Conversations about Language Teaching

Episode 25: There Is No Best Method--Why?


Listen Later

Send us a text

Episode 25: There Is No Best Method–Why? Discussing Prabhu (1990)

Show Notes


We discussed this article: 

Prabhu, N. S. (1990). There is no best method—Why?. TESOL Quarterly, 24(2), 161-176. https://doi.org/10.2307/3586897

It is freely available online at the link above. Diane missed the number of times it has been cited – “only” 1666 citations as of Feb. 28, 2025. That is still quite a lot in the field of applied linguistics/language teaching and learning. 


Needs analysis: 

Ch. 3 of this book is about needs analysis in language course design: 

Macalister, J., & Nation, I. P. (2019). Language curriculum design. Routledge. 

Information about the 2019 (2nd) edition is here: 

https://www.taylorfrancis.com/books/mono/10.4324/9780429203763/language-curriculum-design-john-macalister-nation

The first edition of the book (2010 edition) is available freely online here: https://shorturl.at/mX40e 


Prabhu (1990) cites Brumfit, 1984, which appears to be his PhD thesis revised for book publication: 

Brumfit, C. (1984). Communicative methodology in language teaching: The roles of fluency and accuracy. 

Intro & outro music selected from "23 Light Years" by CavalloPazzo

Support the show

Thanks for listening to Conversations about Language Teaching.

Watch on YouTube where episodes are captioned:
https://www.youtube.com/@ConversationsaboutLanguage

We welcome support for the podcasting costs. See "Support" here: https://conversationsaboutlanguage.buzzsprout.com/2325378/supporters/new

...more
View all episodesView all episodes
Download on the App Store

Conversations about Language TeachingBy Diane Neubauer, PhD & Reed Riggs, PhD

  • 5
  • 5
  • 5
  • 5
  • 5

5

4 ratings


More shows like Conversations about Language Teaching

View all
NPR News Now by NPR

NPR News Now

14,327 Listeners

This American Life by This American Life

This American Life

90,830 Listeners

TED Radio Hour by NPR

TED Radio Hour

22,054 Listeners

Nadie Sabe Nada by SER Podcast

Nadie Sabe Nada

432 Listeners

Hidden Brain by Hidden Brain, Shankar Vedantam

Hidden Brain

43,409 Listeners

The Daily by The New York Times

The Daily

111,746 Listeners

The Happiness Lab with Dr. Laurie Santos by Pushkin Industries

The Happiness Lab with Dr. Laurie Santos

14,389 Listeners

No Stupid Questions by Freakonomics Radio + Stitcher

No Stupid Questions

3,678 Listeners

World Language Classroom by Joshua Cabral, French, Spanish and World Language Teaching Ideas

World Language Classroom

98 Listeners

Growing With Proficiency The Podcast by Claudia Elliott, World Language educator

Growing With Proficiency The Podcast

72 Listeners

What Now? with Trevor Noah by Trevor Noah

What Now? with Trevor Noah

4,059 Listeners

Letters from an American by Heather Cox Richardson

Letters from an American

5,229 Listeners

Practical Proficiency Podcast by Devon Gunning | La Libre Language Learning

Practical Proficiency Podcast

3 Listeners

SLAyyy: Second Language Acquisition for Everyone by Ben Fisher-Rodriguez, Bill Langley, Bryan Smith

SLAyyy: Second Language Acquisition for Everyone

3 Listeners

Good Hang with Amy Poehler by The Ringer

Good Hang with Amy Poehler

7,243 Listeners