COMPETENCE-BASED APPROACH
(CBA)
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COMPETENCE-BASED APPROACH
(CBA)
Today’s current issue on curriculum development is competence-based curriculum. Many teachers of secondary schools were sent to attend in-service training on this new approach. Manuals were published to guide teachers on how to implement this approach. At tertiary level, CBA should also be adopted as university graduates are expected to be competent to do their real-life tasks or to pursue their studies.
The key elements in the curriculum as generally proposed by the curriculum designers are objectives, contents, organization of contents, and evaluation. The latest curriculum model introduced by Stenhouse (1975) is process curriculum. In other words, the approach used in the curriculum design is a process approach, which basically considers the social, political, and educational context. The shift from product approach to process approach has made significant changes in language teaching program and in English language teaching in Indonesian universities in particular due to the changes in the social, political, and educational context. No curriculum is fixed. Any curriculum should be flexible to any change if the weaknesses are found after having been evaluated. The need in changing the objectives with competence-based ones is a proof that there are some weaknesses in the curriculum of ELTS providers throughout Indonesian universities.
CBA is taken into consideration to be an appropriate approach to specifying the objectives of syllabus or curriculum of English language teaching (ELT) in Indonesian universities although it is quite late as this approach has been used long time a go in other countries such as the United States and Australia. Since the emergence of this approach (1970) in the United States and the world wide implementation (1980), the language programs in those countries have still been using this approach now. The question is why do we not use this approach?
Designing the curriculum with competence-based objectives is not the end. The step we are going through is still just a planning. The next step is implementing. While we are implementing the competence-based curriculum, we are observing the implementation. The purpose of this observation is to find out if any problems leading to the weaknesses the teachers encounter in the learning and teaching situation. To gather information about this, direct observation and in-dept interview can be done. The information about the weaknesses obtained will be the valuable input for the future improvement and will be reflected in the new planning. In short, a process curriculum model goes through four major steps: planning, implementing, observing, and reflecting.
IMPLEMENTING CBA
Prior to implementing competency-based objectives, a particular procedure should be followed. First of all, the term competence should be clearly defined according to the related literature (Nunan 1990; Richards 2001). Next, competencies should be identified form the real-world tasks the students will do beyond the classroom. In other words, the real-world tasks should be analyzed into components or units of functional competencies. Then as competencies are unobservable, competencies should be specified in terms of performance or behavior. Once observable performance or behavior is identified, assessment is easily done. In other words, it is measurable.
Competence actually resembles performance in a way of specifying objectives. However, competence is higher in terms of generality (Nunan, 1990). Both competence and performance-based objectives should consist of three elements, performance or task, condition, and criterion. The following are examples of a three-element objective.
· Given an oral request [condition] the learner will say [performance] his/her name, his/her name, address and telephone number to a native speaker of English as spell his/her name, street and city so that an interviewer may write down the data with 100 % accuracy [criterion].
· Given oral directions for a 4-step physical action, the learner will follow the directions with 100% accuracy.
The next step is to select contents, which are relevant to the objectives specified. Then the contents are organized for classroom activities. The last step is evaluation to find out how well the competence-based objectives have been achieved by the students. In brief, having followed these steps, the implementation of CBA has been done.
Competence-based objectives specify what the learners will be able to do with the English language they have learnt. In order to achieve the objectives specified, there must be a need for a methodology, which specifies how to teach the competence-based materials in the syllabus. In brief, there are at least two things for teachers of English to consider-what to teach (syllabus) and how to teach (methodology).
Methodology is formulated as that which links theory and practice. Theory statements include theories of language and theories of language learning (approach). Such theories are linked to various design features of language instruction, which might include stated objectives, syllabus specifications, types of activities, roles of learners, teachers materials and so forth Design features then are linked to actual teaching and learning practice (Rogers, 2001). The following diagram are the components of language teaching methodology.
The components as shown in the diagram are the approach that describes theories of language and theories of language learning, design or syllabus design, content, the role of materials, teachers, and learners, and procedure or activities used in the classroom. So, the method has three levels: approach, design, and procedure.
The suggested idea underpinning ELT in Indonesia Universities to foster professionalism is competence-based approach, to get things done by using the language. In order to get things done, our students are expected to communicate. In other words, the instructional focus here is on functional competencies and life-coping skills. It is not what they know about language but what they do with language (Nunan, 1990).
In addition to competence-based approach to ELT, the principles underlying Communicative Language Teaching (CLT) are relevant to CBA. They are:
O Learners learn a language through using it to communicate;
O Authentic and meaningful communication should be the goal of classroom activities;
O Fluency is an important dimension of communication;
O Communication involves the integration of different language skills.
O Learning is a process of creative construction and involves trial and error.
Based on the principles above, competence-based syllabus can be designed by referring to any syllabus, which has similar approaches. For example, a skill-based syllabus, a task-based syllabus, and a national/functional syllabus are syllabuses, which are partly used to support competence-based syllabus. In other words, competence-based ELT should not stick to a certain syllabus. The convenient term for this is eclecticism.
Classroom activities for CBA should reflect competencies the students will have at the end of the program. The emphasis here is on the real-world activities relating to the any domain of life or according to the typical field of work the students will do. Some might argue that classroom activities are artificial. However, we still believe that the theory of transfer still works in a sense that what the students learn in the classroom can be transferred to the real world beyond the classroom.
Assessment of CBA is built in. Once the students are doing the classroom activities, we can assess the students’ performance. This is due to the nature of competencies, which refer to observable behaviors. How well the performance is depends on the standard or criteria specified.
STANDARDIZING CBA.
Standard of competence-based ELT in Indonesia universities may cover a wide range of areas. There are at least two areas that should be standardized. First of all, the existing curriculum should be revised or shifted to competence-based curriculum-competence-based syllabus. The competence-based objectives for various study programs should be identified. Each study program should have a competence-based syllabus. The other one is teacher professionalism. Teacher standards describe the skills that teachers should be able to demonstrate within certain define study programs.
On the part of the students, before they learn competence-based syllabus, they should be taught General English. Their proficiency on General English will definitely facilitate competence-based syllabus.
Most teachers of English in our universities are the teachers who are not specialized with competence-based syllabus. Most of the time, they teach general English. The problem may arise when they teach English related to a specific field of work. Take for example, the specified objective, ‘a students should be able to explain the process of growing a certain plant correctly, ’Indeed, the teacher does not teach the content, but the language. The Conference on Competence-Based ELT to Foster Professionalism will answer this.
Competence-based approach on ELT to foster professionalism to very urgent in this globalization era. The fact shows that many of our graduates fail to competence in the job market because of their insufficient proficiency of English. In order to foster professionalism, two things should be developed. First, the curriculum or syllabus with competence-based approach should be developed. The other one is the teaching staff.
Hutchinson, Torn and Alan Waters. 1987. English for Specific Purposes A learning Centered Approach. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Krahnke, Karl. 1987. Approaches to Syllabus Design for Foreign Language Teaching New Jersey: Prentice-Hall Inc.
Nunan, David. 2001. Performance Based Approaches to the Design of ESL Instruction. (Internet on Competence based Language Teaching).
Nunan, David. 1990. The Learner-Centered Curriculum: A study in Language Teaching. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Richards, Jack C. 2001. Curriculum Development in Language Teaching. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Rodgers, Theodore S. 2001. Language Teaching Methodology. ERIC Digest (Internet, http://www.cal.org/erieel/digest/rodgers.html)
Name : Abdul Kadir Mubarak
Date/Place of Birth : 15 October 1949/Pare-Pare, South Sulawesi
Occupation : A Teacher of English
University : University Tadulako
Date of Employment : March 01, 1980
Educational Background
§ Bachelor of Arts in English Education in 1975 in IKIP Makasar.
§ Undergraduate Program in English Education in 1985 in Tadulako University.
§ Diploma In Applied Linguistics, RELC-SEAMEO Singapore in 1992
§ Graduate Program in English Education in The State University of Malang in 2001