ARTICLES

 

Post-method practice in the English First Additional Language classroom: A transformative language pedagogy

 

 

Hlaviso Motlhaka; Wilfred Molotja; Ablonia Maledu; Thomas Chauke; Isaiah Ramaoka; Phaswane Phokwane

Department of Language Education, School of Education, University of Limpopo, Mankweng, South Africa hlaviso.motlhaka@ul.ac.za

 

 

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ABSTRACT

In the study reported on here we investigated the use of post-method practice to optimise pre-service teachers' teaching practice and English First Additional Language (EFAL) proficiency. This study was premised on the theoretical framework of Paulo Freire's critical pedagogy which promotes diverse perspectives in language learning and teaching among teachers and learners. Qualitative data were collected using semi-structured interviews with 10 (n = 10) third year pre-service teachers enrolled in a 4-year Bachelor of Education (BEd) degree programme in the Department of Language Education, School of Education at the University of Limpopo, South Africa. We found that post-method pedagogy enables pre-service teachers to monitor their teaching process and optimise learners' potential to learn, which affords them opportunities for critical reflection on the self and the social world, as well as opportunities to form learning communities. The results suggest that post-method pedagogy enables pre-service teachers to recognise their prior and current knowledge, and their potential to teach and act autonomously. This promotes their ability to know how to develop a reflective critical approach in their teaching by analysing and evaluating their teaching acts, initiating change in their classroom practices, and monitoring the effects of these changes. We concluded that post-method practice could provide teachers, curriculum developers and researchers with an understanding of the realisation of post method in teaching and learning of EFAL in South African classrooms.

Keywords: critical pedagogy; learning communities; post-method pedagogy; pre-service teachers; student autonomy; teacher autonomy; transformative intellectual

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Introduction and Background

In a multilingual country like South Africa, learners experience school life through the medium of English rather than their own languages due to the multilingual nature of the country. In 2009, the Minister of Basic Education appointed a task team to identify and investigate challenges that affect the quality of teaching in schools and propose recommendations to address them. In their report, the task team recommended the implementation of a revised national curriculum which resulted in the Curriculum and Assessment Policy Statement (CAPS), which advocates additive bilingualism in the teaching of an additional language to ensure that learners in Grades R to 3 attain high-order proficiency in at least two languages while developing the ability to communicate in other languages (Department of Basic Education [DBE], 2010). The introduction of CAPS in the Foundation Phase requires more time for the teaching of English First Additional Language (EFAL) with the focus on communicative competence involving oral work, creative writing, language and grammar, and literature for learners whose first language is not English. CAPS requires greater exposure to English in the Foundation Phase before the switch to English as the Language of Learning and Teaching (LoLT) in Grade 4. The CAPS document implies that teachers must be adequately skilled to have the pedagogical content knowledge to guide learners to develop communicative and reading skills in EFAL. However, several studies have shown that teachers use teaching methods that do not develop learners' comprehension and communication skills in EFAL (Cilliers & Bloch, 2018; Lenyai, 2011; Madikiza, Cekiso, Tshotsho & Landa, 2018; Mohangi, Krog, Stephens & Nel, 2016; Soya & Caga, 2019). This suggests that teachers use traditional strategies that do not facilitate comprehension and communicative skills because they were not adequately taught how to teach them during their years of teaching training. Giroux (1988) decries this technocratisation of pedagogy whereby teachers are generally relegated to high-level technicians who implement the dictates of ivory-tower experts far removed from the rock face of everyday realities of classroom life.

Giroux (1988) criticises the above-mentioned practice for its top-down attitude towards pedagogy which relegated teachers to uncritical technical transmitters of predetermined materials developed by professionals while they are not allowed to question the fundamental principles of their teaching practice (Kumaravadivelu, 2003). Kumaravadivelu (2001) addresses the top-down perspective between practice and theory by articulating a need for a pedagogy of practicality which positions teachers as the producers of context-sensitive pedagogic knowledge. He elaborates that teachers should be encouraged to develop theory from their own hypotheses. In other words, a pedagogy of practicality advocates for a theory of practice produced by teachers rather than a professional theory by experts. This is to ensure that teachers and learners become active throughout the learning process and contribute to the direction of pedagogy based on their own understanding. From this perspective, we investigated post-method pedagogy as a way of teaching which does not conform to the prescripts of any methods or any fixed syllabi, but depends on teachers' training and experience. Post-method pedagogy draws from the teachers' awareness of the learners' needs and learning styles, as well as their teaching context to optimise learners' EFAL proficiency. Thus, teachers' classroom teaching practice is based on Kumaravadivelu's (2006) parameters of particularity, practicality and possibility.

Literature Review

Several scholars such as Allwright (2003), Kumaravadivelu (2003) and Stern (1992) developed the concept of post method with guiding principles based on the socio-cultural perspectives that situate teaching and learning in socio-historical contexts that enable teachers to foster growth of their context-tailored pedagogic knowledge. Post-method pedagogy emerged from a discontent with the language-teaching methods which influenced second language education from the late 19th to the late 20th century. It is critical to distinguish between the concept of method and post method. Method consists of a single set of theoretical principles emanating from feeder disciplines and a single set of classroom protocols for teachers (Kumaravadivelu, 1994). Post method, on the other hand, consists of classroom protocols and principles generated by teachers informed by their prior and experiential knowledge (Fiani & Syaprizal, 2018). In other words, post method involves practitioners constructing classroom-oriented theories of practice but not knowledge-oriented theories of pedagogy constructed by theorists (Khodabakhshzadeh, Arabi & Samadi, 2018; Kumaravadivelu, 1994; Novawan & Wijayanti, 2017). Although method is considered to be the core of language learning and teaching and includes curriculum design and the preparation of material, it is limited to successfully explain the complexities of the teaching and learning of language because it is obscure and exaggerated (Kumaravadivelu, 2006). For this reason, methods are constructed for idealised contexts as they are taken from a single set of circumstances and cannot fit into others (McMorrow, 2007). Thus, method-based pedagogy tends to overlook teachers' prior knowledge that they gained from their experiences when they learned a language. Method-based pedagogy often packages the methods with easily digestible bits and pieces of knowledge leaving very little food for critical thinking (Kumaravadivelu, 2006).

In contrast to method, post-method pedagogy goes beyond the limitations mentioned above without claiming to be an alternative method, but to be an alternative to method (Kumaravadivelu, 2003). Post-method pedagogy provides a viable alternative to method which places teachers at the centre of language learning and teaching and values their beliefs, experiences and knowledge (Nagy, 2019; Zeng, 2018). This means that the views of teachers should be appreciated because they know their learners and the classroom context and they are a great source of knowledge gained from their past experiences as learners, and they have the knowledge of one or more methods gained throughout their teacher training (Prabhu, 1990). Post method differs from existing methods although it emerged as a result of the limitations of the methods because one method cannot overcome the limitations of another. Post-method pedagogy recognises teachers' previous and current knowledge to teach and initiate changes in the classroom (Naeini & Shakouri, 2016; Scholl, 2017). Such ability can evolve only if teachers have the requisite passion for their work and the autonomy in pedagogic decision-making because they rely on their prior and changing personal knowledge of teaching and learning to break through the constraints of the concept of a method. This knowledge involves particular classroom management and connecting cognitive thinking with action (Kumaravadivelu, 2006). Post-method teachers are, therefore, encouraged to develop methods based on their classroom context and knowledge of other methods and approaches. In other words, teachers are given a voice and audience to formulate their teaching and learning philosophies for empowerment and inclusiveness to maximise learning opportunities, to ensure that learners focus predominantly on meaning and take individual learner differences into account.

Kumaravadivelu's post-method pedagogy has three pedagogic parameters which address aspects of practice (pedagogy of practicality), context (pedagogy of particularity), and empowerment (pedagogy of possibility), which provides a comprehensive context for language teaching. Particularity requires that any language pedagogy must consider a particular group of teachers teaching a particular group of learners in pursuance of pre-set goals in a particular institutional context in a particular sociocultural milieu (Kumaravadivelu, 2003; Rashidi & Mansourzadeh, 2017). The parameter of practicality relates to the relation between theory and practice where theory and practice are separated in the classroom setting. Kumaravadivelu (2003) claims that the pedagogy of practicality enables teachers to theorise from their practice and practice what they theorise. The parameter of possibility strongly resonates with the educational philosophy of Brazilian critical pedagogist, Paul Freire, which asserts that any pedagogy has close affinities with issues of power and dominance to create and sustain social inequalities (Chen, 2014). They call for the recognition of teachers' and learners' subject-positions, that is their ethnicity, rase, class, and gender toward their impact on education. The awareness that learners bring to pedagogical settings is influenced by what they learn in the classroom and is informed by a broader socioeconomic and political environment. This awareness may alter unintended and unexpected pedagogic practices by curriculum designers, policy planners, or textbook compilers. Therefore, post-method pedagogy is linked with critical pedagogy which promotes social transformation through education in which critical practice is about a belief that what happens in the classroom should make a difference in the world outside the classroom (Marzban & Karimi, 2018; Novawan & Wijayanti, 2017; Pnevmatikos, Christodoulou & Georgiadou, 2019). In other words, post-method pedagogy indicates that learning to learn means learning to use appropriate strategies to monitor learners' learning process, maximise their learning potential, promote learning by doing, stimulate students' intrinsic motivation, cultivate self-confidence and create opportunities for language output.

Theoretical Framework

In this study we adopted Paulo Freire's critical pedagogy as a theoretical framework because it makes paradigm itself an explicit part of the curriculum, redefines the emancipatory which focuses on what teachers expect learners to do and what teachers do, and re-examines the role of teachers as facilitators in promoting diverse perspectives in language learning and teaching (Kim & Pollard, 2017; Motlhaka, 2015). Paulo Freire's critical pedagogy is aligned to post-method pedagogy because learners and teachers engage in authentic dialogue and collaborate for a critical consciousness wherein the teachers listen to learners, then, select and bring known situations to learners in codified forms, and ask a series of inductive questions regarding the discussion of the situation (Zokaeieh & Alamdari, 2018). This process humanises and empowers learners and teachers because the curricular is framed through the use of learners' and teachers' experiences and realities of their lives. In other words, critical pedagogy and post-method pedagogy are regarded as a way of thinking, negotiating, and transforming the relationship in classroom teaching, the production of knowledge and the institutional structure of the school based on mutual understanding and common goals.

Problem of the Study

The predominance of English language teaching in South Africa is partly linked to the colonial and postcolonial legacies that have favoured global languages. This has often led to the undervaluing and under-developing of indigenous languages. In the South African context, it is also linked to the hegemony of English with its concomitant view that English proficiency is key for economic development, access to career opportunities, academic achievement, and functioning in a multilingual society (Milligan & Tikly, 2016). Hence, the use of English as the LoLT in postcolonial countries tends to be highly polarised and linked to the instrumentalist view held by many policymakers and parents. In other words, policymakers and parents perceive early immersion in English as essential for linguistic needs and educational outcomes of different groups of disadvantaged learners within and between postcolonial countries. These contextual idiosyncrasies militate against a one-size-fits-all approach and the unproblematic transfer of language policies across contexts. It is worth noting that after apartheid Outcomes-Based Education (OBE) was adopted in South Africa. In this regard, the CAPS has to redefine the teaching of EFAL for inclusivity and addressing the learning needs of learners beyond the classroom. Despite these well-meaning efforts to redress the legacy of apartheid, OBE, the Revised National Curriculum Statement (RNCS) and the CAPS adopted a prescriptive stance on how teachers should teach English by using a text-based, communicative, integrated, and process-orientated approach. Furthermore, syllabi and materials prescribed by the Ministry of Education leave teachers with no room to make an intellectual contribution to their own classroom practices guided by their own teaching strategies and philosophies that enhance learners' English proficiency and pre-service teachers' teaching practice. Therefore, with this study we intended to investigate the use of Kumaravadivelu's (2006) post-method pedagogy to optimise learners' EFAL proficiency and pre-service teachers' teaching practice based on the parameters of particularity, practicality, and possibility.

 

Research Methodology

In this study we used a qualitative approach to investigate the use of post-method practice to optimise pre-service teachers' EFAL proficiency and their teaching practice. In this case, qualitative research represented an inquiry about the field and explored participants' experiences and understanding of Kumaravadivelu's post-method framework of teaching and learning language, which focuses on four strategy categories: teaching interaction, teaching technique, teaching objective, and teaching content. Teaching interaction has three macro-strategies, namely, maximising learning opportunities, facilitating negotiated interaction, and minimising perceptual mismatches. Teaching technique has three macro-strategies which activate intuitive heuristics, contextualise linguistic input, and integrate language skills focusing on students' enlightenment and encouragement from teachers, the status quo of situational teaching, and students' best and worst skills in learning English. We also explored Kumaravadivelu's post-method framework focusing on teaching objective to promote and facilitate learner autonomy and foster language awareness as well as exploring teaching content which is concerned with raising cultural consciousness and ensuring social relevance in learning and teaching English to non-English speaking pre-service teachers. We intended to answer the following questions:

• How does post-method pedagogy optimise pre-service teachers' teaching practice?

• To what extend does post-method pedagogy through macro-strategy teaching activities improve learners' English language proficiency?

Sampling

The research sample of this study included 10 third-year pre-service teachers between the ages of 18 and 30 registered for the English for Educators module (HEGE 031) at the School of Education at a rural South African university. We used purposive and convenience sampling strategies to select students from the classes that we taught based on their abilities in Sepedi as their home language. This type of sampling was undertaken to select reliable respondents who would provide relevant data to optimise learners' EFAL proficiency and their teaching practice.

Data Collection and Instrument

Qualitative data were collected through semi-structured interviews with 10 (n = 10) pre-service teachers to elicit their experiences and understanding of Kumaravadivelu's post-method framework of teaching and learning. The interviews lasted for 10 to 15 minutes per participant. We prepared a list of all the questions to be posed during the interviews. The open-ended nature of the interview was to encourage participants to express ideas freely, to elaborate, and to ask questions on the use of post-method pedagogy. Amplifying participants' voices in this way enabled them to explicate how post-method pedagogy helped learners to optimise learning opportunities, to facilitate negotiated interaction, and to minimise perceptual mismatches by activating intuitive heuristics, contextualising linguistic input, and integrating language skills that target learners' enlightenment and encouragement by their teacher. Situational teaching that recognises learners' best and worst skills in English learning promotes learner autonomy and fosters language awareness, raises cultural consciousness and ensures social relevance in the learning and teaching of English. The interviews were conducted in my office for the convenience of all participants. The interviews were recorded on a voice recorder for later analysis.

The research questions mentioned earlier were designed to examine whether interactive activities in the classroom met the requirements of macro-strategies which include maximising learning opportunities, facilitating negotiated interaction, and minimising perceptual mismatches. The research questions were also designed to examine the feasibility of the principles of macro-strategies which include activating intuitive heuristics, contextualising linguistic input, and integrating language skills. The interview questions were also designed to investigate what and how pre-service teachers understood teaching objectives, i.e. promoting learner autonomy and fostering language awareness through post-method pedagogy.

Data Analysis

We adopted an inductive approach in analysing the recorded qualitative data without prior knowledge or conception of the phenomenon under investigation. This approach was used to address the main research questions. These questions involved generating new ideas and theories; explaining the phenomenon; and exploring associations between attitudes, behaviour and experiences. The inductive approach applied in this study helped me to develop emerging themes or categories by studying the transcripts repeatedly and considering the possible meaning thereof and how these linked with developing themes (Creswell, 2012). The transcripts were read several times to identify themes and categories on pre-service teachers' beliefs on post-method pedagogy in terms of teaching interaction, teaching technique, teaching objective, and teaching content in an EFAL classroom.

 

Findings and Discussion

The purpose of this study was to investigate the use of post-method practice to optimise pre-service teachers' EFAL proficiency and their teaching practice. The following themes emerged from the data collected during the semi-structured interviews: teacher autonomy, promoting critical thinking among learners, learner autonomy, intellectual transformation, and integration of language skills. Each of the themes is presented and discussed below.

Teacher Autonomy

Teacher autonomy helps teachers to construct a new paradigm of First Additional Language teaching and research embodied in the transition from the study of the language ontology, flexibility, professional development ability, the development of learner autonomy and insight, and effective teacher-student relationships (De Klerk & Barnett, 2020; Ling-xin, 2017). Teaching autonomy has six levels of autonomy which include teaching plan, carrying out teaching activities and promoting learner autonomy ability, reflective ability, external relationship ability and self-development capability. Respondents said the following to explain teacher autonomy through post-method pedagogy in enhancing teaching practice and learners' EFAL proficiency:

I think post-method pedagogy helps teachers to make flexible selection and integration of teaching materials, adopt various teaching methods and promote innovation of learners' thinking and learning ability, which I think should also be included in the pre-service teachers' programme and be communicated to the Ministry of the DBE for inclusion in the CAPS documents. (Excerpt 1) I think this pedagogy promotes the realisation of learning and teaching goals in EFAL through the cultivation of innovative ideas because it does not limit teachers' and learners' engagement in the learning and teaching process (Excerpt 2). I think adopting post-method pedagogy in my classroom could be [an] exciting experience because I strongly believe that it plays a leading role in the settings of learning, content selection, teaching objectives, teaching design, teaching management and other aspects, without being told how to teach as a way of promoting my teaching ability as well as learning ability of my learners. However, this innovative way of teaching language should be communicated to the DBE to incorporate it in the CAPS document. (Excerpt 3)

The above excerpts show that respondents believed that post-method pedagogy could promote teacher autonomy through constant innovation, wherein such an innovative approach can be combined with practical experience and the local characteristics of teachers, learners, and the school. However, the respondents indicated that the success of post-method pedagogy could entirely depend on its inclusion in the CAPS document and pre-service teacher-training programmes to familiarise pre-service language teachers and the DBE with this innovative way of teaching language which seeks to promote teacher autonomy and learners' EFAL proficiency. This finding is supported by Weidong (2008) who believes that teachers' teaching methods should not be dogmatic, and that a good teacher should be flexible to use all kinds of teaching methods to meet learners' needs. Kumaravadivelu (2006) describes typical post-method teachers as professional practitioners and autonomous instructors whose skills, knowledge, and autonomy enable them to reflect critically on their pedagogic practices and theorise from them, put the theories into practice, and develop inquiry through daily activities. In other words, teacher autonomy under the consciousness of innovation is reflected in the unique understanding, creativity, and critical reconstruction of individual teachers' teaching content and processes which aim to develop teaching practice and learners' learning ability (Han, 2017; Ling-xin, 2017). In line with post-method pedagogy, language teachers are expected to dynamically promote linguistic competence and professional development (including their teaching skills), as well as maximising learning opportunities through effective teaching which engenders the student teachers' language competence and teaching efficiency. Thus, teacher autonomy through post-method pedagogy becomes a self-directed and self-paced professional development endeavour that enables learners to take ownership of their learning.

Promoting Critical Thinking

Critical thinking lies at the very core of language; without it, there can be no concepts that build on each other, as a language just becomes the placement of words in a particular syntax without clear logical connections (Tosuncuoglu, 2018). In other words, critical thinking involves the ability to differentiate between the usage of words in various contexts and implicitly understand the language. This observation is represented in Excerpt 4 and 5 below:

Post-method pedagogy encourages teachers to design learning activities which promote critical thinking skills among learners to become self-motivated and equipped to analyse language when being in contact with it and 'solve the problem' of communication (Excerpt 4).

I believe that post-method pedagogy ensures critical thinking for real and meaningful teaching and learning (Excerpt 5).

The above excerpts indicate that post-method pedagogy encourages critical thinking among teachers and learners wherein teachers should design learning activities that foster real and meaningful teaching and learning. This finding suggests that a post-method teacher should be positioned as an agent of change and should indeed be in charge of creating an instructional space to enhance critical thinking that seeks to transform learners into critical thinkers and catalysts of social change. It also supports the view that one of the responsibilities of education is to assist learners to become liberated through the opportunities it provides for them to think critically in all situations (Ling-xin, 2017).

Integrating Language Skills

Integrating language skills means providing authentic, naturalistic learning situations catering for the basic language skills of listening, speaking, reading, and writing so that these skills can be developed together for real-life purposes and with real audiences (Atta-Alla, 2012; Slater & Beckett, 2019). Post-method pedagogy advocates for the avoidance of the transmission model with a set of prescribed and pre-sequenced knowledge and information transmitted from teachers to learners to integrate languages skills.

Integrating language skills through post-method pedagogy could provide teachers with conditions to acquire authority and autonomy to reflect and shape their own experiences in improving learners' English proficiency by engaging them in various activities to practice English, including listening tasks, role-playing, and stimulating discussions. (Excerpt 6)

Post-method pedagogy is appropriate to harness teachers' practice and learners' English proficiency by the integration of language skills, for example, storytelling could be appropriate in integrating the four language skills to develop language abilities, encouraging learners to talk, write, perform, listen, communicate and learn. (Excerpt 7)

The above excerpts show that post-method pedagogy has the potential to harness teachers' practice and learners' English proficiency by involving learners in hands-on communicative language learning activities such reading, writing, and topic-oriented conversations in the classroom to enable them to learn skills that have the potential to integrate the four basic language skills. The results of this study suggest that integrating language skills helps teachers to avoid using the segregated-skill approach wherein teachers think that it is logistically easier to present courses on writing divorced from speaking, or on listening isolated from reading (Atta-Alla, 2012; Bunch & Kibler, 2015). For example, the grammar-translation method teaches learners to analyse grammar and to translate (usually in writing) from one language to another. This method restricts language learning to a very narrow, non-communicative range that does not prepare them to use the language in everyday life. In other words, the segregated-skill approach would not ensure adequate preparation for later success in academic communication, career-related language use, or everyday interaction in the language, unlike integrated-skill instruction which involves hands-on communicative language learning activities. Integrating language skills helps language learners to develop their ability in using two or more of the four language skills (i.e. listening, speaking, reading, and writing) in different contexts and real-life situations. This is needed because English is used nationally and internationally as a working language for official communication and correspondence in academia, banks, hospitals, industries, and government, among others. Therefore, all language skills are pivotal in the teaching and learning process and a combination of language skills has a positive effect on the learners' success and teachers' teaching practice.

Promoting Learner Autonomy

Post-method pedagogy is integral to teaching practice that contributes to learners' control over their language learning process to develop language proficiency (Bozkurt & Yalcin Arslan, 2018; Motlhaka, 2015). Critical pedagogy thus holds the promise of engendering learner autonomy. Post-method pedagogy seeks to develop autonomous learners whose initiative and creativity are harnessed to produce a teacher-learner co-constructed curriculum. In this way, learners are not only valued in the learning and teaching process but are encouraged to become more motivated and competent as compared to those who do not have the same privilege.

I think post-method teachers encourage learners to become autonomous so that they will be able to deal with language learning on their own beyond the classroom (Excerpt 8).

Autonomous learning is possible through post-method pedagogy as a way of enhancing learners' English language proficiency because it gives them the freedom to decide what they do, and expecting, improves both their attitudes toward studying and their learning as a result [sic]. (Excerpt 9) Post method ensures that learners become responsible for their language learning without being influenced by others (Excerpt 10).

The above excerpts indicate that post-method pedagogy assumes that language learning is an activity in which autonomous learners are required to take responsibility for their own learning through self-direction and regulation. The findings of this study suggest that in post method autonomous learners play a meaningful role in pedagogic decision-making (Bozkurt & Yalcin Arslan, 2018; Godwin-Jones, 2019; Kumaravadivelu, 2006). However, learners should be equipped with varied learning strategies that allow them to learn and to become critical thinkers capable of understanding the relationship between their learning and ideology. In other words, learners can develop autonomy if they are given an active and meaningful role which capacitates them to realise their desired learning goals in the classroom through appropriate strategies. It is assumed that learners should gain knowledge of learning strategies, to plan, to regulate, and to monitor their learning. Thus, the culture of learning to learn should be integrated into schools to help learners maximise their learning potential. The results of this study deduce that post method helps learners to become a source of information for class activities because at the heart of learner autonomy lies the concept of choice within a flexible and dynamic curricular framework that allows for individual exploration.

Intellectual Transformation

The term "transformative intellectual" was coined by Giroux (1988, as cited in Motlhaka, 2015) who considers teachers as individuals who possess the knowledge, skills, values, and attitudes to question, understand, interrogate and act as change agents of structural inequities in their place of employment. Teachers as transformative intellectuals are required to create opportunities for learners in the classroom to bring about social change through embracing aspects of possibility (Kumaravadivelu, 2001):

For teachers to enhance their teaching practice and learners' English proficiency, they should embrace the concept of intellectual transformation by ensuring that learning and teaching activities are designed to accommodate a variety of learners' learning abilities given learners' English language background. (Excerpt 11)

I think teachers should be willing to learn from their learners in order to improve their professional practices as well as addressing learners' learning needs because learners bring with them a wealth of knowledge and information which could help teachers to reshape their teaching practices and values. (Excerpt 12)

The excerpts above indicate that post method helps teachers to embrace the concept of intellectual transformation as a way of improving their teaching practice and addressing learning needs by designing learning and teaching activities that accommodate a variety of learning abilities. This means that teachers should exploit opportunities for learners to make sense of classroom practices by making connections between the pedagogic activities and the socio-political imperatives of their social experiences. The finding suggests that teachers should be involved in a process of gaining and applying knowledge by being aware of their roles in the classroom to develop professionally and to create meaningful learning environments (Han, 2017). This provides learners with opportunities to be actively involved in the shared tasks of developing a syllabus through negotiation with their teachers. In this case, post method teachers create a conducive learning environment, activate learners' initiative and motivation, raise their awareness of autonomous learning, encourage learners to actively build their knowledge, and develop their competence in language. It could therefore be concluded that post-method language teachers should consider individual learner differences by helping them to develop learning objectives, to select learning materials and to arrange language practice so that learners can gain knowledge of the language and improve their language competence.

 

Conclusion

The findings of this study indicate that the success of post-method pedagogy could entirely depend on its inclusion in the CAPS document and pre-service teacher-training programmes to familiarise pre-service language teachers and the DBE about this innovative way of teaching language which seeks to promote teacher autonomy and learners' EFAL proficiency. In other words, teaching autonomy is reflected in the unique understanding, creative development, and reconstruction of individual teachers' teaching content and processes which aim to develop teaching practice and learners' learning ability (Han, 2017; Ling-xin, 2017). It also supports the view that education is to assist learners to be liberated and to think critically in all situations (Ling-xin, 2017). The findings further suggest that the integration of language skills helps language learners to develop their ability to using two or more of the four language skills (i.e. listening, speaking, reading, and writing) in different contexts. In other words, learners can develop autonomy when they are given an active and meaningful role in the classroom by utilising appropriate strategies to achieve the desired learning objectives. From the results of this study we deduce that post-method pedagogy helps learners to become information sources for class activities because post-method teachers create a good learning environment, activate learners' initiative and motivation, raise their autonomous learning awareness, encourage them to actively build their knowledge and to develop language competence. Thus, the findings of this study could provide teachers, curriculum developers, and future researchers with an understanding of the realisation of post method in EFAL classrooms.

 

Authors' Contributions

Hlaviso Motlhaka wrote the introduction and background of the study; Wilfred Molotja wrote the literature review; Ablonia Maledu wrote the theoretical framework a problem statement; Thomas Chauke wrote the research methodology and data collection; Phaswane Phokwane and Isaiah Ramaoka wrote the data analysis, discussion of the findings, and the conclusion.

 

Notes

i. Published under a Creative Commons Attribution Licence.

 

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Received: 11 June 2020
Revised: 17 April 2021
Accepted: 12 July 2021
Published: 31 May 2022