| Pub. Date | : Dec, 2018 |
|---|---|
| Product Name | : The IUP Journal of English Studies |
| Product Type | : Article |
| Product Code | : IJES81812 |
| Author Name | : G Alan |
| Availability | : YES |
| Subject/Domain | : English Studies |
| Download Format | : PDF Format |
| No. of Pages | : 06 |
The paper problematizes the existing pedagogical methods of teaching language in the conventional classroom by deconstructing the Eurocentric language teaching methods. It also proposes postmodern pedagogy and metacurriculum for the autonomous learners by challenging the limitations of the conventional curriculum. The paper also deconstructs the existing ethnocentric model of language learning by proposing an ethno-relative model of language learning.
Learning in the 21st century demands innovative pedagogical methods. As Gen Y learners are autonomous learners, there is a need for deconstructing the conventional classroom teaching methods. The modern pedagogical methods are Eurocentric in nature, and they stress on the teacher-centric approach to language learning. However, the role of the teacher has undergone a paradigm shift in the postmodern era. The teacher is considered a facilitator of knowledge in the postmodern era. Modern pedagogy has evolved out of structuralism, which stresses on the importance of acquiring objective knowledge through data collection and logical deduction. The objective of modern pedagogical methods, which believe in linguistic study of language, proposes absolute truth. There is a stress on scientific outlook toward language study in the modern approach. Postmodern pedagogy has stemmed out of poststructuralism which is philosophical in outlook. Philosophy questions the rationality of acquiring secured knowledge. The structuralist’s belief in constructing the world through language has been challenged by the poststructuralist’s views on language. The meaning-making process in the postmodern era is not closed but open-ended. Hence, the play of signifiers is an endless process in the postmodern classroom. In the words of de Man (1986), “By considering language as a system of signs and of signification rather than as an established pattern of meanings, one displaces or even suspends the traditional barriers between literary and presumably nonliterary uses of language and liberates the corpus from the secular weight of textual canonization.”