The Language Teacher
October 1999
The Role of Theory in ESL/EFL
Dale T. Griffee and Greta J. Gorsuch
Texas Tech University
"Theory" is an Unspoken Word among language teachers. Whenever a language learning theory comes up in conversation, fellow conversants heave a big sigh, roll their eyes, or pretend you haven't said anything. We believe there is a feeling among teachers that goes something like this: "Theory has nothing to do with me or my teaching. My teaching is what's real, and those researchers who make theories talk in terms that are not real. They can't know what my situation is, and they don't care." There is a strong sense on the part of teachers that teachers and researchers inhabit very different worlds.
Graves (1996) offers an alternative view of theory for teachers, citing Prabhu (p. 2) in defining "theory in the general sense" as "an abstraction that attempts to unite diverse and complex phenomena into a single principle or system of principles." Graves then defines what she calls "personal theory" as "a subjective understanding of one's [teachers'] practice. . . that provides coherence and direction" (p. 2). We believe what Graves and Prabhu are describing are the cognitive processes used by all human beings to make sense of their world.
In this paper, we would like to discuss (a) teacher attitudes which we believe account for the fact that theory has received slight attention in our field, (b) what we believe theory is, (c) why theory is absolutely necessary to teachers, (d) what blocks have to be dealt with for teachers to deal with theory, and (e) a way for the future.
Teacher Attitudes
Teacher attitudes towards theory are likely determined by three things: Their own educational experiences as learners, the type of training they received, and the general state of the profession. That teachers think and teach as they themselves have been taught is hardly new or surprising (Cohen & Spillane, 1992; Freeman & Richards, 1993; Kennedy, 1989; MacDonald & Rogan, 1990; Schmidt, Porter, Floden, Freeman, & Schwille, 1987). Lortie characterized our experiences as students as a long "apprenticeship" into teaching (1975, p. 61). As rich as this heritage is, it is also a shallow one. As students, we saw only what our teachers did. We did not know why they did what they did. We were not, as students, privy to our teachers' thought processes, and especially, our teachers' theorizing about their teaching. We do not have a template for the notion of theory from these early, powerful images of teaching.
Most current teacher training programs do not help us develop our notions of theory. Partly this is due to factors common to most pre-service teacher education. Many teacher training programs do not strongly link theory and practice (Zeichner, Tabachnik, & Densmore, 1987). This separation creates a situation in which student teachers learn the "hidden curriculum," a mass of unreflected-on beliefs which provides student teachers with images of teaching and learning. Would-be teachers learn early on that theory and practice are seen as two different things. Student teaching practice, if a program provides it, is not likely to break through this theory and practice separation (Heath & Stange, 1995) because such practice is focused on developing student teachers' skills "closely related to actual delivery of instruction in the classroom" (p. 15). Developing student teachers' notions of theory seems like a luxury in this situation, not a necessity.
In the EFL/ESL field specifically, most teacher training programs focus on linguistics and methods (Combs, 1989; Tedick & Walker, 1994). Teacher training course students may read research papers making use of theory in the form of a general survey, but do not partake in explicit discussions on the role of theory in teaching. As a result, would-be teachers do not develop their thinking about theory as it can relate to their own teaching practice.
Relative to the state of the profession in Japan, financial recession and changing demographics have affected educational institutions. The educational field in Japan is contracting (Koike & Tanaka, 1995). While there are still English conversation school jobs for holders of BA or BS degrees, having an MA is becoming necessary for getting a teaching position at a university or college. Holders of bachelor degrees are often untrained as teachers, and many holders of MA degrees are not deeply versed in the notion of theory. Those who are interested in theory and aspire to research degrees at the graduate level are penalized by their employers, particularly universities which are more intent on economic survival than faculty development. In one case, a female university instructor was ordered to quit her doctoral studies [personal communication, May 23, 1999]
Given such a background, it is not surprising that teachers are unfamiliar with the role of theory, and generally have negative attitudes towards discussions of theory.
What is Theory?
Theory is an explanation for what we observe happening around us. When a woman walks into her office building and sees construction workers and equipment tearing up the street, she notices it (an empirical observation). She may then talk to an office mate and ask him if he knows what is going on (forming a hypothesis). After a time, she may come to a conclusion based on a combination of her observations, colleagues' reports, reading from the newspaper, and listening to the TV news that the reason for the construction in the street is street repairs. This woman is a theory builder. She is engaged in an everyday human activity called "making sense of the world." She is creating theories. In teaching, the pattern is the same. Our everyday observations come from the classroom, and we talk to colleagues about our concerns and do our own reading in the field. We do create theories, whether we think of them in those terms or not.
Why is Theory Necessary?
To paraphrase Kant, theory without data is empty, and data without theory are blind. It is the latter we are concerned with here. Data (our experience) without theory (our explanation for our experiences) only repeat themselves. Theory is helpful because it unifies and explains common experience, and allows teachers to go beyond common experience. Recently, one of us (Griffee) engaged in action research to change his teaching in a principled way. He noticed that his students seemed reluctant to ask questions in class. He hypothesized that his students did not know how to ask questions. Based on his reading on the topic, he also speculated (theorized) that student question asking promotes the generation of comprehensible input by tailoring the input to fit the students. He created a time-series design to measure the effects of a model to teach students to ask questions.
The results indicated that teaching the model nearly doubled the number of questions asked by his students. For years he had encouraged his students to ask questions with no results. He decided to articulate a hypothesis that explained student behavior and suggested a course of action. In investigating this hypothesis by trying a treatment and gathering data, he was able to move beyond simply repeating his experiences. In this instance, he was able to conjoin theory and empirical data to create a positive teaching strategy.
What are the Blocks?
We are moving from stage one (untrained teachers) to stage two (trained teachers). We hope this will set the scene for stage three (trained professionals). Teachers in stage one are unreceptive to discussions on theory because they do not see the necessity of the discussion. Teachers in stage two are receptive to discussion of theory because in their M.A. programs they have been exposed to research literature which sometimes explicitly discusses theory. When teachers are asked to do research, sometimes their attitude towards theory changes because they begin to see theory as a research tool. What blocks teachers is that our training programs do not emphasize research. To become a profession, we must change our teacher training curricula to include research (see American Council on the Teaching of Foreign Languages, 1988; see also Tedick & Walker, 1995).
The Future: Paths We Can Take
Patton (1990, p. 150) lists and describes five types of research: basic, applied, summative, formative, and action research. Each type of research has a different purpose, appears in different venues, and is judged by different standards. The purpose of basic research is to articulate universal relationships; the purpose of applied research is to apply theory to the world of teaching and classrooms; the purpose of summative research is to evaluate a course, the purpose of formative research is to improve a program, and the purpose of action research is to solve a specific problem. In our field "research" equals "applied research," which means quasi-experimental designs, experimental and control groups, statistical analyses, a search for causal relationships, and a strong inclination to embed the research in theory (Long, 1985). However, such research may be seen by teachers as not directly applicable to them.
But suppose each type of research listed by Patton implied a different kind of theory. Action research, also known as Teacher-centered research" or "classroom-centered research," may be tapping into what Graves would call the "personal theory" of teachers. Teachers have their own experiences and areas of concern. They also have theories, whether they refer to them in those terms or not. Action research applied by teachers to their own situations could transform teachers' teaching by causing teachers to explore their own theories and applying their observations to them. Perhaps what we teachers need to do is reorientate our thinking about who we are and what we do. The question is not "Do we need theory?" but "What kind of theory do we need?" Action research may be the vehicle to a conscious acceptance of theory on the part of classroom teachers. This type of theory would use the discourse and experience of teachers to create theory that is accessible and compelling to teachers.
Patton states that it is the purpose of research that determines which type is appropriate in a given situation, and that it is not always easy to tell them apart. In that sense, we are not advocating one type of research over another. But clearly teachers have been alienated from theory of the basic and applied variety. Nonetheless, we need theory in order to evolve as teachers, and as a profession. We must change our attitudes towards theory, and see it as something that we do as a matter of course (Legutke, 1994; Prabhu, 1992). We must begin to bring our observations to bear on our theories and the theories suggested by others.
Theory is only a tool. Teachers are central to the educational process and teacher intuition is the spark that lights the fire. But we need theory, or we will be forever wandering from tree to tree, saying "I know there is a forest here, but where is it?"
We would like to thank Bill Bradley and David Berger for comments on an earlier draft of this paper. Thanks also to Patricia Dunkel for her encouragement.
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