Research And Application Of Postmethod Theory In China’s College English Teaching

When the entire foreign language teaching world, influenced by the concept of "method", were looking for a best method, in 1994, Prof. Kumaravadivelu published in the TESOL a paper, named in "The Postmethod Condition:(E)merging Strategies for Second/foreign Language Teaching ", and put forward the “Postmethod” concept for the first time, aiming at “a search for an alternative to method, rather than an alternative method”.Prof. Kumaravadivelu treats the "postmethod pedagogy" as a three-dimensional system, including three teaching parameters, namely, particularity, practicality and possibility, whose features are overlapping, intertwined and interact, forming the basis of postmethod pedagogy together. In addition, Prof. Kumaravadivelu has built an integrated framework to help highlight the language teaching classroom in particular, namely the macrostrategic framework.The paper mainly focuses on the postmethod pedagogy proposed by Prof. Kumaravadivelu and the theory application in China’s college English teaching area. To achieve this, the paper has determined two research aspects. Among them, one is the study and analysis of the Syllabuses from national policy level and the other is research and analysis of teaching theory of teachers from classrooms. The first one is that how the various versions of Chinese college English teaching "Syllabuses" reflect the postmethod thought; the second aspect is about China’s college English teachers’ postmethod theory mastering situation and their practice reflecting postmethod pedagogy in actual classroom.For two research aspects, two methods were used in this paper. The first method is comparative analysis. Through a comparative analysis of the development of different versions of English Syllabuses and postmethod pedagogy’s basic ideas, to explore the relationship between the two; and the second is a questionnaire analysis. By means of issuing questionnaires for English teachers of Hebei University of Science and Technology(HEBUST), the study can directly get access to college English teacher of theory and practice of the postmethod pedagogy.Through result analysis, this paper summarizes the relationship between China’s college English teaching Syllabuses and postmethod pedagogy in three aspects, namely top-down / bottom-up, faculty development and teaching methods. Through the questionnaire, the article further explores the postmethod pedagogy theory of domestic college English teachers and their real classroom teaching activities. Questionnaire result shows that while only a few of them are familiar with the postmethod theory, most of college English teachers’ teaching practices in the classroom happen to coincide with postmethod macrostrategies.This paper aims to offer a few ordinary introductory remarks for future researchers’ creating valuable new ideas on research and application of postmethod theory in China’s college English teaching, through providing innovative research perspective and triggering revelation.