Method or Eclecticism?

It has been argued that relying on a single teaching theory (or a single method based on a relatively limited set of theoretical principles) is problematic because following a set of procedures can become rigid and mechanistic (Gilliland, James & Bowman, 1994; Lazarus & Beutler, 1993). However, as noted by Kumaravadivelu (1994: 30), "eclecticism at the classroom level invariably degenerates into an unsystematic, unprincipled, and uncritical pedagogy because teachers with very little professional preparation to be eclectic in a principled way have little option other than to randomly pull together a package of techniques from various methods and label it eclectic." The goal of this essay is to discuss the relative benefits of various approaches and an eclectic approach to teaching languages.