Communicative Competence

Click here for a more complete explanation of Communicative Comptetence based on Canale and Swain's (1980) 4-part definition.   

Here you'll find an excellent and concise essay by Donna Moss which describes the relationship between the Communicative Language Teaching (the instructional approach), the theory on which CLT is based (M. Long's Interaction Hypothesis), and CLT's ultimate goal (Communicative Competence).  At the end of her essay, there is a nice list of activities that foster communicative competence.

Task-based Learning

Task-based Learning (TBL) or Task-based Instruction (TBI) is a foreign language instructional method that focuses on setting real-world tasks for students to solve by speaking and negotiating in the target language.  Like other meaning-based approaches, it values authentic language and communication.  

TBL is based on Michael Long's Interaction Hypothesis and is closely related to Communicative Language Teaching (CLT), Speech Acts, and the Notional-Functional Syllabus.  TBL's focus on solving problems and producing real-world outcomes sets it apart from many other methods which tend to focus solely on linguistic exercises.

Consultants and methodologists Jane and Dave Willis are among the best known developers and proponents of TBL. The British Council and the BBC's excellent "Teaching English" website has published several of Jane Willis's articles on TBL.

• The first is an article which introduces TBL and explains why it offers a nice alternative to traditional Presentation, Practice, Production (PPP) lessons.
  
  
• The next four are a series:
  (1) Criteria for identifying tasks for TBL
  (2) Six types of tasks for TBL
  (3) From tasks to language focus and grammar
  (4) Making time for tasks and still covering the syllabus
  
  
• Finally, on their own website, Jane and Dave Willis provide 3 Free TBL Lesson Plans complete with commentary and suggestions.
  

The September 2006 Issue of Asian EFL Journal was devoted to Task-based Learning in an Asian context.  

All the articles in this issue were presented at the 2006 Asian EFL Journal Conference which was held in Pusan, Korea. 

FYI:  the 2009 Asian EFL Journal Conference will be held in Pusan April 10 & 11.

Steven Pinker

For those of you interested in Language Acquisition, a fascinating author to check out is Steven Pinker.

Although now a professor at Harvard University, Pinker taught at MIT for more than twenty years in their Department of Brain and Cognitive Science, eventually becoming director for the Center for Cognitive Science there. (Check out his current research topics here.)

He is best known for his idea that human language developed in a Darwinian fashion through natural selection, and this is the subject of his best-selling popular science book The Language Instinct.

This book explores ideas of innatism, in many ways following the theories established by Noam Chomsky but differing from them in other ways, as well. (This book can be found in our SKKU-GU TESOL Library.)

Another of Pinker's best-selling books, Words and Rules, explores the various ways the brain acquires and interacts with language.

He suggests that the brain acquires and stores different aspects of language in different ways. Vocabulary, idioms, and irregular verbs, for example, are catalogued in a 'mental dictionary,' while rules of syntax and morphology are aquired by trial-and-error rule development (based, of course, on our innate 'language instinct') and are stored and accessed differently.

Langage Immersion vs Content-based Language Learning

In our classes, we have talked about 'immersion language learning' and 'content-based language learning.'  These two methods certainly have a lot in common -- indeed, frequently the two terms are used interchangeably.  Some argue, however, that there are differences.  

Josef Messerklinger suggests that one typical difference seems to be the age of the target student: 'immersion' referring to programs focusing on early childhood and elementary education, and 'content-based language learning' referring to programs geared toward secondary, university, or adult students. (Click here for Messerklinger's entire essay.  I found the "Similarities and Differences" section most helpful.)

Also, several of the immersion studies cited in Lightbown and Spada's How Languages are Learned are based upon research done on the French Immersion Program in Canada.  A few years ago, Jim Cummins, a respected scholar and researcher in the TESOL field, wrote an essay summarizing and describing what researchers have learned from more than 30 years of research on Canada's immersion program.  (right, Jim Cummins)

Total Physical Response (TPR)

For those of you who are interested in the Total Physical Response (TPR) method, here are a few links that might be helpful.

• TPR World:  This is a James Asher's website which is dedicated to promoting TPR, and, of course, selling his books and products!  (right, James Asher)
  
  
• Total Physical Response Storytelling (TPRS):  This is a more recent expansion of the original TPR method.  (Actually, they still use the same acronym, TPRS, but they have officially  changed the name to Teaching Proficiency through Reading and Storytelling.) This version of TPR involves fewer commands and more storytelling, and its proponants claim it offers a more balanced approach to second language acquisition than the original TPR. 
  
  
• TPR Sequences: This is posted on EnglishRaven.com, a useful website for English teachers.  The site is hosted by Australian Jason Renshaw who is a professor at Kyungpook National University in Daegu, Korea.  SKKU students might also be interested to know that Jason's wife is Korean and together they have a child.   (right, Jason Renshaw and his family)
  
  
• TPR Instructional Video:  This video comes from the series "Teacher Training Through Video: ESL Techniques" (K. Lynn Savage, editor).
  Teacher Training Through Video, Clip 1: Total Physical Response
  

• TPR Activity Videos.  Jeremy Harmer has posted a number of useful videos on YouTube and on his own website that may help you visualize a few TPR activities.