Competency-Based Language Teaching

Competency-Based Language Teaching

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

   • CBE emerged in the United States in the 1970s
   • It seeks to teach language in relation to the social contexts in which it is used.
     • Used as a framework for language teaching in situations where learners have specific needs and are in particular roles.
       • Where learners language skills need can be fairly accurately predicted or determined.
   • Competencies are designed to enable learners to participate effectively in society

2. Characteristics

   • CBT is designed around the notion of competency, not around the notion of subject knowledge
     • The focus moves from what students know about language to what they can do with it.
       • Competencies consist of a description of the essential skills, knowledge, attitudes, and behaviors required for effective performance of a real-world task or activity.
         • The activities may be related to any domain of life, though have typically been linked to the field of work and to social survival in a new environment.

3. Advantages of a competencies approach from the learner’s

   • The competencies are specific and practical and can be seen to relate to the learner’s needs and interests.
   • The learner can judge whether the competencies seem relevant and useful.
   • The competencies that will be taught and tested are specific and public – hence the learner knows exactly what needs to be learned.
   • Competencies can be mastered one at a time so the learner can see what has been learned and what still remains to be learned.

4. CBLT is therefore seen as prescriptivist in that it prepares students to fit into the status quo and maintain class relationships

   • Teaching typically focuses on behavior and performance rather than on the development of thinking skills