Do we need theory? (OUP Webinar, 2013)

Commentary commentary 

I have found ELT theory useful. I can understand why I am doing something in a particular stage of a lesson in a particular way and I try to understanding what transpired or why.

I think, in turn, it also helps in giving feedback. 

Historically, owing to a cultural move away from formal approaches to ELT, with the success in the 70s of discovering a variety of somewhat effective communicative approaches, since then attention towards and enthusiasm for 'theory' has fallen to make way for such aELT 'revolution'. However, it is still important. 

On the other side of the coin, I understand the effects of too much focus on theory, losing a little common sense when the thinking about why I do something may momentarily preclude my observation of it (and recognition of potentially key evidence). A general feeling for things may be lost when focussed on what I should be doing at a certain time in class. 

A lesson's spontaneity may be stifled by over-planning. This versus the shortcomings of not having planned anything is known as the 'planing paradox'.

Something I gained from Oxford University Press webinars — which I take almost every month —  regarding theory was to think of a classroom as a constellation of individuals with very specific individual needs; it was explained too much focus is on general guidelines and theories and principles, gleaned from textbooks or taught in teacher training, that capture general truths in ELT (and pedagogy). This, to me, sheds some light  on a disconnect between theory and practice I work with — it’s not possible for a reading activity to run perfectly if the TL clarification of key vocabulary stage is interrupted (by so many everyday occurrences, e.g., lateness, classroom overexcited settling down, classroom too tired, persistent questions difficult to control, and more).

It is often better to consider each class unique, the learners, the settings, any variables, and it might be better in the reading activity example to quickly cut down the task. 

Routine reflection by the teacher based on specific goings-on in a unique classroom, COMBINED with the teacher's own theories as to why something happens, should inform practices. Links  should be made between these reflections and the evidence in the classroom. Any theory that rests solely on a priori, i.e. theory that comes from reasoning, intuition, or revelation, from textbooks or the like, should be shelved and referenced. 

Textbooks and literature help get one cogitating and fire up the imagination, but once read through, the classroom itself is then the best textbook. 

The webinar disambiguated 'theory' for me in three ways: firstly, theory in its very powerful 'Einstein' shape and form, which is very general, abstract, and difficult to explain – string-theory, for example. Secondly, a principle-based 'Bach' theory, which again aims at capturing very general truths, but aims more at telling us what should be constructed and what should happen as a result (music composition as in the case of Bach). This is the reason for which we don't do things at random — it is this last type, it stated, that the ELT world focussed on too heavily. And finally, there is the theory that we use to account for a situation or justify a course of action, which is much more specific, particular, and connected to the everyday-world, which it described as an 'Agatha Christie' (or Sherlock Holmes) type theory (e.g., ‘the explanation is that the thief got in through the open window, and that's why you were burgled').

‘Who needs theory? — We all do!’ (OUP Webinar, 2013)

It is an important function of theory formation to advance from 'naïve' and unreflecting 'realism' to a more conscious understanding of the principles and concepts underlying one's actions.

– Stern, 1983 

 

Without theory, experience has no meaning. 

Without theory, one has no questions to ask. 

Hence without theory, there is no learning.

– William Edwards Deming