The Postmethod Condition: (E)merging Strategies for Second/Foreign Language Teaching

Recent explorations in L2 pedagogy signal a shift away from the conventional concept of method toward a “postmethod condition” that can potentially refigure the relationship between theorizers and teachers by empowering teachers with knowledge, skill, and autonomy. So empowered, teachers could devise for themselves a systematic, coherent, and relevant alternative to method, one informed by principled pragmatism. The postmethod condition can also reshape the character and content of L2 teaching, teacher education, and classroom research. In practical terms, it motivates a search for an open‐ended, coherent framework based on current theoretical, empirical, and pedagogical insights that will enable teachers to theorize from practice and practice what they theorize. This paper explores one such framework consisting of 10 macrostrategies, based on which teachers can design varied and situation‐specific microstrategies or classroom techniques to effect desired learning outcomes. The paper maintains that the framework can be used to transform classroom practitioners into strategic teachers as well as strategic researchers.