Competency-Based Language Teaching & Common European Framework Reference (CBLT&CEFR)

What are the two ways language courses are developed?

- Forward design

-- what to teach, how to teach, what to assess

- Backward design

-- learning outcomes (what learners need to be able to do at the end of the course), how to teach and assess

-- learning outcomes, process, and content

What is CBLT and what is it focused on?

- example of CBE based on the outcomes or outputs of learning (1970s-US)

- focus on outputs rather than inputs to learning is central (outcome-based)

- outputs: educational goals in terms of precise measurable descriptions of knowledge, skills, and behaviors that students to possess at the end of a course of study

What are the factors involved in the implementation of CBLT programs?

- Focus on successful functioning in society

-- goal: autonomous individuals in real world

- Focus on life skills

-- language as function of communication rather than in isolation

- Task or performance-centered orientation

-- overt behavior (performance) counts rather than knowledge

- Modularized instruction

-- language learning is broken down into manageable and meaningful chunks

- Outcomes that are made explicit a priori

-- outcomes are public knowledge to teachers and students, specified in terms of behavioral objectives

- Continuous and ongoing assessment

-- students are pretested and post-tested to determine their achievement (objectively quantified)

- Demonstrated mastery of performance objectives

-- assessment is based on the ability to demonstrate the desired behaviors rather than paper-and-pencil tests

- Individualized, student-centered instruction

-- objectives are based on individuals needs and instruction is not time-based

What are the advantages of CBE from the learner's point of view

- Competencies are specific and practical and are related to the learner's needs and interests

- Learner can judge whether the competencies seems relevant and useful

- Competencies will be taught and tested are specific and public

- Competencies can be mastered one at a time so the learner can see what has been learned and what still remains to be learned

Theory of language

- Functional and Interactional perspective

- Language is a means of achieving personal and social needs

- Language links forms and functions

-- certain tasks needs certain kind of language and this is taken into account in organizing teaching/learning units

- Language can be broken down into its components

-- language can be functionally analyzed into appropriate parts that can be taught and tested (mosaic approach: whole is contracted from smaller components correctly assembled)

Theory of learning

- Skill-based

-- skills are integrated sets of behavior that are learned through practice. They can be learned separately and come together as a whole.

- Skill learning theory: the development form initial representation of knowledge through initial changes in behavior to eventual fluent and spontaneous behavior

- Successful language performance depends on practice

-- practice: repeated opportunities to use language over time, accompanied by feedback, for learner to improve the performance.

Objectives

- need analysis = starting point in developing the objectives for CBLT since it is outcome-oriented

- done through interviews, questionnaires, observations, tests, etc. to determine the course objectives

Syllabus

- consists of a description of learning outcomes in terms of competencies

- curriculum framework, syllabus specification, teaching strategies, assessment and reporting is based on learning outcomes. The focus moves from what students know about language to what they can do with it.

- Competency: description of the essential skills, knowledge, attitudes, and behaviors required for effective performance of a real-world task or activity

Types of learning and teaching activities

- No particular methodology of teaching

- Teacher is free to choose any set of activities or to make use of any methods that will enable students to acquire the competencies

- Guidelines for adult ESL programs

-- integration of the four skills (holistic nature of language)

-- meaningful interchanges to enhance communicative competence

-- focus on the acquisition of communication skills to function in real-life situations

-- development of the receptive skills before productive skills

-- group activities to facilitate student-centered instruction

-- various activities to address different learning styles

-- integration of language and culture

-- activities to develop higher level through processes (analysis, synthesis, evaluation)

-- activities to foster critical thinking and transferring it to real problem-solving in real life

Learner roles

- Monitoring their learning in reference to the target competencies (self-assessment)

- developing a range of learning strategies as "good language learners"

-- willing and accurate guessers

-- willing to communication or learn from communication

-- not inhibited

-- attentive to form, looking for patterns in language

-- seeking opportunities to practice

-- monitoring their own speech and that of others

-- attentive to meaning and its importance in communication in addition to the grammar

- Being able to transfer knowledge and skills to new situations

Teacher roles

- active role depending on the extent of involvement in the development and/or implementation of the course design

- need analyst

- materials developer and material resource assembler

- assessor

- coach

Typical lesson plan

- Warm-up/Review

- Introduction

- Presentation

- Comprehension check

- Guided practice

- Communicative practice

- Evaluation

- Application

CEFR

- outcome-based/competency-based framework

- built around statements of learning outcomes (can do) at different levels of proficiency in relation to the four skills

- similar to the language functions in Threshold level syllabus in CLT

What are the CEFR descriptors?

- seek to operationalize what is normally understood by a basic, intermediate, or advanced level of language proficiency

- six levels

-- basic users A1, A2

-- independent users B1, B2

-- proficient user C1, C2

*CEFR does not present a syllabus or procedure, nor does it specify roles for learners and teachers, or instructional materials