COMPETENCY - BASED

LANGUAGE TEACHING

GROUP 9 : AMRULLAH 201012500739

ARI KISWANTO 201012500234

BERNADETA FITRI 201012500866

CINDY AGUSTINA 201012500901

DAHLIA NAIBAHO 201012500431

DUMASI SINAGA 201012500463

CLASS : XB / 5 – 4 – 3

LECTURER : Mrs. ELYZA MARTIARINI

ENGLISH EDUCATION DEPARTMENT

UNIVERSITY OF INDRAPRASTA PGRI

2013

P R E F A C E

 

Thanks to the God because for overflow of grace and favor, writers can finish this work paper

well. This work paper contain about Competency-Based Language Teaching (CBLT).

This work paper is arranged as task of Teaching of English as a Foreign Language.

Arrangement this work paper is meant to help students or people to know about what the

meaning of CBLT, problem in CBLT, implementation of CBLT, who are the targets of

learners, and many more. CBLT purpose like to know what are the competencies involved in

CBLT.

The Writer realizes that this paper is far from being perfect so we will be very grateful for the

criticisms and suggestions, that has build characteristic to upgrading this work paper.

Finally, writer say thank you very much to responsibility lecturer and all of people who help in

work paper forming. Writer hopes this work paper can give benefit as guider in learning

process. Hopefully, this paper gives benefit to reader.

     

Jakarta, March 23rd 2013

The writers

CHAPTER I

BACKGROUND

For many years, English students were taught about the language in self, but not taught how to

use the language in neighborhood properly. Even at the present day, the products of education

still make disappointments; in the way of the students use English. Most of the students are

capable in preserving their memories about the learning materials given by the teacher, but

they don’t really understand how to use it. They still have difficulties to use English. Whereas

they need it related with environment and society for they will be work and live with.

The 21st century is the era of Knowledge Economy where sciences are modals that create

competitive advantage, innovative capabilities and effective solutions. Because of the

globalization era and the increase of industrial world, English speaker workers are more

demanded. But nowadays, the output from educational world is still having no competencies.

Docking in Richards & Rodgers points out the relationship between competencies and job

performance:

“A qualification or a job can be described as a collection of units of competency, each of which

is composed on a number of elements of competency. A unit of competency might be a task,

a role, a function, or a learning module. These will change over time, and will vary from

context to context. An element of competency can be defined as any attribute of an individual

that contributes to the successful performance of a task, job, function, or activity in an

academic setting and/or work setting. This includes specific knowledge, thinking processes,

attitudes, and perceptual and physical skills. Nothing is excluded that can be shown to

contribute to performance. An element of competency has meaning independent of context and

time. It is the building block for competency specifications for education, training, assessment,

qualifications, tasks, and jobs.”

Because of that, we need a suitable method for English Language Teaching to relate both of the

worlds mentioned above, that is Competency-Based Language Teaching.

CHAPTER IIDISCUSSION

I. Competency-Based Language Teaching

Competency Based Language Teaching (CBLT) is an application of the principles of Competency - Based Education (CBE) to language teaching. CBE is an educational movement that focuses on “outcomes or outputs of learning” in the development of language programs. It emerged in The United States in the 1970s and refers to an educational movement that educates 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 addresses what the learners are expected to do with the language, however they learned to do it. Competency-Based Language Teaching (CBLT) focuses on what “learners are expected to do with the language” (Richards & Rodgers).

By the end of the 1970s Competency-Based Language Teaching was mostly used in “work-related and survival-oriented language teaching programs for adults” (Richards & Rodgers). Since the 1990s, CBLT has been seen as “the state of the art approach to adult ESL” (Auerbach, 1986) so that any refugee in the United States who wished to receive federal assistance had to attend a competency-based program in which they learned a set of language skills “that are necessary for individuals to function proficiently in the society in which they live” (Grognet & Crandall).

II. Theory of Language Learning

The major basis of CBLT is the “functional and interactional perspective on the nature of language (Richards & Rodgers) which means that language learning always needs to be connected to the social context it is used in. Therefore, language is seen as “a medium of interaction and communication between people” who want to achieve “specific goals and purposes”. This especially applies to situations in which the learner has to fulfill a particular role with language skills which can be predicted or determined for the relevant.

In connection to this Competency-Based Language Teaching share the behaviorist view of learning that “certain life encounters call for certain kinds of language”. Another key aspect of both language and learning theory is the so called “mosaic approach to language learning”, which assumes that language can be divided into appropriate parts and subparts. Communicative competence is then constructed from these subparts put together in the correct order. All of these aspects together show that CBLT is in some respects similar to Communicative Language Teaching.

III. The Approaches in CBLT

CBLT is based on a functional and interactional perspective on the nature of language. It seeks to teach language in relation to the social context in which it is used. Language always occurs as a medium of interaction and communication between people for the achievement of specific goals and purposes. CBLT has for this reason most often been used as a framework for language teaching in the situations where learners have specific needs and are in particular roles and where the language skills they need can be fairly accurately predicted or determined. It also share with behaviorist views of learning the notion that language form can be inferred from language function; that is, certain life encounters call for certain kinds of language.

This assumes that designers of CBLT competencies can accurately predict the vocabulary and structures likely to be encountered in those particular situations that are central to the life of the learners and can state these in ways that can be used to organize teaching/learning units.

CBLT is also built around the notion of communicative competence and seeks to develop functional communication skills in learners. These skills are generally described in only the most general terms, however, rather than being linked to the performance of specific real word task. CBLT thus shares some features with Communicative Language Teaching.

There are several principals in CBLT:1. Language is a vehicle for the expression of functional meaning (functional view)2. Language is a vehicle for the realization of interpersonal relation and for the

performance of social transactions between individuals. Language is a tool for the creation and maintenance of social relations. (interactional view)

3. CBLT is built around the notion of communicative competence and seeks to develop functional communication skills in learners.

4. CBLT shares with behaviorist views of learning, the notion that language form can be inferred from language function; that is, certain life encounters call for certain kinds of language.

IV. Syllabus

A syllabus for a competency-based framework clearly differs from the traditional approach to developing a syllabus. Instead of selecting a topic or field of knowledge that one is going to teach (e.g. British History, American Literature, or poetry) and then choosing “concepts, knowledge, and skills that constitute that field of knowledge”, Competency-based Language Teaching “is designed not around the notion of subject knowledge but around the notion of competency”. Therefore, the focus is on how the students can use the language instead of their knowledge about the language. Schenck (1978) points out that the teacher provides a list of competencies which the course is going to deal with, and these are “typically required of students in life role situations”.

The fact that CBLT is an outcome-based approach also influences the syllabus, especially the kind of assessment which is used. In contrast to “norm-referenced assessment” (Docking, 1994), which is used in many other teaching approaches and methods, “criterion-based assessment”is essential for CBLT. Students have to perform specific language skills which they have already learned during the course. The competencies tested “consist of a description of the essential skills, knowledge, attitudes, and behaviors required for effective performance of a real-world task or activity”. These performance-criteria form the basis for the assessment.

V. Learning Activities

The learning activities used in CBLT can be described as systematically designed activities to achieve a certain competence. These activities are real-world tasks which “may be related to any domain of life” but especially to survival-oriented and work-related situations in a new environment. Typical areas, for which such competency-based activities have been developed, are for example Job Application, Job Interview, or Work Schedules. All these areas “can be described as a collection of units of competencies” which consist of “specific knowledge, thinking processes, attitudes, and perceptual and physical skills”

VI. Eight Key Features

According to Auerbach (1986) there are eight key features which are essential for Competency-Based Language Teaching:

A focus on successful functioning in society which means that language is taught in order to prepare the students for the different demands of the world.

1. A focus on successful functioning in society which means that language is taught in order to prepare the students for the different demands of the world.

2. A focus on life skills to determine that language is always taught as a medium of communication in concrete tasks in which specific language forms/skills are required

3. Task-or performance-centered orientation. The focus is on what the students can do with the language and certain behaviors instead of knowledge of the language.

4. Modularized instruction emphasizes that the competencies which are taught have to be systematically separated into manageable parts so that both the teacher and students can handle the content and realize their progress.

5. Outcomes that are made explicit a priori. “Outcomes are public knowledge, known and agreed upon by both learner and teacher”. Therefore, the students clearly know what behaviors and skills are expected of them.

6. Continuous and ongoing assessment which means that the students are tested before the course to determine which skills they lack and after they have had instructions in that skill they are tested again to ascertain whether they have achieved the necessary skills or not.

7. Demonstrated mastery of performance objectives. The assessment is based on the students’ performance of specific behaviors instead of traditional paper-and-pencil-tests.

8. Individualized, student-centered instruction. The instructions given by the teacher are not time-based but the focus is on the progress the individual students make at their own rate. Therefore, the teacher has to concentrate on each individual students in order to support them in those areas in which they lack competence

VII. The Competencies Involved in CBLT

CBLT is built around the notion of communicative competence:1. Grammatical competence

It refers to linguistic competence and the domain of grammatical and lexical capacity.

2. Sociolinguistic competenceIt refers to an understanding of the social context in which communication takes place, including role relationship, the shared information of the participants, and the communicative purpose for their interaction.

3. Discourse competenceIt refers to the interpretation of individual message elements in terms of their interconnectedness and of how meaning is represented in relationship to the entire discourse or text.

4. Strategic competenceIt refers to the coping strategies that the communicators employ to initiate, terminate, maintain, repair, and redirect communication.

VIII. Role of Teacher and Learner

The role of the teacher in a competency-based framework is not defined by specific terms. The teacher has to provide positive and constructive feedback in order to help the students to improve their skills. She/he needs to be aware of the learners’ needs so that everybody feels welcome in class. The different competencies dealt with in class require specific instructions for the various learning activities. Thus the teacher has to give clear orders and explanations to make sure that every student understands the task they are going to deal with. But the teacher does not push the students because the instructions are not time-based; instead the student’s progress is most important. Another task of the teacher in CBLT is to select learning activities and to design a syllabus according to the competency the students are going to acquire.

The role of the learner in a competency-based framework is to decide whether the competencies are useful and relevant for him/her. This shows that the learner has an active role in the classroom which is underlined by the fact that the students are expected to perform the skills learned. The competencies the students will learn are clearly defined and present in the public so that “the learner knows exactly what needs to be learned” and for which purpose he/she has to use the competencies. In this regard it is vital that every competency is mastered one at a time because this makes sure that the learners know what they have already learned and what the next steps will look like.

Moreover, the students have to stay in the actual program until they improve. After they mastered their skills, they move into a more proficient group of students. The main goal of the learner in Competency-Based Language Teaching is to be able to adapt and transfer knowledge from one setting to another.

IX. Materials

The materials the teacher chooses are mainly “sample texts and assessment tasks that provide examples of texts and assessment tasks that relate to the competency”. These materials are used to provide the students with “the essential skills, knowledge, attitudes, and behaviors required for effective performance of a real-world task or activity”. A great variety of competencies should be improved by these tasks. On the one hand, knowledge and learning competencies as well as oral competencies are dealt with. On the other hand, the materials include tasks to improve the reading and writing competencies.

X. Procedure

At the beginning of a course in a competency-based framework the students have to go through an initial assessment, in which the teacher determines the current proficiency level of the individual student. After this the students are grouped on the basis of “their current English proficiency level, their learning pace, their needs, and their social goals for learning English”. Furthermore, a course based on CBLT is divided into three stages, which the students have to go through in order to successfully finish the course. At Stages 1 and 2 the learners deal with twelve competencies which are related to general language development. At Stage 3 the students are grouped on the basis of their learning goals and “competencies are defined according to the three syllabus strands of Further Study, Vocational English, and Community Access”

Examples of how many of these principles apply in practice in seen in the work of the Australian Migrant Education Program, one of the largest providers of language training to immigrants in the world. The program has undergone a number of philosopical reorientations since the mid-1970s, moving from “centralised curriculum planning with ies comment-based and structural curriculum in the late 1970s, to decentalised learner-ceterd, need based planning with its multiplicity of methodologies and materials in the 1980s and yet more recently, to the indtroduction of competency based curriculumframeworks.

In 1993, a competency-based curriculum, the Certificate in spoken and Written English, was introduced as the framework for its programs. Learning outcomes are specified at three stages in framework at Stage 4 of the framework. Hagan describes how the framework operates :

After an initial assessment, student are placed within the framework in the basis of their current English proficiency level, their learning pace, their needs, and heir social goals for learning English. The twelve core competencies at Stage 1 and 2 relate to general language development. At stage 3, learners are more often.

The competency descriptions at each stage are divided into four domains:1. Knowledge and learning competencies2. Oral Competencies3. Reading competencies4. Writing competencies

All competencies are described in terms of:- Elements that break down the competency into smaller components and refer to the

essential linguistic features of the text- Performance criteria that specify the minimal performance required to achieve a

competency- Range of variable that sets limits for performance of the competency

- Sample text assessment tasks that provider example of texts and assessment tasks that relate to the competency.

XI. The Target of Learner

Basically, CBLT can be used in all levels of students. In Indonesia, there are academic competencies that must be achieved by students, known as Standar Kompetensi. Stated in Peraturan Menteri No. 23/2006, “Standar Kompetensi adalah ukuran kompetensi minimal yang harus dicapai peserta didik setelah mengikuti suatu proses pembelajaran padasatuan pendidikan tertentu.”But CBLT is used best for the learners who want to work and live in English-used atmosphere, for example working in English speaking Company.

The goal of CBLT is to enable students to become autonomous individuals capable of coping with the demands of the world. Not only the quality of assessment will improve, but the quality of teaching and student learning will be enhanced by the clear specification. Rather than teaching language in isolation, CBLT teaches language as a function of communication about concrete tasks. Students are taught just those language forms/skills required by the situation in which they will function. What counts is what students can do as a result of instruction. The emphasis is on overt behaviors rather than on knowledge or the ability to talk about language and skills.

The advantages of CBLT for the learners: relate to the learner’s needs and interest, the competencies have to do with learners’ needs and interests; the competencies that will be taught and tested are specific and public the learner knows exactly what needs to be leaned; competencies can be mastered one at time a time-the learner can see what has been learned and what still remains to be learned; and student re taught just those language forms/skills required by the situation in which they will function.

Although the advantages that CBLT presents are very relevant, it also has its critics since some authors argue that CBLT only focuses on behavior and performance rather than on the development of thinking skills, has prescriptive method and reductionist approach.

CHAPTER IIICONCLUSION

There are both critics and supporters of Competency-Based Language Teaching. According to Tollefson (1986) it is very difficult to develop lists of competencies for every specific situation. This is due above all to the fact that many areas in which people need certain competencies are impossible to operational. Other researchers argue that describing an activity in terms of a set of different competencies is not enough in order to deal with the complexity of the activity as a whole. But on the other hand, CBLT is gaining popularity in the whole world. It is argued that through the clearly defined outcomes and the continuous feedback in CBLT, the quality of assessment as well as the students’ learning and the teaching are improved (Docking, 1994). These improvements can be seen on all educational levels, “from primary school to university, and from academic studies to workplace training”. Rylatt and Lohan (1997) point out that“the business of improving learning competencies and skills will remain one of the world’s fastest growing industries and priorities” in the future.

The goal of CBLT is to enable students to become autonomous individuals capable of coping with the demands of the world. Not only the quality of assessment will improve, but the quality of teaching and student learning will be enhanced by the clear specification. Rather than teaching language in isolation, CBLT teaches language as a function of communication about concrete tasks. Students are taught just those language forms/skills required by the situation in which they will function. What counts is what students can do as a result of instruction. The emphasis is on overt behaviors rather than on knowledge or the ability to talk about language and skills.

REFERENCES

Auerbach, E. R. (1986). Competency-based ESL: One step forward or two steps back? TESOL Quarterly 20(3): 411 – 415.

Docking, R. (1994). Competency-based curricula – the big picture. Prospect 9(2): 11 – 15.

Grognet, A. G., & Crandall, J. (1982). Competency-bases curricula in adult ESL. ERIC/CLL New Bulletin 6: 3.

Hornby, A. S. (2000). Oxford Advanced Learner’s Dictionary of Current English (Sixth Edition). Oxford: OU

Mrowicki, L. (1986). Project Work English Competency-Based Curriculum. Portland, Oreg.: Northwest Educational Cooperative.

Richard, Jack C. Rodgers, Theodore S. Approach and Method in Language Teaching Second edition. Cambridge University Press. 1986.

Richards, J. C., & Rodgers, T. S. (2001). Approaches and Methods in Language Teaching (Second Edition). Cambridge: CUP.

Rylatt, A., &Lohan, K. (1997). Creating Training Miracles. Sydney: Prentice Hall

Schneck, E. A. (1978). A Guide to Identifying High School Graduation Competencies.

Tollefson, J. (1986). Functional competencies in the U.S. refugee program: Theoretical and practical problems. TESOL Quarterly 20(4): 649 – 664.