An Investigation On The Current Situation Of The Use Of Eclecticism In Senior English Teaching

Teaching methods should be adaptive. This is a revealing insight into Englishteaching approach. On the one hand, English teaching should follow the universal lawof teaching. On the other hand, English teaching approaches vary with differentteachers, different books, and different situations. Therefore, it is necessary to choosespecific methods so as to make them as effective as possible. Eclecticism has beenhighly regarded as an ideal language teaching approach because of itscomprehensiveness and extensiveness.Eclecticism in language teaching holds that although no single language teachingmethod proves to meet all the teaching and learning needs, many methods havevaluable insights that should be drawn on. This study aimed to investigate whether thereal teaching practice of eclecticism was adopted as the advocates described on thetheoretical level. Besides, it proved the attitudes and perceptions of English teacherfrom Senior high school in rural area toward Eclecticism, and their teaching methodsor approaches were also concluded.The research methods included a questionnaire of English teachers to investigatetheir teaching approaches and techniques as well as their attitudes and perceptionstoward eclecticism in English Classroom teaching; a questionnaire of studentsconsisting of qualitative methods of data gathering and analyses. The author observed,taking field-notes and videotaping to a class for12weeks. After observation, three ofthem were selected, as representatives of three typical learning styles, to participate inperson-to-person interviews which asked them about their changes as a reflection ofthe teaching and learning effect.The results of this study have revealed English teachers have positive attitudesand perceptions toward eclecticism. The study demonstrated that the real teachingpractice under observation was absolutely eclectic, which owes its success to theinstructor’s theoretical basis in language teaching and learning.