Cherry Picking from a Plethora

Daniel Shanklin

Cristina O’Farrill Perea

Johanna Rendon Quintana

Inter American University of Puerto Rico, San German Campus

 Throughout recent decades, there has been a lack of balance between the various language-

teaching methods. Additionally, the role of students and teachers remains at odds. Although the

article, “What’s the best way to teach languages?” does not have the ultimate answers, it does

address these issues in an intriguing and straightforward manner. We believe there are two major

points to address from this article: 1.) students are in control of their learning; 2.) teachers

provide and equip their students with the proper environment, insight, and motivation to learn.

Luca Lampariello, as quoted in William’s article (2013), states, "Languages cannot be taught,

they can only be learnt. The best way is to tell students right away that they are responsible for

their own learning process, and the teacher is just a guide who has to motivate them.” This is

relevant because as educators we must promote learner autonomy. Brown claims “The concept

of autonomy is the demand on learners to become aware of their own processes of learning”

(Brown, 2014, p. 123). It is our duty as teachers to inform our students how to study, and to push

them towards self-directiveness and self-awareness in their language studies.

“As schools of thought have come and gone, so have language teaching trends waxed and

waned in popularity” (Brown, 2014, p. 16). It seems as though teaching methodologies will

forever be in a state of flux, which is good. Methodologies are dynamic because they need to be;

they need to fluctuate in order to mirror the amalgam of students’ learning styles. As a result,

teachers must be familiar with a variety of methodologies and approaches, so they can apply

effective techniques according to the ever-changing learning contexts. Brown (2014, p. 18)

describes this as the “Principled Eclecticism” (citing Mellow). In this approach, educators must

wield a magical style of teaching that can morph into salient modes in order to instill motivation

and educational insight into as many students as possible.

 A lot of techniques that we teach our students come from Communicative Language Teaching

(CLT): “an approach to language teaching methodology that emphasizes authenticity,

interaction, student centered learning task-based activities and communication for real world,

meaningful purposes” (Brown, 2014, p. 369). The CLT method and the Grammar Translation

Method (GTM) were two methods of interest and importance in William’s article (2013). This is

because they both contain valuable learning techniques and strategies. Brown defines GMT as “a

language teaching method in which the central focus is on grammatical rules, paradigms and

vocabulary memorization as the basis for translating from one language to another” (Brown,

2014, p.373). CLT and GTM are two methods that make many contributions to achieve a

principled eclectic approach. They provide many techniques for students to become autonomous

learners. Although CLT, GTM and other various methods seem to be largely understood as

competing methods, the Principled Eclecticism approach joins them all together in order to

accentuate their strengths.

Principled Eclecticism is an approach that addresses students as active learners. Learners

need encouragement towards self - motivation, and a surefire way of achieving this type of

motivation is by providing them with the proper learning strategies so that they can build their

own learning styles. The general idea of Principled Eclecticism is that applying the proper

technique is what matters most, and not being concerned with whether or not the technique falls

within a certain type of method. With this mindset in place, students can cherry-pick the

techniques that work best for them. It is up to us, as educators, to provide them with a plethora

of techniques for them to cherry-pick from.

 References

Brown, H. Douglas. (2014). Principles of language learning and teaching: A course in

second language acquisition. Pearson Education. White Plains, NY.

Williams, M. (2013). What’s the best way to teach languages?. The Guardian. Retrieved

from http://www.theguardian.com/teacher-network/teacher-blog/2013/may/14/best-way-teach-

language-schools