Introduction

Abstract

The idea for this book arose out of a short paper that Dick Allwright originally wrote in 2001 for the benefit of his Masters course students in Hong Kong. We asked him if he would care to make it available in an expanded form as a ‘starter paper’ to which invited contributors would be invited to respond, and he agreed to do so. This paper appears as Chapter 1 of this volume. It offers a very particular view of applied linguistics (seen as the study of language teaching and learning); it is not interested in cognitivist approaches which attempt to shine a light into the ‘black box’ and specify links between input and uptake or the development of language skills. In Allwright’s view, the relative productivity of various methodological solutions to teaching and learning language are of little interest, and competency-based approaches to teacher education are not seen as useful. Allwright’s perspective on promising directions for applied linguistics derives from his original insight, formulated in his (1984a) and (1984b) papers, that learners don’t simply learn what teachers teach, but that learning arises out of the learning opportunities that emerge through interaction in the classroom. Learners have as much of a role in this process as teachers. In this perspective, it is fruitless to search for and refine the ‘best method’, a view echoed by Prabhu in his (1990) paper, although this has not deterred other investigators from their current search for the ‘perfect task’. Allwright’s turn away, as an academic, from trying to specify the ideal conditions for language learning, and edeal behaviours for language teachers, is not just for reasons connected to research methodology, although certainly it is not possible, as a researcher, to control all the variables that might make a difference to learning outcomes without encountering serious ethical constraints.