The success of Charles C. Fries' Oral Approach to teaching English as a second language (ESL) as promoted in Japan by the English Language Exploratory Committee in the late 1950s and early 1960s is examined according to Jack Richards' four major factors that affect the course of a teaching method: appeals to facts; appeals to authority; form of the method proposal; and sanctions from above or support networks. The propagation of this approach in Japan encountered a number of obstacles: lack of support networks, entrenched pedagogical traditions, teachers' lack of oral proficiency, the large size of the program that the reformers were trying to change, the Japanese entrance-examination system, and differing aims of instruction. It is concluded that to effect change in an ESL program it is not enough for a method to be better. Because ESL is only one element in a complex social, economic, political, and cultural system, other factors must improve as well. (MSE)