An overview of the methods and approaches in language teaching: a reading proposal based on a TBLT approach

Abstract

The aim of this paper is to introduce a Reading Proposal that presents the English language in a more real an authentic way than the readings implemented in traditional contexts and more teacher-centered classrooms. In order to achieve this goal, a Task-Based Language Teaching (TBLT) Approach has been employed. However, as TBLT is one of the last approaches and one of the more communicative ones, it is essential to delve back to all the previous approaches and methods of language teaching and learning in order to understand the evolution of language teaching. For this reason, it is set up at the beginning of this paper the different approaches and methods in the History of English teaching. As the main focus of this research is to propose a series of tasks employing a TBLT approach that differs from the traditional teaching and learning, tasks are a key factor in this practice because they give learners the opportunity to face real life situations that reflect learners’ experiences in some way. In fact, the pedagogical proposal that is presented at the end of this paper deals with the importance of the reading skill in English as a Foreign Language (EFL) contexts. The present study tries to create different types of tasks such as opinion exchange and problem-solving tasks that differ from traditional activities in which learners learn by memorization and translation. These authentic tasks give learners the chance to face with real world situations and it improves their awareness when using the English language. Nevertheless, as it is a proposal, it is not going to be implemented in an EFL classroom due to the limited time and the inability to have all the necessary tools for doing it. However, it would be convenient to use them for a further implementation.