Dr. Manel Lacorte is Associate Professor of Spanish Applied Linguistics, Director of the Spanish Language Program and Director of the MA program in Hispanic Applied Linguistics at the University of Maryland.
His talk will begin with a brief overview of L2 teaching methodology in the last 35-40 years in order to outline an ongoing process of integration in the field. Three interrelated aspects of this process will then be discussed: (1) the relationship between second language acquisition and L2 teaching methodology; (2) the development of a principled approach to Communicative Language Teaching (CLT); and (3) the notion of “post-method” and its limitations. As a way to stress an essential difference between “integration” and “simplification” in L2 methodology, the next section of the talk will focus on the importance of local, professional, and institutional contexts in L2 teaching. The consideration of these contexts should become a key component of the process of L2 teacher education so L2 teachers can develop personal methodologies based on solid theoretical and practical principles that would also be adjustable to immediate realities.
February 11, 2014
