ConstruCting a Postmodern Pedagogy to teaCh Foreign Languages to Postmodern Learners oF 21 st Century Subhasri Vijayakumar * , Gajendra Kumar ** and G. Alan ** Abstract: A new language is learned by many to gain access to other people, cultures and their ways of seeing things. Although the academic world is gearing up with profound changes in teaching and learning of languages, to meet the challenges of the diversified, shifting circumstances, only modern approaches to foreign language education are being widely followed by many institutions while its learners belong to the postmodern era. This brings in a discrepancy between the needs, and interests of the learners and the views held by the stakeholders of education. This paper tries to analyze the existing method of teaching/learning a foreign language through conventional/modern methods and aims to discuss and answer if the modern pedagogy of teaching a foreign language can fulfill the aspirations of postmodern learners in the 21st century? It is found and discussed through the study that the modern pedagogical approach to foreign language teaching/learning process has to be deconstructed to meet the aspirations, needs and wants of its postmodern learners and the society they thrive in. The study thus puts forward a few alternatives, innovative postmodern pedagogical methods like the Digital Native Methodology, Meta-Curriculum, Task Based Learning and Project Based Learning as plausible methods to be included in the postmodern classrooms of foreign languages. Keywords: Modern pedagogy, postmodern pedagogy, postmodern learners, Meta-Curriculum, Task Based Learning, Project Based Learning. introduCtion The world in the 21 st century is getting more diverse day by day and in the shifting circumstances, education attempts to identify optimal parameters of teaching, learning and assessment. Language education has always been of prime importance as language is the vehicle of thought for communication and self-expression. With the linguistic world under constant transformation, either for a global role at work or for working in a multicultural environment at home, the ability to speak another language is inevitable to bridge the many gaps in communication and cultural aspects. A new language is learned by many to gain access to other people, cultures and their way of seeing things. Globalization has paved way for technological advancements and communication developments have created a global society, which calls for ‘Global citizens’ with a broader range of skills and abilities to meet the upcoming challenges of ‘accelerated change and uncertainty’ (Chinnammai, 2005). Although the academic world is gearing up with profound changes in teaching and learning of languages, with English being the global language of * School of Social Sciences and Languages, VIT University, Chennai, India. Email: subhasri.v@vit.ac.in ** School of Social Sciences and Languages, VIT University, Chennai, India © Serials Publications Man In India, 97 (2) : 445-455