the effectiveness of english language teaching methods: a meta-analysis in pursuit for the best method

What is “the best method” of language teaching? it has been one of the oldest questions of language teaching and learning during the last century. however, no comprehensive quantitative study has tackled the issue. in order to answer this question, the researchers meta-analyzed 56 studies with 7960 participants from many contexts. a coding scheme of 46 variables, in the form of four major moderator sets, including design characteristics, language characteristics, participant characteristics, and teaching characteristics, was developed. the overall effect size (g= 1.00) was found to be positive, strong, and significant for all language teaching methods. the findings showed that all language teaching methods, irrespective of various contexts, were positively effective. the results of moderator analysis showed that most of the moderators, excluding language skills and place of the study, had no significant effect on language teaching methods. implications for current theory and practice, for both method and postmethod, are discussed.