Post Method Pedagogy: A Plausible Choice in Iran?

Abstract

From a historical perspective, the field of language teaching has witnessed great changes since the early years to the present. Many methods emerged as the reaction to the former at different periods of time to fulfill the needs of all individuals, but no method could have ever gained the status of the “best method”. Although eclecticism as a reaction to method era was introduced as a solution to the problem, it was soon criticized for not having philosophical and theoretical basis. The inefficiency of language teaching methods in fulfilling the needs of all types of learners led to “Death of Method” (Allwright, 2003). Questioning the concept of method and its nature, Kumaravadivelu (1994) introduced “Post method Era” and claimed that there should be “an alternative to method rather than an alternative method”. He further proposed that teachers should be empowered to “theorize from their practice and practice what they have theorized” (Kumaravadivelu, 1994). This paper tries to shed light on the present status of post method pedagogy in Iran. As different studies suggest, it seems very far-fetched to expect post method to emerge out of centralized system of education unless an extensive shift of policies occurs in the field of ELT in Iran.