It is suggested that the field of language teaching has moved away from a reliance on prescriptive methods towards a more nuanced understanding of the complexities of language lear

It is suggested that the field of language teaching has moved away from a reliance on prescriptive methods towards a more nuanced understanding of the complexities of language learning. For example, Richards and Rodgers (1986) note that there have been calls to abandon the search for a single “supermethod” and to instead focus on equipping teachers with “a repertoire of methods and skills that can be used selectively in different contexts”. This reflects a move away from the idea that there is one “right” way to teach language, and towards an approach that values flexibility, adaptability, and a recognition of the diverse contexts in which language learning takes place (Richards, 2001).

Realistically speaking, each method has its own advantages and disadvantages; up till now, no method has been empirically proven the best for all language educators to blindly adopt without discussion. For example, the current great enthusiasm for (and wide adoption of) the Communicative Language Teaching (CLT) method in Egypt can be attributed to the failure of the previously adopted method (i.e. the Grammar-Translation Method) to meet the national language learning goals. It failed to develop a language learner who can communicate properly in English. This does not mean that the CLT will stay forever, especially in this Information and Communication Technology-dominated age (ICT) that has been changing the nature of language and how it should be taught (Abdallah, 2011).

(M. Abdallah, 2024. Disponível em:

https://files.eric.ed.gov/fulltext/ED660475.pdf.

Adaptado)

In the sentence taken from the second paragraph of the text “It failed to develop a language learner who can communicate properly in English”, the pronoun in bold refers to “the previously adopted method”. Sometimes, though, the pronoun it does not have a referent, and is used to perform a grammatical function, as in “It is getting late”. In this case, it is sometimes called dummy it or empty it. The sentence in which the pronoun is used this way is: