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The nuts and bolts of

TBLT in teacher education:

a principled approach

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Per Wennlund and Oliver Smith

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The Swedish context

Stockholm

English has high status

TBLT not common

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Our students and our courses

Beginners

Many subjects

Our course

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1. Ordering – experience first

One task

Receptive to productive

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1. Ordering – experience first

So… delay creation of own tasks

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2. Rewording – the three criteria

Design the activity so that learners must …

 

Produce a non-linguistic result, other than correct language use

 

Use their existing resources, linguistic and non-linguistic

 

Need to understand or understand and convey pragmatic information

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2. Rewording – the three criteria

So… adjust wording when needed

Design the activity so that learners must …

 

Produce a non-linguistic result, other than correct language use

 

Use their existing resources, linguistic and non-linguistic

 

Need to understand or understand and convey pragmatic information

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3. Processing – content tasks

Content task

Depth of processing

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3. Processing – content tasks

So… help learners think

Content task

Depth of processing

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4. Repackaging – reduce and visualise

Too many examples

Cognitive overload

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4. Repackaging – reduce and visualise

So… keep only what is needed

Too many examples

Cognitive overload

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5. Spacing – Extend and Retrieval

More time…

…more retrieval

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5. Spacing – Extend and Retrieval

So – give TBLT as much room as possible

More time…

…more retrieval

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  1. Ordering – Experience first, start with reception and delay production
  2. Rewording – Adapt 4 criteria to meet learner’s L1s, reword accordingly
  3. Processing – Help students process materials and think deeply, adapt your pedagogy
  4. Repackaging – Reduce content when possible, visualize concepts
  5. Spacing – Extend sessions/course, allow for retrieval over time

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  1. Ordering – Experience first, start with reception and delay production
  2. Rewording – Adapt 4 criteria to meet learner’s L1s, reword accordingly
  3. Processing – Help students process materials and think deeply, adapt your pedagogy
  4. Repackaging – Reduce content when possible, visualize concepts
  5. Spacing – Extend sessions/course, allow for retrieval over time

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per.wennlund@su.se

oliver.smith@su.se

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You’re welcome to contact us!