COMPETENCY-BASED

LANGUAGE TEACHING

COMPETENCY
Essential skill, knowledge or
behaviour required for effective
performance of a real world
task or activity.

BACKGROUND
CBE

Is an educational movement that focuses

on the outcomes or outputs of learning in
the development of language programs.

CBE

(Competency-Based Education)

1970s

Refers to an educational movement that

advocates defining educational goals in
terms of precise measurable descriptions
of the knowledge, skills, and behaviors
students should possess at the end of a
course of study.

CBE described by Schenk (1978)

Competency-Based Language
Teaching(CBLT)

Competencies differ from other student goals and

objectives in that they describe the students
ability to apply basic and other skills in situations
that are commonly encountered in everyday life.

Is an application of the principles of CompetencyBased Education to language teaching.

By the end of 1970s

Was the approach of the basis design of workrelated and survival-oriented language teaching
programs for adults.

 1990s

The CBLT had come to be accepted as the

state-of-the-art approach to adult ESL by
national policymakers and leaders in
curriculum development as well.

By

1986,

Any refugee in the United States who

whished to receive federal assistance had
to be enrolled in a competency-based
program.

The most recent realization of a competency

perspective in the U.S. is found in the
standards movement, which dominated
educational discussion since the 1990s.

CBLT

in the 1980

Sharing features of the graded objectives

movement proposed as a framework for
organizing foreign language teaching in
Britain.
Graded objectives- Short terms goals, building
one learner upon the other to advance the
knowledge and skills.

APPROACH
- THEORY OF LANGUAGE AND LEARNING

Central to both lg and learning theory is the

view that language can be functionally
analyzed into parts and subparts and such
parts and subparts can be taught incrementally.
CBLT takes a mosaic approach to language
learning the whole is constructed from
smaller components.

CBLT is based on a functional and interactional

perspective on the nature of lg

In CBLT language occurs as a medium of

interaction between people for the achievement
of specific goals

CBLT shares with behaviourist views of learning

(learning form can be inferred from lg
instructions)

CBLT is built around the notion of communicative

competence and seeks to develop
communication skills in learners

DESIGN:
OBJECTIVES AND SYLLABUS
Docking (1994) points out that the traditional
approach to developing a syllabus involves
understanding of
subject matters as the basis for syllabus planning

While planning syllabus:

The field of knowledge (history,marketing)and
the concepts are chosen
Syllabus and course content are developed around
the subject
Objectives may be specified, but usually have little
role in teaching
Assesement of students is based on norm referencing

DESIGN:
OBJECTIVES AND SYLLABUS

CBLT is designed not around the notion

of subject knowledge but around the
notion of competency. The focus moves
from what students know about
language to what they can do with it.
The focus on competencies or learning
outcomes underpins syllabus
specification, teaching strategies and
student assessment.

ACTIVITIES
may

be related to any domain of life

are typically linked to the field of work
and to social survival in environment
For example, ESL curriculum for
immigrants and refugees include: task
performance, safety,work
schedules,paychecks,social language,
job application or job interview

Example :For the area of

Retaining Job the following
competencies are described:

Follow instruction to carry out a

simple task
Respond appropriately to
supervisors comments about quality
of work on the job
Request supervisor to check words
Request supplies
State problem and ask for help
Respond appropriately to work
interruption or modification

EIGHT KEY FEATURES

According to Auerbach (1986) there are eight key features
which are essential for Competency-Based Language
Teaching:
1. A focus on successful functioning in society
2. A focus on life skills
3. Task- or performance-centered orientation
4. Modularized instruction
5. Outcomes that are made explicit a priori
6. Continuous and ongoing assessment
7. Demonstrated mastery of performance
objectives
8. Individualized, student-centered instruction

ROLE OF TEACHER

Corrects the students immediately

Gives positive feedback

Is aware of the learner needs

Adjusts the activities and the syllabus

according to learner needs

ROLE OF LEARNERS
Judge

the relevancy and usefulness of the

activities

Should

demonstrate the skills learned

Have

to stay in the actual program until they

improve

Have

to adapt and transfer knowledge from one

setting to another

PROCEDURE
CONSIST OF:

initial assesment
students placement within the
framework, according to their:

current English proficiency level

learning pace
needs
social goals for learning English

Hagan (1994:22)

STAGES IN THE FRAMEWORK

Stages 1 and 2: relate to general lg development

Stage 3: learners are more often grouped

according to their goal focus; competencies are
defined according to the three syllabus strands of
Further Study, Vocational English, and Community
Access
They lead to Stage 4 of the framework: Advanced
Certificate in Spoken and Written English

Hagan (1994:22)

COMPETENCIES
The competency descriptions at each stage
are divided into four domains:

Knowledge and learning competencies

Oral competencies
Reading competencies
Writing competencies

COMPETENCIES
The competencies are described in terms of:

performance criteria
that specify the
minimal performance required to achieve a
competency
range of variables
that sets limits for the
performance of the competency
elements
that break down the competency
into smaller components and refer to the essential
linguistic features of the text
sample texts and assessment tasks
that
provide examples of texts and assessment tasks
that relate to the competency

CONCLUSION
Although CBLT has been embraced with entusiasm by
large sections of the ESL profession, it is not without its
critics.
Tollefson (1986)
there are no valid procedures
available to develop competency lists for most
programs.
Others have pointed out that dividing activities up into
sets of competencies is a reductionist approach and
that the sum of the parts does not equal the complexity
of the whole.

CONCLUSION
Auerbach
( 1986 )
CBLT reflects what Paolo Frier has characterized as a
banking model of education:
There is a structure of socially prescribed
knowledge to be mastered by students.
The function of education is to transmit the
knowledge and to socialise learners.
The teachers job is to devise more and more
effective ways to transmit skills.
Educational progress is defined in terms of
:improving delivery systems.

CONCLUSION
CBLT is seen as prescriptivists:

Prepares students to fit into the status quo

Mantain class relationships
Teaching focuses on behavior and performance
rather than on the development of thinking skills
CBLT Appears to be gaining trenght internationally.

conc
lusio
n

CONCLUSION
Rylatt & Lohan

(1997)

we enter a new millenium that

the business of improving learning
competencies and skills will
remaine one of the worlds fastes
growing industries and priorities.

Chrzanw
13.01.2012r

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