4 Research and Implications of Principled Eclecticism in
Teaching
Including Chinese language instruction, dialogue plays a pivotal role in
the foreign language learning process as a key to understanding the
target language’s culture. Lyotard (1984) posited that denotative
utterances are created among the sender, the addressee, and the
referent, facilitating a space where each participant has the
opportunity and freedom to express and validate knowledge through
dialogue. For foreign language learners, engaging in dialogue
facilitates the gradual comprehension of new languages and cultures
(Fielding, 2021). Principled eclecticism, as a paradigm in foreign
language education of this century, underscores the significance of
interaction between teachers and students and peer discussions, aligning
perfectly with the elements necessary for cultivating target language
proficiency and cross-cultural understanding.
Recent studies have validated the effectiveness of principled
eclecticism in foreign language learning. For instance, a three-month
study integrating Systematic Communicative Language Teaching with
Principled Eclecticism Approaches to train students in English speech
reporting revealed that continuous, systematic, and principled
instructional guidance not only addressed common errors with present and
past tenses but also significantly enhanced the students’ abilities to
deliver English speeches (Tabiri, 2016).
Centering on student-focused learning, principled eclecticism combines
various teaching methods and activities to offer diverse learning
opportunities. Alharbi (2017) applied this approach in an English
writing course at a Saudi Arabian university, finding that principled
eclectic teaching facilitated systematic and logical organization of
learning content. This approach enabled students to analyze the
syntactic structure, functions, and pragmatic uses of English, and
practice variations between written and spoken forms, proving beneficial
for students’ English writing skills. However, Alharbi (2017) also
reflected on how frequent teacher-student interaction might impact
students’ creativity in writing, noting the necessity for instructors to
invest extra effort in guiding students less inclined towards peer
collaboration or not skilled in giving peer feedback.
To understand how English teachers apply principled eclecticism in
designing assessments, Thamrin et al. (2023) conducted convenience
sampling interviews with 16 high school English teachers. The findings
suggested that thinking with principled eclecticism allows for diverse
assessments, yet the capability to design assessments impacts the
quality of the test items critically. Ghafar et al. (2023) analyzed
literature from 2019 to 2023, indicating principled eclecticism’s
effectiveness in enhancing learning experiences and communication
skills, often integrating communicative language teaching, task-based
learning, grammar translation teaching, and audio-lingual teaching.
Compared to the broader field of foreign language education, which
explores issues of language ontology, motivation, and teaching methods,
the discourse on principled eclecticism is still emerging. Its focus on
systematically integrating various teaching methods based on learners’
characteristics, needs, and the teaching context to provide an
attractive and effective learning experience has not only sparked
discussions but also garnered research support. However, a review of the
literature reveals a lack of specificity regarding the research tools
and the treatment of data reliability and validity, critical factors
influencing research quality (Ahmed & Ishtiaq, 2021; Mohajan, 2017).
Checklists emerge as one method to ensure research quality (Yadav, 2022;
Casey et al., 2023). Consequently, developing a checklist for principled
eclectic Chinese language teaching is essential for future research and
practical application in this nascent area of inquiry.