The post-methods era. We often say that we are teaching in a post-methods era, meaning that there is no one method to follow to effectively teach language.
This does not mean that we don’t have any ideas about language teaching, though! In fact, there are many that are widely used and accepted:

• Communicative Competence and Communicative Language Teaching (CLT)
• The importance of motivation; instrumental vs. integrative motivation
• The importance of input, output and interaction
• Sociocultural learning and collaborative learning
•  The National Standards (The 5 Cs): Communication, Cultures, Connections, Comparisons, Communities.
• Emphasis on all 4 language skills: speaking, listening, writing, reading
• Recognition of different learning styles and multiple intelligences.
• Focus on authentic language and culture; Culture and  culture
• Task-based learning and Integrated Performance Assessment
• Proficiency vs. achievement and the ACTFL Proficiency Guidelines

The National Standards

ACTFL Proficiency Guidelines