tbl & backbone

TBL & Backbone | Eleni | April 14th, 2005

Hello everybody!

Here are some thoughts of mine. I'd welcome your comments on them.

I have been reading lately a lot about TBL based teaching and I certainly see the merits in the method. Actually I have been using it occasionally for quite some time now either because it is part of the course books I use or I intuitively felt that this is a better way to go about teaching, as from my point of view learning occurs when one is trying out things, using the knowledge one already has and looking for a better way to achieve his/her goals when everything else fails. What I fail to see is how a syllabus- for a year's course let's say- can be designed based on TBL.

I see a course as a story, and a story needs a backbone to be built on. It is the cohesive device that brings the parts together and the reader makes sense of what is going on. In PPP, for example, it is the grammar that plays this role (partly at least), and even if it acts as a motivation tool according to Willis (1996:48), it is effective in that it allows course designers to produce something coherent, not to mention that motivation and the impression that something is being learnt are powerful factors.

So what is the element that will act as a backbone in TBL? Is it going to be grammar again? And if so, won't it be a 'PPP upside down' (Willis 1996:62)? And after all, don't we need a bit of presentation? We need an item to be noticed first and then learned, and we do need something to start with.

Is there something really missing or haven't I read enough yet?

Best wishes

Eleni

Re: TBL and Backbone | Robert Haines | April 16th, 2005

Eleni,

Thank you for sharing your thoughts on TBL and syllabus design. I'd like to comment on a few of the issues you've raised:

"I have been reading lately a lot about TBL based teaching and I certainly see the merits in the method. Actually I have been using it occasionally for quite some time now either because it is part of the course books I use or I intuitively felt that this is a better way to go about as from my point of view learning occurs when one is trying out things, using the knowledge already has and looking for a better way to achieve his/her goal when everything else fails."

I suppose every method, technique, etc. has its merits according to the context in which it is used. TBL is no exception, although I find that teachers generally have different impressions of what constitutes Task-based learning. A colleague once said to me she believes it's all (teaching/learning) task-based, that is we (teachers) give them (students) tasks and they learn. Now that's over-simplified and a bit teacher-centered from my point of view, but I mention it to illustrate just one example of the many interpretations of TBL I've gleaned during my teaching. I've also listened to teachers debate the merits of focus on form/lexis before and after the task stage. What model(s) of TBL do you work with? 

Which course books do you find include TBL? I know the Cutting Edge series has been touted as an example of TBL textbooks, but I have yet to see any that are not simply grammar-based, functional/notional or topical syllabi with tasks included.

"What I fail to see is how a syllabus- for a year's course let's say-can be designed based on TBL."

Well, one could design tasks and nothing more, but it does seem inherent in any syllabus, aside from a retrospective one, that the teacher/course designer is going to select items for instruction. What if we focused more on a process than a product syllabus? Traditional institutions would find it uncomfortable as would many students trained to expect "order" in education; however, it might prove more 'productive' and intrinsically motivating in the long term. So instead of the teacher/course designer as author of the story (your metaphor for a syllabus), the story would unfold as the characters in it (the students?) develop.

"And after all don't we need a bit of presentation-we need an item to notice first and then learn and we do need something to start with."

What if we afford students opportunities to provide the lexis of a pedagogical corpus (Willis, D. Rules, Pattern and Words, CUP, 2003) which then becomes, or at least informs, the syllabus? That way students would be more likely to notice language they are ready to process and do so because they are intrinsically motivated.

For an alternative view of syllabus design and curricula in general, see van Lier's wonderful book Interaction in the Language Curriculum: Awareness, Autonomy & Authenticity (Pearson Education Limited, 1996).

Finally, because you mentioned how your intuition guides you as a teacher (in point 1 above), you might want to have a look at an article by Costas Gabrielatos posted here by Paul Raper. A colleague at a university in Ohio has criticized Costas' claims about intuition and received a response from him. I have also questioned several of the assertions in the article but heard nothing from Costas on the ttedSIG.

What do you, Eleni, and other CPs, think?

Again, thanks for sharing your thoughts and all the best.

Rob

 

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