Introduction

English Language Teaching has evolved remarkably over the last century and a half, providing us with a wide selection of approaches and methods in ELT. As a consequence, both linguists and practitioners argue constantly about the best method. This essay will describe my own context and examine the notion of best method. It will also try to ascertain which methods would be the best for my specific context.

I. The Context
A. The Educational Setting 1. The Role of English I work in a major university in central China. Since the reform in 1978, English has become a compulsory subject in the school curriculum and one of the requirements in the National College Entrance Examination. Thanks to the opening policy, China has been engaged in more international economic activities and cultural exchanges. Consequently, English has become the first foreign language, and more and more students are learning English painstakingly.

2. The Class and the Language Programme The groups of students I work with are on a cooperative programme combining twoyear study in my university and two-year study in Britain. I teach two classes with 4 periods each class per week, and the average class size is 30 students. The language programme focuses on the training of the integral skills and aims at enhancing students communicative competency. Students are evaluated at the end of each term in both formal oral and written examinations. After completing the first half of the programme, they will be sitting for IELTS in order to pursue their studies in Britain.

B. Physical and Resource Environment The campus of my university is quite, and it has very modern teaching buildings with

spacious classrooms considering the class size. The tables and chairs in the classrooms are flexible, which can be arranged according to the specific needs of the lesson. Most classrooms in the university are equipped with multimedia facilities such as computer, projector, cassette recorder and smart board. The university has a language laboratory building well-equipped with audio-visual aids, and a large collection of supplementary English teaching materials with which teachers are encouraged to devise their own resource materials. What is more, both teachers and students have easy access to reprographic facilities on the campus.

C. The Teachers The vast majority of English teachers in China are Chinese. In my university, only English majors and students on this cooperative programme can have access to the lessons given by native teachers. Most teachers in my university, who are Masters and PhDs of English Literature or Applied Linguistics, are experienced teachers with a good level of spoken proficiency in English. They are provided with the opportunity of in-service training, in-service degree education, advanced studies and cooperative research overseas. I was offered a wonderful chance to study TESOL in Britain.

D. The Learners The students we work with are intermediate learners ranging from the age of 17 to 20, most of whom are highly motivated both instrumentally and interactively to learn English for passing examinations and living and studying in the target community. They are energetic, open-minded, and interested in the people and culture of the target language, and they long to enhance their integral skills and communication competence so as to carry out intelligible communication with both native speakers and non-native speakers of English.

II. The Notion of Best Method Richards and Rodgers (2001) asserts that it is pointless and unproductive to search for

the best method, because it is practically impossible to scientifically work out the best method or draw the conclusion that one particular method is necessarily superior to another due to lack of research basis to substantiate the best method. In addition, Prabhu (1990; cited in Breet, 2008) points out that what is best all depends on the teaching context, meaning that there is no single method best for all people, circumstances and purposes, as there are numerous variables in the teaching context that affect the choice of the method, such as the educational setting, the physical environment of teaching, and the age, level and needs of learners. However, it also implies that there is a method that is best for any single teaching context and we can identify what it is.

To achieve this, teachers need to be aware of different theories, principles and ideas of different approaches and methods, and then consistently experiment with different methods, which can provide teachers with sufficient teaching skills. Afterwards, they can think about which method works best in their own contexts.

Furthermore, Prabhu (1990; cited in Breet, 2008) believes that there is some truth to every method and a context can use different methods or perhaps parts of different methods, that is to say, elements of different methods can be combined eclectically, which constitutes a teaching package instead of a single method. Harmer (2007) agrees that all this amounts to a pragmatic eclecticism where decisions about what and how to teach are based, essentially, on what seems to work.

In a word, teachers need to be able to use approaches and methods flexibly and creatively based on their own judgment and experience (Richards and Rodgers, 2001). Instead of blindly sticking to one single method, teachers needs to develop their own set of beliefs, principles of teaching and they should be encouraged to transform and adapt the methods to form individual approaches or personal methods that correspond to their own belief of the best method and the realities of their own

teaching situations.

III. The Best Method for My Context As far as my classroom situation is concerned, I opt for an eclectic method which incorporates what is appropriate and effective for my context in a variety of methods and approaches. It is mainly a combination of Communicative Language Teaching (CLT), Task-Based Language Teaching (TBLT), with CLT as the basis and the core of the method.

First and foremost, the top priority is given to CLT. CLT is the one which has gained the most widespread approval in English language teaching in recent times (Breet, 2008). The adoption of CLT in my context is not accidental as well. . According to the new syllabus by SEDC (1992), English teaching aims at gaining basic knowledge of English and competence to use English for communication. It follows that teaching English means not only teaching grammar but also involves communicative competence in real-life situations. As for my students, they would be living and studying in an English-speaking country. They would be exposed completely to the target language and use the language in a variety of contexts and for a variety of purposes. What is more, IELTS, which is totally different from traditional Chinese test system, attaches great importance to the application of English in reallife situations. Therefore, it is of great significance to immerse my students in realistic communication and get them use the language communicatively as much as possible so as to get them well prepared for future life and study in the target community. The traditional method, namely, Grammar-Translation Method, which is grammar-oriented and decontexualized, seems to have little effect in promoting communication. It was argued that this kind of teaching produced structurally competent students who are often not communicatively incompetent (Johnson, 1982). On the contrary, CLT can meet the need and produce satisfactory results. The following factors can account for

its effectiveness.

To begin with, McDonough and Shaw (2003) points out that communication is relevant to all four language skills. CLT aims at the integration of different language skills, namely, both productive skills (speaking and writing) and receptive skills (listening and reading). In the practice of CLT, students may be using a range of different communicative language skills. Besides, Hymes (1972; cited in Richards and Rodgers, 2001) indicates that the desired goal of CLT is to develop communicative competence and he refers the term to what a speaker needs to know in order to communicate fluently, appropriately and accurately in a speech community. It is clear that the goal of CLT is in perfect agreement with the aim of English teaching stipulated by SEDC and the objective of my class.

Secondly, Canale and Swain (1980; cited in Richards and Rodgers, 2001) extended Hymes model by defining communicative competence as consisting of four components: grammatical competence, sociolinguistic competence, discourse competence and strategic competence. This definition reflects that CLT puts stress on the functional and communicative uses of language rather than focusing solely on its grammatical and structural features. This communicative principle is in accordance with the needs of my students. They all have obtained a satisfactory command of both grammar and lexis through previous learning and what they need most is plentiful exposure to diverse language functions and plenty of opportunities to practise them in realistic communication. Their language errors should be tolerated as fluency and communication are given more importance than the accuracy of the language.

Thirdly, according to Richards and Rodgers (2001), activities involve real communication promote learning. CLT provides realistic and motivating language practice (McDonough and Shaw, 2003). Activities in CLT include information gap activities, problem solving activities, games, role plays, simulations, discussions, pair

work and group work. These activities can typically initiate and sustain students motivation and involve students in meaningful, authentic and contextualized communication. As a result, students are successfully activated to make use of all four language skills as an attempt to use the target language to negotiate and communicate meaning.

In the second place, TBLT, which is regarded as a further development of CLT, is also incorporated as an important part of the teaching method. Richards and Rodgers (2001) refer TBLT to an approach based on the use of tasks as the core unit of planning and instruction in language teaching. TBLT is thought to be especially effective at intermediate levels and beyond, because students at that stage are equipped with the basic linguistic knowledge for fulfilling tasks. They can easily follow the instructions of the task and they are more confident to fulfill the task. What is more, Instead of concentrating on a language structure, students are given an authentic task to fulfill which is supported by authentic materials and involves reallife language uses. Richards and Rodgers (2001) say that engaging learners in task work provides a better context for the activation of learning processes than formfocused activities, and hence ultimately provides better opportunities for language learning to take place. In other word, students can learn more effectively when they are engaged in a purposeful task and naturalistic and meaningful communication, rather than on the language they are using. For this reason, Richards and Rodgers (2001) claim that few would question the pedagogical value of employing tasks as a vehicle for promoting communication and authentic language use in second language classroom.

In a nutshell, communicative activities and task-based teaching offer real learning benefits Harmer (2007). Both CLT and TBLT aim at communicative competence and guarantee that students are sufficiently exposed to the target language. Therefore, application of CLT and TBLT in my classrooms would bring positive effects on the

part of the students.

Last but not least, the adoption of CLT of TBLT in my context does not mean that all the other methods are of little value. Instead, I will enrich and supplement my own teaching package with valuable elements in other methods and approaches based on the specific needs of a lesson or an activity. For example, sometimes, students may comprehend more efficiently if a brief explanation is made in Chinese, the students mother tongue; snatches of behaviorist drills may be adopted occasionally if students are stuck with pronunciation of a specific word or phrase; teachers may help students feel comfortable, confident and relaxed by playing music, organizing physical actions, or encouraging them to talk about personal lives and feelings.

Conclusion
To conclude, there is no single universal method that is most appropriate for all teaching contexts. Yet, teachers can identify the best method through adapting and combining feasible elements of different methods and approaches according to the realities of their own teaching contexts. With regard to my context, I stand for an eclectic blending of CLT and TBLT due to their effectiveness in exposing students in realistic communication and promoting their communicative competence. Meanwhile, elements of other methods that serve my teaching ends will be incorporated into the overall method as well.

References
Breet, F. (2008) The Theory and Practice of English Language Teaching. Sunderland: Sunderland University Press. Canale, M. and M. Swain. (1980) Theoretical Bases of Communicative Approaches to Second Language Teaching and Testing In Richards, J. C. and Rodgers, T. (2003) Approaches and Methods in Language Teaching. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Harmer, J. (2007) The Practice of English Language Teaching. Harlow: Longman. Hymes, D. (1972) On Communicative Competence In Richards, J. C. and Rodgers, T. (2003) Approaches and Methods in Language Teaching. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Johnson, K. (1982) Communicative Syllabus Design and Methodology In Richards, J. C. and Rodgers, T. (2003) Approaches and Methods in Language Teaching. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. McDonough, J. and Shaw, C. (2003) Materials and Methods in ELT: A Teachers Guide. Oxford: Blackwell Publishers. N.S. Prabhus There is no best method Why? In Breet, F. (2008) The Theory and Practice of English Language Teaching. Sunderland: Sunderland University Press. Richards, J. C. and Rodgers, T. (2003) Approaches and Methods in Language Teaching. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. State Education Development Commission of China. (1992). English Teaching Syllabus. Beijing: People's Education Press.