Week 2

Kumaravadivelu

Upon reading the article "Toward a Postmethod Pedagogy", I found it very informative on why he believes we have moved away from method teaching and need to work out a new open system of teaching. He talks about how "postmethod pedagogy" must be "particular, practical, and possible". Teaching must be focused on the particular group of learners and the particular teacher at the time it is being taught. We cannot just put everyone in a box and teach them the same way, as we do with methods. I agreed with this, because you have to teach in the environment you are teaching in the way that that environment works. Teaching cannot be done the same way in the U.S. as in South Africa, as he points out. The practical idea comes from the thought that teachers should teach based on their own experiences and the theories they derive from them, not on the theories that are handed to them by professionals. In the possible pedagogy the students and teachers must develop their learning from their environments. They must use their environment as a teaching tool because it can never be manufactured in a textbook. After explaining these concepts on "postmethod pedagogy" he goes on the explain the learners role. He says that they must depend on themselves more, help their peers, and understand their social surroundings and draw from these things to progress their learning. He also talks about the teachers role and how they must continually draw from experience and learn for themselves about the subject.

This article was very informative. After reading this I went on to read the first chapter in Kuma's Cultural Globalization and Language Education. This was very helpful in understanding where he is coming from as a "bilingual and bicultural "person, and why he has such intense feelings on these subjects. I agreed greatly that teachers must continue to learn just as the learner does. It is very important to know the times you are teaching in and be able to work through certain cultural road blocks.

Pennycook

The Pennycook article also dealt with these issues on the new approaches to method and postmethod teaching. Pennycook talks about how political views are greatly reflected in teaching habits. The use of method in the early English teaching has not really changed a great deal over the years, but on the other hand have just been reexamined and retuned. There is also the argument that knowledge is constructed by individuals and groups over power. This was kind of hard to grasp, I found some things easy to understand and others seemed to circle around to what the author has already said.

In reading this weeks articles I found some things that I greatly agree with and somethings that are hard to understand. Overall I think it will be good to hear and participate in the discussion and answer the questions that I have.