Task-based Language Teaching (TBLT)

What is task-based language teaching (TBLT)?

Task-based learning focuses on the use of authentic language through meaningful tasks such as visiting the doctor or a telephone call.  This method encourages meaningful communication and is student-centred.

Characteristics:

Students are encouraged to use language creatively and spontaneously through tasks and problem solving

Students focus on a relationship that is comparable to real world activities

The conveyance of some sort of meaning is central to this method

Assessment is primarily based on task outcome

TBLT is student-centered

Task-Based Language Teaching (TBLT) is the latest trend in SLL approaches.  Although it has produced very positive results in certain contexts (eg small class sizes of immigrant children), like every method that has preceded it, TBLT is also revealing its weaknesses.  Broady (2006) notes that TBLT may not provide sufficient "Interaction Opportunities."  Bruton (2005) identifies other concerns:

There is no acquisition of new grammar or vocabulary features

Everything is left to the teacher

Not all students are or will be motivated by TBLT

Some students need more guidance and will not or cannot notice language forms (grammar) or other elements of accuracy

Students typically translate and use a lot of their L1 rather than the target language in completing the tasks.

http://www.educ.ualberta.ca/staff/olenka.bilash/best%20of%20bilash/taskbasedlanguageteaching.html

Learning Log (Inside the Classroom)

          From each group presentation I was listening. There are six topics for teaching: teaching reading, teaching with technology, teaching writing, teaching listening, teaching speaking, and assessing and testing.

          First, reading is an interactive process that goes on between the reader and the text, resulting in comprehension. The text presents letters, words, sentences, and paragraphs that encode meaning. The reader uses knowledge, skills, and strategies to determine what that meaning is. There are two kinds of reading are extensive reading and intensive reading. Extensive reading is reading as much as possible, for your own pleasure, at a difficulty level at which you can read smoothly and quickly without looking up words or translating to English as you go. Intensive Reading occurs when the learner is focused on the language rather than the text.

          Second, technology is very important for our life in many ways. It may be cause from we are going to be a student in 21st century. So schools should know that how to mix and match technologies in the classroom for teach their student in efficiently. For teach their student with technology teacher can do in many ways. They can use board and other showing technology or software in the classroom such as a research online, presenting online, internet programs for learning, and etc. Second way, they can use pictures, cards and strips of paper for show the meaning of the word or describe the picture. Next, they can use real and other device for classroom activities or classroom games.

          Third, writing instruction often takes a backseat to phonics, handwriting skills, and reading comprehension. The four steps of the writing process are prewriting, drafting, editing, revising, and publishing. Prewriting is the type of writing a student is attempting; the prewriting stage can be the most important. Drafting is a stage of the writing process during which a writer organizes information and ideas into sentences and paragraphs. Editing is carefully examining a paper to see that it contains no errors of grammar, spelling, or punctuation. Revising is changing and rewriting a draft to make it better. Publishing is the writer prepares a document to be distributed to an audience. This may involve printing the work or duplicating it in some other way in a format that permits public use and response.

          Next, listening is a critical element in the competent language performance of adult second language learners, whether they are communicating at school, at work, or in the community. Listening is the language modality that is used most frequently. In school, listening visually is important to students. Listen is taking note sometime. Most easily for students to learn theirs stuffs in school is by listening to the teacher. In here, students need to listen to the teacher by the time they teach, because students could compare their own opinion with the teacher, or learn some new things, or go deep in the subject. So, listening is very important for students during school time, because they need to listen to understand more about the detail of the subject.

          Fifth, many people feel that speaking in a new language is harder than reading writing or listening. However, they can improve their English speaking skill in many ways. The first way, teacher give students practice with both fluency and accuracy. Second, teachers provide opportunities for students to talk by using group work or pair work, and limiting teacher talk. Pair work and group work activities can be used to increase the amount of time that learners get to speak in the target language during lessons. Third, design classroom activities that involve guidance and practice in both transactional and interactional speaking.

          Last, learn about the assessment and testing process used to diagnose learning disabilities. Learn how tests and assessments are used in schools to identify learning disabilities and develop programs. There are 8 types of assessment such as formative, summative, informal, diagnostic, placement, progress, achievement and proficiency. Formative assessment or diagnostic testing is a range of formal and informal assessment procedures employed by teachers during the learning process in order to modify teaching and learning activities to improve student attainment. It typically involves qualitative feedback for both student and teacher that focus on the details of content and performance. Summative assessment refers to the assessment of participants, and summarizes their development at a particular time. In contrast to formative assessment, the focus is on the outcome of a program. Informal assessment is a procedure for obtaining information that can be used to make judgments about children's learning behavior and characteristics or programs using means other than standardized instruments. Placement Testing is about the placement tests that colleges and universities use to assess college readiness and place students into their initial classes. Achievement assessment is a test designed to measure the knowledge or proficiency of an individual in something that has been learned or taught, as arithmetic or typing.

          In conclusion, every skill that we use in English when we learn a language, there are four skills that we need for complete communication. When we learn our native language, we usually learn to listen first, then to speak, then to read, and finally to write.

Teaching Writing (Inside the Classroom)

Most people agree that writing skills are increasingly important and often not adequately taught. When writing is taught in schools, writing instruction often takes a backseat to phonics, handwriting skills, and reading comprehension. The four steps of the writing process are prewriting, drafting, editing, revising, and publishing.

Prewriting is the type of writing a student is attempting; the prewriting stage can be the most important. This is when students gather their information, and begin to organize it into a cohesive unit. This process can include reading, taking notes, brainstorming, and categorizing information. Prewriting is the most creative step and most students develop a preferred way to organize their thoughts.

Drafting is a stage of the writing process during which a writer organizes information and ideas into sentences and paragraphs.

Editing is carefully examining a paper to see that it contains no errors of grammar, spelling, or punctuation.

Revising is changing and rewriting a draft to make it better. In this step, you try to anticipate the needs of your readers by rearranging ideas and reshaping sentences to make clearer connections.

Publishing is the writer prepares a document to be distributed to an audience. This may involve printing the work or duplicating it in some other way in a format that permits public use and response.

Writing competence in a foreign language tends to be one of the most difficult skills to acquire. This is true for English as well. The key to successful writing classes is that they are pragmatic in nature targeting the skills required or desired by students.

Teaching Reading (Inside the Classroom)

Reading is an interactive process that goes on between the reader and the text, resulting in comprehension. The text presents letters, words, sentences, and paragraphs that encode meaning. The reader uses knowledge, skills, and strategies to determine what that meaning is. There are two kinds of reading are extensive reading and intensive reading.

Extensive reading is reading as much as possible, for your own pleasure, at a difficulty level at which you can read smoothly and quickly without looking up words or translating to English as you go. Intensive Reading occurs when the learner is focused on the language rather than the text. Intensive reading is the most typically taught method of teaching reading. Some teachers only know this method and believe that by teaching the vocabulary and grammar that is all the learner needs.

 Reading activities that we can ask students to do almost anything with a reading text. Here are some of the most common activities.

In conclusion, Reading is an activity with a purpose. A person may read in order to gain information or verify existing knowledge, or in order to critique a writer's ideas or writing style. A person may also read for enjoyment, or to enhance knowledge of the language being read. The purposes for reading guide the reader's selection of texts.

Teaching Listening (Inside the Classroom)

Listening is a critical element in the competent language performance of adult second language learners, whether they are communicating at school, at work, or in the community. Through the normal course of a day, listening is used nearly twice as much as speaking and four to five times as much as reading and writing.

Listening is the language modality that is used most frequently. It has been estimated that adults spend almost half their communication time listening, and students may receive as much as 90% of their in-school information through listening to instructors and to one another. Often, however, language learners do not recognize the level of effort that goes into developing listening ability. Far from passively receiving and recording aural input, listeners actively involve themselves in the interpretation of what they hear, bringing their own background knowledge and linguistic knowledge to bear on the information contained in the aural text.

In school, listening visually is important to students. Listen is taking note sometime. Most easily for students to learn theirs stuffs in school is by listening to the teacher. In here, students need to listen to the teacher by the time they teach, because students could compare their own opinion with the teacher, or learn some new things, or go deep in the subject. So, listening is very important for students during school time, because they need to listen to understand more about the detail of the subject.

In the summary, the listening is very important part for all people. It has their basic things that people have to be careful about, which is attitude, attention, and adjustment. Three things are very important for listening people. Listening also is important in school systems.

Assessing and Testing (Inside the Classroom)

Learn about the assessment and testing process used to diagnose learning disabilities. Learn how tests and assessments are used in schools to identify learning disabilities and develop programs. There are 8 types of assessment such as formative, summative, informal, diagnostic, placement, progress, achievement and proficiency.

Formative assessment or diagnostic testing is a range of formal and informal assessment procedures employed by teachers during the learning process in order to modify teaching and learning activities to improve student attainment. It typically involves qualitative feedback for both student and teacher that focus on the details of content and performance.

Summative assessment refers to the assessment of participants, and summarizes their development at a particular time. In contrast to formative assessment, the focus is on the outcome of a program.

Informal assessment is a procedure for obtaining information that can be used to make judgments about children's learning behavior and characteristics or programs using means other than standardized instruments.

Placement Testing is about the placement tests that colleges and universities use to assess college readiness and place students into their initial classes.

Achievement assessment is a test designed to measure the knowledge or proficiency of an individual in something that has been learned or taught, as arithmetic or typing.

To sum up, assessment and testing have many benefits for teacher such as able to assess the student's ability to be organized and focused under pressure, ability to test the student's capacity to draw on a wide range of knowledge and to synthesis and identify recurrent themes, and so on. So teacher should have an expert about this before uses in the real teach.

Teaching with technology (Inside the classroom)

          Nowadays, technology is very important for our life in many ways. It may be cause from we are going to be a student in 21^st century. So schools should know that how to mix and match technologies in the classroom for teach their student in efficiently.

          For teach their student with technology teacher can do in many ways. First way, they can use board and other showing technology or software in the classroom such as a research online, presenting online, internet programs for learning, and etc. Second way, they can use pictures, cards and strips of paper for show the meaning of the word or describe the picture. Next, they can use real and other devices for classroom activities or classroom games such as use a ball for classroom games, use rods for classroom activities, and etc. Last, they can use a mobile learning there for control or teach such as give the lesson on blog, check student’s name on Facebook, use tablet computer for share them in pair work tasks, and so on.

          From the above, we can conclude that teaching by using technology help the teacher easier to teach the English in a second language, to control their student, and to make classroom activities. So teacher should try to use technology in many ways.