Theory and practice in language teaching

Abstract

There is sufficient cause for teachers' scepticism with regard to language teaching theories. The roots of this scepticism will be traced via a historiography of language teaching methodology in this century. The current tendency to abandon methodological theories in favour of approaches will be considered. Finally the author will formulate a set of elementary "working principles" that can be derived directly from the research that has been conducted in psycholinguistics, applied linguistics, sociolinguistics and other language sciences.