Some Thoughts on the Notion of 'Better Methods'

JCLTA, May 1994 devoted an entire issue to the discussion of Chinese language pedagogy, in which the editor said that 'we should be united in our goal of maximum effectiveness in our teaching, and in our search for better methods.' This paper is in response to that call by offering some of my thoughts on the notion of better methods. It is my long belief that, if we want to maximize our effectiveness in teaching, one of the essential things is to understand fully the various methods and approaches in our field and find out not only what does not work but also what works with each method and then shift from one method to another to optimize teaching and learning. The first part of the paper will be a discussion of some of the principles related to language teaching and learning. In the second part I will review the various methods, discuss their contributions and flaws and demonstrate that no single method can take into account all the principles related to the nature of language learning. Finally I want to propose the framework for a 'new' diagnostic, multifaced approach.