Chapter Overview

B. Kumaravadivelu’s book “Understanding Language Teaching: From Method to Postmethod” provides a comprehensive examination of language teaching that goes beyond traditional methods. In Chapter 4, we delve into the complexities of language as a system, discourse, and ideology. This essay will provide a summary of the key ideas in this chapter and highlight the implications for language teaching.
The chapter begins with a discussion of language as a system, with the “poverty of stimulus” theory indicating that language learning cannot be solely attributed to environmental factors. This theory highlights the importance of innate linguistic competence, pragmatic competence, and communicative competence. Grammatical competence, sociolinguistic competence, and discourse competence are also identified as critical components of language learning.
Kumaravadivelu then examines language as discourse and differentiates mainstream discourse from critical discourse. The macrofunctions of language, including the ideational, interpersonal, and textual functions, are explored, along with the factors that govern successful communication, including the acronym SPEAKING. We also explore the role of language as ideology, noting that ideologies represent a cluster of concepts that influence language teaching and learning.
The chapter goes on to explore the areas of knowledge and ability necessary for language learning, including organizational knowledge, grammatical knowledge, textual knowledge, pragmatic knowledge, functional knowledge, and sociolinguistic knowledge. The concept of input is also examined, with interlanguage input, simplified input, nonsimplified input, and apperception identified as critical components of language learning.
Kumaravadivelu then delves into intake processes, including the product view, process view, and quantitative view. Intake factors, including individual factors, negotiation factors, tactical factors, affective factors, knowledge factors, and environmental factors, are also discussed. We explore the processes of inferencing, structuring, and restructuring in language learning, highlighting the importance of comprehensible output and the noticing function.
The chapter then moves on to explore the interactive framework of intake processes and the role of top-down versus bottom-up processing. Teaching strategies that modify input, including form-based input modifications and meaning-based input modifications, are explored. The learnability/teachability hypothesis is also discussed, along with the frequency, range, and availability of language features.
Finally, Kumaravadivelu examines postmethod pedagogy, which moves beyond the traditional methods of language teaching. We argue that language teaching should focus on the postmethod condition, which emphasizes the individuality of learners and recognizes that teaching is a constantly evolving process. The three-dimensional framework of postmethod pedagogy is introduced, including the intralingual-crosslingual dimension, the analytic-experiential dimension, and the explicit-implicit dimension. We also explore the exploratory practice framework and the macrostrategic framework, highlighting the importance of cognitive, communicative, linguistic, pedagogic, strategic, cultural, evaluative, procedural, instructional, and attitudinal microstrategies.
In conclusion, Kumaravadivelu’s exploration of language teaching beyond methods highlights the importance of recognizing language as a complex system, discourse, and ideology. We argue that postmethod pedagogy is necessary to meet the needs of individual learners and that language teaching should focus on developing critical thinking and cultural awareness. This chapter provides a comprehensive guide for language teachers who are looking to move beyond traditional methods and explore innovative teaching strategies.