A large part of our frustration with our colleagues who still use the textbook can be described as resulting from a distinction between an organizing principle and an approach. Robert Harrell explains:
…an example of incongruity between the organizing principle and the approach would be to claim to teach with comprehensible input but organize the course according to a grammar syllabus….
Harrell continues:
…many teachers and educators use the analogy of “choosing the right tool from the toolbox”. This is a useful analogy if we understand the limitations. Unfortunately most teachers use this analogy to mean that they feel free to borrow and use whatever practice or strategy looks inviting to them without regard for the method or approach to which it belongs. If we extend the analogy a bit, they are taking tools from a completely different toolbox. It is like taking tools from a plumber’s toolbox to do surgery. Could there be something useful to the surgeon in the plumber’s toolbox? Potentially (after all, surgeons sometimes use pen cases to do a tracheotomy in extreme situations), but isn’t it much better to use the tools in the surgeon’s toolbox to do the surgeon’s job? Borrowing practices and strategies from another method or approach is similar. Sure, there may be some ability to adapt them, but wouldn’t it be better to use the tools designed for the job? I fear that the “eclectic approach” generally results in a hodgepodge or jumble of quickly successive practices that lack cohesion….
This non-alignment described by Harrell, this inability to use the right tool (comprehensible input) for the right job (teaching languages), is slowly making its way into the consciousness of some language teachers now in 2022, but it remains largely buried under a massive pool of educational sludge that has been sitting on top of our profession for over a hundred years, one very connected to the textbook and to the idea that people can learn a language by thinking about it enough, so the clean-up will not be fast and easy. No amount of surveys from Bill Gates or the ACTFL leadership will bring the changes needed – it will be a grassroots movement from the bottom up.