From Research to Practice: Considering Context and the Teacher as Theorist

• Main Author: Lin, Maria Chona S.
• Format: text
• Published: Archīum Ateneo 2024
• Subjects: English language teaching; language pedagogy; Second Language Acquisition (SLA)
• Online Access: https://archium.ateneo.edu/kk/vol1/iss3/5; https://archium.ateneo.edu/context/kk/article/1024/viewcontent/_5BKKv00n03_2003_5D_202.4_Article_Lin.pdf
• Institution: Ateneo De Manila University

Language pedagogy has drawn on various disciplines to inform it, one of which is Second Language Acquisition (SLA). However, while considerable developments in SLA have generated more confidence in it, there are still those among SLA researchers who have been reticent in applying results of their research to language pedagogy. Perhaps the problematic relationship between theory and practice and between specialists and teachers need not in principle be oppositional, if we have a greater understanding of the complex nature of the language classroom, as Prabhu has suggested in “The Dynamics of the Language Lesson” (TESOL 1992). In this paper, I expound on two central themes earlier explored by Prabhu, namely the interplay between pedagogic and non-pedagogic dimensions that influences much of what happens in the classroom and the theorizing role teachers have to play if any change aimed at productive learning is to be realized, discussing these issues particularly in relation to SLA studies on interaction to promote L2 learning. In the process, I discuss the implications of the aforementioned points for language teaching, with reference to my teaching context.