PPP, TBLT and Dogme

Three Big Ideas in Language Teaching

Fernando Guarany | fernando@guarany.net | Natal, RN

WHY PPP?

1. PPP HAS A LONG HISTORY IN ELT AND IS PRESENT IN A

NUMBER OF COURSEBOOKS;

2. PPP FORMS THE STAPLE OF MANY PRESERVICE

TEACHER TRAINING SCHEMES;

3. THE AMOUNT OF CRITICISM LEVELED AT PPP.

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WHY TBL?

1. TBL ALSO HAS A LONG HISTORY IN ELT AND HAS

FOUND ITS WAY INTO CERTAIN COURSEBOOKS;

2. TBL IS RECEIVES MUCH MORE PRAISE THAN CRITICISM

IN THE ELT WORLD COMPARED TO PPP;

3. IT HOLDS MIDDLE GROUND BETWEEN PPP AND

DOGME.

WHY DOGME?

1. DOGME HAS A RELATIVELY SHORT HISTORY IN ELT;

2. IT HAS BOTH STRONG SUPPORTERS AND FIERCE

DETRACTORS;

3. IT HAS THE POTENTIAL TO GENERATE A GREAT DEAL

OF REFLECTION ON ONES TEACHING PRACTICE.

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:: PPP ::

HOW MUCH DO YOU ALREADY

KNOW ABOUT IT?

PPP :: PRESENTATION > PRACTICE > PRODUCTION LEARN THE LANGUAGE IN ORDER TO USE IT.

Cognitive Skills learning:

Fact of the matter > declarative knowledge (that > procedural

knowledge (how) > automaticity (doing)

Highly Controlled and Pre-emptive

Organising Unit

The teaching point

Focus

Accuracy

General Outcome

Language produced at sentence level.

PPP :: PRESENTATION > PRACTICE > PRODUCTION

Strengths

Offers teachers and learners a logical sequence; Particularly useful to newly-qualified Ts (framework/template); Many learners are comfortable with and expect teacher-led

presentation-driven lessons;

PPP makes teaching measurable (teaching performance can be rated on how many learners get it.)

Easily integrated into coursebooks;

Weaknesses

It is repetitive (therefore tedious); Students generally fail to use TL beyond the classroom; Teacher-centred; Too much time spent on presentation; PPP misleads teachers about what makes a good lesson.

TBLT :: TASK-BASED LANGUAGE TEACHING LEARN THE LANGUAGE BY USING IT.

Communicative Approach

1970s Bangalore Project (Prabhu)

Reaction to Audiolingualism

No pre-set grammatical or lexical syllabus

Occasional reactive focus on form

Organising Unit

Task: a goal-oriented activity with a clear purpose > Task cycle

Focus

Fluency

General Outcome

Language produced at a more discursive level

TBLT:: TASK-BASED LANGUAGE TEACHING

Strengths

Focus on communication; Emulates how L2 is used beyond the classroom; Provides a framework (or template) for application; High motivation from task achievement and interaction; Learner-centred (but . . .)

Weaknesses

Insufficient focus on form leads to inaccuracy; Poor language produced to complete tasks (Comm. Strat); Not easily applied at lower levels; Challenging to teachers with lower level of linguistic

communicative competence;

:: DOGME :: LEARN THE LANGUAGE BY USING IT.

A Dogma for EFL (Thornbury, 2000)

A teaching movement set up by a group of English teachers

who challenge what they consider to be an over-reliance on

materials and technical wizardry in current language teaching.

The emphasis on the here-and-now requires the teacher to focus

on the actual learners and the content that is relevant to them.

(Meddings & Thornbury, 2009:6)

:: DOGME :: THE FLAVOUR OF DOGME

Education is communication and dialogue. It is not the

transference of knowledge.

Success depends less on materials, techniques and linguistic

analyses, and more on what goes on inside and between the

people in the classroom.

A good teacher cannot be fixed in a routine During teaching,

each moment requires a sensitive mind that is constantly

changing and constantly adapting.

:: DOGME :: THE FLAVOUR OF DOGME

Education is communication and dialogue. It is not the

transference of knowledge.

(Paulo Freire)

Success depends less on materials, techniques and linguistic

analyses, and more on what goes on inside and between the

people in the classroom.

(Earl Stevick)

A good teacher cannot be fixed in a routine During teaching,

each moment requires a sensitive mind that is constantly

changing and constantly adapting.

(Bruce Lee)

:: DOGME ::

THE THREE PILLARS OF DOGME

Dogme is about teaching that is conversation-driven;

Dogme is about teaching that is materials-light;

Dogme is about teaching that focuses on emergent language.

(Meddings& Thornbury, 2009:7)

. . .

Organising Unit: Conversation | Focus: Fluency

General Outcome: Language produced at discursive level

:: DOGME ::

Strengths

Highly reactive teaching (at the point of need); High approximation to how L2 is used beyond the classroom; Learner-centred; Highly engaging; High motivation from interaction, communication and

conversation;

Critiscim

Nothing but inconsequential chat; Anti-technology; Anti-coursebooks; Hard to use at lower levels (and by newly-qualified teachers); For lazy teachers who wont plan lessons.

:: DOGME ::

Strengths

Highly reactive teaching (at the point of need); High approximation to how L2 is used beyond the classroom; Learner-centred; Highly engaging; High motivation from interaction, communication and

conversation;

Weaknesses

Nothing but inconsequential chat; Anti-technology; Anti-coursebooks; Hard to use at lower levels (and by newly-qualified teachers); For lazy teachers who wont plan lessons.

:: CONSIDERATIONS::

Baby and bathwater syndrome (Penny Ur ABCI, 2012)

. . . sense of plausibility . . . (Prabhu, 1990)

A language pedagogy that is principled and localized, determined by the teacher(s), informed by reflection on

experience and other professional knowledge sources.

(Penny Ur | ABCI, 2012)

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fernando@guarany.net

fernando@guarany.net

Thanks very much!