Video 4 - The Pendular Swing of ESL History

Let's talk about believing and doubting again. But this time, let's talk about it from
the perspective of different theorists. You see, new theorists often get some of their
best ideas by considering the ideas of a previous generation. In fact, it is often the
case that a new approach is born out of doubting the last one.
In other words, often these approaches will demonstrate sharp contrasts from one
another. As a result, what ends up happening is that we often move from one extreme to
another extreme. This concept which exists in fields such as economics, art, science,
music and literature will be referred to as the pendular swing, meaning the tendency for
one movement to replace another movement through a reaction of the perceived
deficiencies of the former. For example, in art, we have two movements at extreme ends of
the pendulum. First, we have abstract expressionism, this type of art appeared around the
1940's and 1950's, at the end of World War II, and focused mostly on various shapes and
colors, representing a mixture of emotions and expressions. Two famous works from this
period in are are Number 1, Lavendar Mist, done in 1950 by Jackson Pollack And Door to
the River, done by Willem de Kooning in 1960.
At the other end of the pendulum, we have the photorealism movement. This type
of art came out in direct contrast to the abstract expressionism movement. This type of art
appeared in the 1960s and 70s and focused on creating recreations of realistic scenes.
Often taken from a photograph, and adding artistic enhancements to make the scene even
more vivid and lifelike. Two famous works from this movement are Self-Portrait, done in
1969 by Chuck Close, and McDonald's Pick-up, done in 1970, by Ralph Goings. As you
can see, these two movements represent two extremes in art and the pendulum swung
from one to the other rather quickly.
This has been true in the language teaching for the last 130 years or so but
especially the first 100. From about 1880 to 1980, this moving from extreme to another is
something we want you to pay close attention to as you form your own ideas and ground
yourself in a more balanced approach. This does not mean that you can't choose sides,
rather that we want you to gain as much information as you can. Suspend judgement for a
time, and then make educated decisions about who, what, why, and how you believe what
you believe, to form your own philosophy about language teaching.
We would like you to consider what good was learned from each approach, and
what we can take away with us through an examination of each period in language
teaching history.