PRINCIPLED PRAGMATISM, OR WELL-GROUNDED ECLECTICISM: A NEW PARADIGM IN TEACHING ENGLISH AS A FOREIGN LANGUAGE AT UKRAINIAN TERTIARY SCHOOLS?

Abstract

The article discusses the ways of introducing Kumaravadivelu’s (2003) principled pragmatism (or well-grounded eclecticism in the terminology of the author of the article) approach into teaching English as a foreign language for professional purposes at tertiary schools in Ukraine. Such pragmatism/eclecticism in the conditions under consideration creates opportunities for adopting different methods of teaching and learning taken from different, often contradictory, methodological approaches, as well as opportunities for uniting those methods into an organic unity, a new single approach contributing to the overall improvement of the teaching/learning process. Interpreting the difference between approaches and methods in accordance with the ideas of Richards and Rogers (1986) and treating methods as practical procedures through which an approach is implemented, the author demonstrates that a novel principled pragmatism/well-grounded eclecticism approach in teaching English at Ukrainian tertiary schools may be developed as the combination of five methods including content-based instruction, interculturalism in language studies, constructivism in language learning achieved through experiential-interactive learning procedures, blended language learning as a balanced organic unity of students’ off-line and online learning experiences and balanced use of communicative learning activities and non-communicative language exercises. The research shows that the listed five methods in their unity not only form a new single approach but also fully meet the ten Kumaravadivelu’s principles making that approach a clear-cut case of principled pragmatism. The concluding part of the article manifests the suggested approach as representing a possible new paradigm in teaching English for professional purposes.