Competency-Based Language Teaching (CBLT) is an application of the principles of Competency-Based Education to language teaching. By the end of 1970s,CBLT was mostly used in ―work-related and survival-oriented language teaching programs for adults. Since the 1990s CBLT has been seen as the state-of –the-art approach to adult ESL. Recently, it has reemerged in some parts of the world as a major approach to the panning of language programs. Competency-based Language Teaching is designed not around the notion of subject knowledge but around the notion of competency. Criterion-based assessment is essential for CBLT. Students have to perform specific language skills which they have already learned during the course.
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. Central to both L & L theory is the view that language can be functionally analyzed into appropriate parts and subparts: that such parts and subparts can be taught (and tested) incrementally. CBLT takes a ”mosaic” approach to LL in that the “whole” (communicative competence) is constructed from smaller components correctly assembled. CBLT is built around the notion of CC and seeks to develop functional communication skills in learners. CBLT thus shares some features with CLT.
CBLT seeks to develop students‘ competencies from what they know about language to what they do with it, especially essential skills, knowledge, attitudes, and behaviors required for effective performance of a real-world task or activity. The final goal is to enable students to become autonomous individuals capable of coping with the demands of the world.
The eight features of CBLT: (1) a focus on successful functioning in society. (2) a focus on life skills to determine. (3) task-or performance-centered orientation. (4) modularized instruction. (5) outcomes that are made explicit a priori. (6) continuous and ongoing assessment. (7) demonstrated mastery of performance objectives. (8) individualized, student- centered instruction.