Questão de Educação e Pedagogia

Text I: APPROACH, METHOD, AND TECHNIQUE For the century spanning the mid-1800s to the mid- 1980s, the language-teaching profession may be aptly characterized by a series of methods that rose and declined in popularity. It appears that some practitioners in this time period hoped to define the ultimate method, one that would be generalizable across widely varying audiences, contexts, and language. [...] What is a method? About four decades ago Edward Anthony (1963) gave us a definition that has admirably withstood the test of time. His concept of “method” was the second of three hierarchical elements, namely approach, method, and technique. An approach, according to Anthony, was a set of assumptions dealing with the nature of language, learning, and teaching. Method was described as an overall plan for systematic presentation of language based upon a selected approach. Techniques were the specific activities manifested in the classroom that were consistent with a method and therefore were in harmony with an approach as well. [...] A couple of decades later, Jack Richards and Theodore Rogers (1982) proposed a reformulation of the concept of “method.” Anthony’s approach, method, and technique were renamed, respectively, approach, design, and procedure, with a superordinate term to describe this three-step process, now called “method”. A method, according to Richard and Rodgers, was “an umbrella term for the specification and interrelation of theory and practice” (1982, p. 154). An approach defines assumptions, beliefs, and theories about the nature of language and language learning. Designs specify the relationship of those theories to classroom materials and activities. Procedures are the techniques and practices that are derived from one’s approach and design. (BROWN, D. Teaching by principles: an interactive approach to language pedagogy. 3. ed. New York: Pearson Education, 2007).