Chapter 13: Competency-Based Language Teaching

CompetencyBased Language
Teaching
Competency:
Essential skill, knowledge or
behaviour required for effective
performance of a real world task
or activity.
Background

CBE (Competency-Based Education)





Emerged in the U.S in 1970s
For immigrants and refugees
An educational movement
Focusing on the outputs and outcomes of
learning rather than inputs
To the competencies perspective, outputs to
learning is central
Differences between CBE and other
methods
Other methods
Input centered
Syllabuses, materials,
activities
Changing the role of the
learners and teachers
So, more effective
language learning occurs
CBE
Output centered
No matter how the
language learning occurs
What are expected from
students (output)

CBE Described by Schenk 1978
.





Performance based instruction
Individualized instruction
Mastery learning
Outcome based
Adaptive to the changing needs
Competency-Based Language
Teaching(CBLT)

By the end of 1970s…

Work-related and survival-oriented language
teaching programs for adults.

The most important breakthrough in adult ESL

1990s


“The state-of-the-art approach to adult ESL by
national policymakers and leaders in curriculum
development as well”.
1986


Refugees in the U.S had to be enrolled in a
competency-based program.
Programs based on specific skills needed for
individuals
Advocates of CBLT see it as a
powerful agent of change.
Because;



Opportuinty for teachers to revitalize their
education and training programs
Quality of assessment and teaching improves
Student learning is enhanced


Specification of expected outcomes
Continuous feedback
Standards Movement since 1990s

Glaser and Linn states:
“..The national educational standards
emerged…”

Washington D.C.-based center for Applied
Linguistics under control to the TESOL
organization- developed the K-12 school standards
for ESL.
They divided the grade levels into clusters:

Pre-K to 3rd grade

4th to 8th grade

9th to 12th grade
CBLT in Britain in 1980s



Sharing features of the graded objectives
movement proposed as a framework for organizing
foreign language teaching
Graded objectives are; series of short-term goalsbuilded upon one before.
One of the most remarkable events in modern
language learning in UK.
CBLT in general:









the principles of CBE
educational movement
focuses on outcomes of learning
Work-related and survival-oriented learning
The learners: refugees, immigrants
the most important breakthrough in adult ESL
teacher’s opportunity to revitalize their education programs
Teaching quality enhances
The aim is that the students’ being master of specific language
skills to function proficiently in the society
Approach: Theory of Language and
Learning

CBLT (Competency Based Language Teaching)






is based on functional and interactional perspective
language is taught in social context
Has in common with behaviorist views
Language can be analyzed into parts and subpart and
they can be tested incrementally.
“mosaic” approach
develops functional communication skills in learners,
known of specific real-world task.
Design:Objectives, Syllabus, Learning
activities, Role of Learners, Teachers, and
Material

Docking(1994)
Syllabus
 Start with field of knowledge
 Subject based content and syllabus
 Objectives
 Assessment based on norm referencing
 Recieving marks for performances
CBLT
 designed not around the notion of subject knowledge but
around the notion of competency





Focuses on what students can do with language not what they
know about language.
Instead of norm-referenced assessment, criterion-based
assessment procedures are used in which learners are assessed
according to how well they can perform on specific learning
tasks. (tells us how well students are performing on specific
course or standards rather than just telling how their
performance compare to group of students)
Competency consists of knowledge attitudes, behaviors, for
reals tasks and activities
HOW CBLT WORKS





Teacher:
first carries out a needs analysis to see how and where the
students will need to use their English.
defines some competencies (tasks) that the students will need
to accomplish. For example, giving personal information,
filling a form, making a doctor’s appointment, applying for
work, and so on.
creates activities that will teach the students how to
accomplish those competencies (tasks).
Finally evaluates the students on their ability to perform those
tasks.

Competencies consist of activities related with the real life
situations for surviving social environment.

ESL curriculum for immigrant and refugees include:







Task performance
Safety
General word-related
Work schedules, times sheets, paychecks
Social language
Job application
Job interview

Competencies for retaining a job:

Follow instructions to carry out a simple task

Respond appropriately to supervisor’s comments

Request supervisor to check work

Report completion of task to supervisor

Request supplies

Follow oral directions to locate an object

Follow simple oral directions to locate a place

Read charts, labels, forms or written
instructions to perform a task

State problem and ask for help if necessary

State amount and type of work already
competed.

Respond appropriately to work interruption or
modification
Docking’s relationship between
competencies and job performance
 a unit of competency

A role, function, task or learning module
Change over time, show difference from context to context
An element of competency
any quality or characteristic of and individual
specific knowledge, attidutes,thinking process,perceptual and
physical skills
independent of context and time
building block
Mid-nineteenth century
Spencer in1860:
 The major areas of human activity as the basis for
curricular objectives.
Bobbitt in 1926:
 curricual objectives related to his analysis of
functional competencies required for adults in U.S
.

Northrup’s report in 1977:

Five knowledge areas

Four basic skill areas

65 competencies
Auerbach in 1986:

Eight key features in the implementation of CBE
programs in ESL:

A focus on successful functioning in society
Autonomus learners

A focus on life skills
Language as a function of communication

Task-or performance-centered orientation
What a person can do rather than what he knows

Modularized instruction
objectives are broken into narowly focused subobjectives

Outcomes that are made explicit a priori
specifying in terms of behavioral objectives

Continuous and ongoing assessment
Students’ being pretested and posttested

Demonstrated mastery of performance objectives
assesment relying on demonstration of the behaviours
Individualized, student-centered instruction
Objectives acording to students needs, prior learning, no
time based instruction

Advantages of CBE for learners




Specific and practical
judged by learners
specific and public
can be mastered one at a time
Procedure

Australian Migrant Education Program



One of the largest immigrant language training
program.
Moved from centralised planing (content-based
and structural curriculum) to decentralised learnercentered (needs-based)
More recently to the competency-based
curriculum frameworks.
Certificate in Spoken and Written
English

Learning outcomes are specified in three stages


Stages 1 and 2 relate to
 General language development
Stage 3 relates:
 Grouping learners according to their goal focus and
competencies
 Competencies defined by three syllabus



Further Study
Vocational English
Community Access
Advanced Certificate in Spoken and
Written English

These three stages lead to Stage 4: Advanced Certificate in
Spoken and Written English.
Students are placed according to
their:

English proficiency level

Learning pace

Needs

Social Goals for learning English
The Competency descriptions
1)Knowledge and learning competencies
2)Oral competencies
3)Reading competencies
4)Writing competencies
Competencies described in terms of
Elements breaking down competency into smaller components
and linguistic features


Performance criteria

Range of variables setting limit for competency peformanc

Sample texts and assessment tasks providing examples of texts
and tasks
CONCLUSION

Embraced with enthusiasm

Criticised practically and philosophically



No valid procedures available
Impossibility of applying needed competencies (adult living,
survival, functioning proficiently in the community)
Sum of the parts is not equal to the whole (reductionist approach)
Banking Model
The function of education is:
 Socializing learners according to their dominant socioeconomic group



Transmitting the knowledge
Teacher’s job is to create ways to teach skills.
Prescriptivist in that teaching focuses on behavior and
performance rather than on the development of thinking skills
CBLT is gaining strength internationally. As Rylatt
and Lohan said:
‘’It can confidently be said, as we enter a new
millennium, that the business of improving
learning competencies and skills will remain one
of the world’s growing industries and priorities’’.
Thank you for your attention!..

Download Report