Information collection & exchange

 
 
 
Impact on Your Classroom and Your Teaching 
In both of these approaches, the role of the teacher is to generate comprehensible input. This means that 
when presenting new materials you have to be prepared to speak, mime, draw, or use real objects to get 
your meaning across. Only when you are satisfied that your students understand and are ready to speak do 
you ask them to do so. Again, 
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way of satisfying that curiosity and a way
These approac
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greatest need is for listening comprehension. It is also useful when you lack adequate textbooks. Very few 
institutions offer courses which use only TPR or the Natural Approach, but many teachers have commented 
that comprehension-based activities reduce learning stress. 

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Figure 2.3 From Shifting Gears, Book 1, edited by Patrick Moran. Department of State and 
Experiment in International Living, 1983. Reprinted by permission. 
 
 
 
Competency-based approach 
Background 
e Competency-Based Approach focuses on acquiring life coping skills while developing the language to 
rform these skills. This approach is based on theories of adult learning which state that for effective 
rning to take place, adults need to know that what they are studying will improve their lives. The approach 
s been developed and applied in the United States to help 
Th
pe
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immigrants and refugees learn English and life 
ocational training. 
Dis
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materials are used and the learner is encouraged to practice the language by performing real tasks outside 
h
skills at the same time. It is also used in v
tinguishing Features 
e learner's needs dominate the Competency-Based Approach. Language skills and grammar and 
abulary are sequenced according to the learner's needs. Translation is used only if necessary for 
munication. Context is used as much as possible to help the learner deduce meaning. Authentic 

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of 
Approach, the Competency-Based Approach bases its activities on interaction. Pair work and group work 
re used to generate communication in activities such as problem solving and filling information gaps. In one 
ise, the learner is asked to find someone with the same information he or she 
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