This book traces the historical development of major language teaching methods in terms of theoretical principles and classroom procedures, and provides a critical evaluation of each. Drawing from seminal, foundational texts and from critical commentaries made by various scholars, Kumaravadivelu examines the profession's current transition from method to postmethod and, in the process, elucidates the relationship between theory, research, and practice. The chief objective is to help readers see the pattern that connects language, learning, teaching methods, and postmethod perspectives. In this book, Kumaravadivelu: *brings together a critical vision of L2 learning and teaching--a vision founded at once on historical development and contemporary thought; *connects findings of up-to-date research in L2 learning with issues in L2 teaching thus making the reader aware of the relationship between theory, research and practice; *presents language teaching methods within a coherent framework of language-, learner-, and learning-centered pedagogies, thus helping the reader to see how they are related to each other; *shows how the three categories of methods evolved historically leading ultimately (and inevitably) to the emergence of a postmethod condition; and *provides the reader with a solid background in several interconnected areas of L2 pedagogy, such as concepts of competence, input factors, intake processes, interactional modifications, and instructional design. Understanding Language Teaching: From Method to Postmethod is intended for an international audience of teacher educators, practicing teachers and graduate students, researchers, curriculum planners, and materials designers in the field of second and foreign language teaching.
Publisher's description: In this original book, B. Kumaravadivelu presents a macrostrategic framework designed to help both beginning and experienced teachers develop a systematic, coherent, and personal theory of practice. His book provides the tools a teacher needs in order to self-observe, self-analyze, and self-evaluate his or her own teaching acts. The framework consists of ten macrostrategies based on current theoretical, empirical, and experiential knowledge of second language and foreign language teaching. These strategies enable teachers to evaluate classroom practices and to generate techniques and activities for realizing teaching goals. With checklists, surveys, projects, and reflective tasks to encourage critical thinking, the book is both practical and accessible. Teachers and future teachers, researchers, and teacher educators will find the volume indispensable.
The field of second/foreign language teacher education is calling out for a coherent and comprehensive framework for teacher preparation in these times of accelerating economic, cultural, and educational globalization. Responding to this call, this book introduces a state-of-the-art model for developing prospective and practicing teachers into strategic thinkers, exploratory researchers, and transformative teachers. The model includes five modules: Knowing, Analyzing, Recognizing, Doing, and Seeing (KARDS). Its goal is to help teachers understand: how to build a viable professional, personal and procedural knowledge-base, how to analyze learner needs, motivation and autonomy, how to recognize their own identities, beliefs and values, how to do teaching, theorizing and dialogizing, and how to see their own teaching acts from learner, teacher, and observer perspectives. Providing a scaffold for building a holistic understanding of what happens in the language classroom, this model eventually enables teachers to theorize what they practice and practice what they theorize. With its strong scholarly foundation and its supporting reflective tasks and exploratory projects, this book is immensely useful for students, practicing teachers, teacher educators, and educational researchers who are interested in exploring the complexity of language teacher education.
We live in a world that is marked by the twin processes of economic and cultural globalization. In this thought provoking book, Kumaravadivelu explores the impact of cultural globalization on second and foreign language education.
Recent events such as the storming of the U.S. Capitol on January 6, 2021, have led many Americans to lament that the nation they grew up with is unrecognizable now. They see threats to national and individual identity and are fiercely engaged in protecting them. In doing so, some of them deliberately blend the distinction between myth and reality. In this timely and relevant book, the author seeks to provide a critical perspective on who we really are. Taking into consideration the prevailing political, social and cultural conflicts, the author re-examines the changing nature of American identity—primarily its creedal identity, religious identity, cultural identity and linguistic identity—and does so within a broader perspective informed by national and global network of connections. Based on his lived experience as a naturalized citizen and his learned knowledge as a scholar, he synthesizes the professional, the political and the personal. He draws insights from multiple disciplines in Humanities and Social Sciences, from surveys conducted by agencies like the Pew Research Center, and from the practice of everyday American life.
Drawing from seminal, foundational texts and from critical commentaries made by various scholars, the author examines the profession's transition from method to postmethod and, in the process, elucidates the relationship between theory, research, and practice. This book is intended for teacher educators, practicing teachers and graduate students.
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