Allwrigh's Exploratory practice framework (2003 etc.

) Allwrights exploratory practice (EP) is premised on a philosophy that is stated in three fundamental tenets: (a) the quality of life in the language classroom is much more important than instructional efficiency, (b) ensuring our understanding of the quality of classroom life is far more essential than developing ever improved teaching methods, and (c) understanding such a quality of life is a social, not an asocial matter (Allwright, 2000, 2003; Allwright & Bailey, 1991). From these fundamental tenets, Allwright derives seven broad principles of language teaching: (a) put quality of life first, (b) work primarily to understand language classroom life, (c) involve everybody, (d) work to bring people together, (e) work also for mutual development, (f) integrate the work for understanding into classroom practice, and (g) make the work a continuous enterprise. Secondly, the postmethod condition signifies teacher autonomy. The third attribute of the postmethod condition is principled pragmatism. Unlike eclecticism which is constrained by the conventional concept of method, in the sense that one is supposed to put together practices from different established methods, principled pragmatism is based on the pragmatics of pedagogy where the relationship between theory and practice, ideas and their actualization, can only be realized within the domain of application, that is, through the immediate activity of teaching (Widdowson, 1990, p. 30). Principled pragmatism thus focuses on how classroom learning can be shaped and reshaped by teachers as a result of self-observation, self-analysis, and self-evaluation. One way in which teachers can follow principled pragmatism is by developing what Prabhu (1990) calls a sense of plausibility. Theorists have tended to underestimate teacher autonomy. Teachers are far more intellectual than what applied linguists give them credit for. 2. Knowledge of methods can be seen as essential to the foundational knowledge all teachers should have.