Task-Based Language Teaching (TBLT)

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The Task-Based Language Teaching (TBLT) Method Explained

There are many teaching methods around the world. In this article, I intend to introduce you to one of the most attractive methods of teaching.


During my years of teaching, the best teaching method I believe is TBLT. The TBLT method is attractive to any student. Attraction is the most important factor in learning. When students are interested in a subject, they learn it better.

Teaching consists of four stages as follow:

  • Warm-up
    Before the activity, we have a warm-up phase. This step involves starting the course and is the first step in the pre-teaching phase, which aims to prepare students for the teaching phase.
  • Brainstorming
    Preparing an activity requires brainstorming. This means that we break down the whole context into detail by brainstorming
  • Teaching
    During the activity, the main focus is on teaching.
  • Conclusion
    The activity is wrapped up, and the conclusion is made.

In fact, an activity is a work plan in which the context and meaning are important. In the past, teaching was done in a deductive method. In other words, we started with the whole context before looking at the details.

This is similar to starting with the formula and ending with an example. This teaching method is currently less used and is replaced by the inductive teaching method.

Inductive teaching is an Inverse deductive method, we start with the detail before looking at the whole context.

I must say that the TBLT method is more attractive and efficient. An English teacher needs to have a work plan before teaching.

In the work plan, the teacher should consider the material that he needs to teach, write them down and also consider the time spent on each context.

Difference between Teaching Language and Language Skill

Teaching skills include speaking, writing, listening, and reading. Teaching language includes grammar, vocabulary, and so on. These two categories are different tasks.

For example, in a workshop, the teacher provides his students with two words, “veal” and “will”. Then, the teacher asks the students to simply explain to the others their understanding of those.

The purpose of this exercise is simply to demonstrate to students how to explain the activity. This is not only clear but simple: “When you pronounce V, we can see teeth and lips but when you pronounce W, your lips don’t touch your teeth.”

What is ICQ/CCQ?

Instruction Checking Questions (ICQ) is a step that is performed after the teaching. Its purpose is to prevent errors in solving the workshop by the students. This is because students do not solve the practice incorrectly.

Therefore, transparency ought to be made clear during this stage. Two questions are asked. The answer to the first question is “No” and the second is “Yes”. For example:

  1. Do you ever read these words? No
  2. Are you going to fill in the missing word according to the example? Yes

Let’s think that 10 words are written and five of them are writing errors. We would apply ICQ as follows:

  1. Do we want to make sentences with these words? No
  2. Do we want to find misspelt words and correct them? Yes

Concept Checking Questions (CCQ) is a phase in which students misunderstandings are resolved through answering questions made either by the teacher or fellow students.

To Round off

An English language teacher should pay attention to a few points in his teaching:

  • During teaching, you have to make eye contact with all of the students.
  • Always appear confident in class.
  • Correcting a mistake made by students should be related to the topic of the lesson,
    If the subject is a grammar lesson, for example, correct only the grammatical errors of the students, not other mistakes such as pronunciation, incorrect use of upper case letters, and so on.

References

The International Association for Task-Based Language Teaching

NILE ELT Glossary


This article is written by our contributor, Ali Ashrafi, to be shared with the esteemed readers of Norway Today.

© Ali Ashrafi / #Norway Today
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