Postmethod Pedagogy and College English Teachers’ On-the-Spot Classroom Moves: Values and Practical Applications (Published)
Against the backdrop of diversified student language proficiency and generative classroom interactions in Chinese university general English courses, rigid scripted teaching fails to cater to differentiated learning demands, which makes teachers’ in-class spontaneous adaptive adjustments a vital link connecting postmethod pedagogy with real teaching practice. This paper adopts postmethod pedagogy, sociocultural theory and activity theory as the analytical framework, relying on literature sorting and theoretical deduction to conduct a conceptual research without empirical data collection. It defines and categorizes teachers’ classroom improvisation, elaborates its dialectical relationship with pre-planned teaching, constructs tentative differentiated implementation frameworks for four mainstream college English courses, and identifies four institutional and individual barriers restricting teachers’ rational use of improvisation with corresponding optimization ideas. The study clarifies the multi-layered educational value of targeted classroom improvisation and distinguishes it from aimless off-topic talks. It expands the localized application of postmethod theory in non-English major college English teaching, provides directional references for frontline teachers to adjust classroom instruction dynamically, and acknowledges its limitation as a purely theoretical exploration pending subsequent empirical verification.
Keywords: general college English, in-class interaction, postmethod pedagogy, teachers' classroom improvisation, theoretical construction