies just without knowing the terms.
ruken,
I think sooner or later the post method will be dead, changed by the newest method called "My Own Method".
ReplyDelete