TBL and PBL: Two Learner-Centered Approaches

By Katherine Bilsborough
Many newly qualified or inexperienced teachers tend to base their lesson planning on the
traditional PPP approach (Presentation, Practice, and Production) because it is reliable and it
is a valid framework around which to base a series of classroom activities. It is also usually
the best way of covering all the lexical areas and grammar points in the course book or
syllabus. The problem is that PPP serves the teachers needs but it is debatable whether or not
it fulfills the needs of the learner. The language presented and practiced does not take into
account the particular needs of each learner; the language content is almost always dictated
by the course book and/or syllabus. For this reason, many teachers, having experimented with
the PPP approach turn to more learner-centered approaches where the needs of the learner are
central to the lesson content. Two such approaches are TBL (Task-Based Learning) and PBL
(Project-Based Learning).
What Is Task-Based Learning (TBL)?
In task-based learning, the central focus of the lesson is the task itself, not a grammar point or
a lexical area, and the objective is not to "learn the structure" but to "complete the task." Of
course, to complete the task successfully students have to use the right language and
communicate their ideas. The language therefore becomes an instrument of communication,
whose purpose is to help complete the task successfully. The students can use any language
they need to reach their objective. Usually there is no "correct answer" for a task outcome.
Students decide on their own way of completing it, using the language they see fit. Different
teachers use TBL in different ways. Some integrate it into the existing syllabus, some use it to
replace the syllabus altogether, and some use it as an extra to their traditional classroom
activities. But generally, teachers using a TBL approach divide their task-based classes into
three stages:
Stage 1: This is the pre-task stage. The teacher introduces the topic and familiarizes students
with situations/lexical areas/texts (reading and listening). This draws the students into the
topic and brings up language that may be useful. The teacher then explains what the task is
and sets up the activity.
Stage 2: Students perform the task in pairs or groups. They may then present their
findings/conclusions to the rest of the class. In this stage, mistakes are not important; the
teacher provides support and monitors. The learners focus on communication, perhaps at the
expense of accuracy, but this will be dealt with in the next stage.
Stage 3: The teacher works on specific language points which come up in stage 2. (During
the monitoring stage, most teachers take notes of common errors and students particular
learning needs). Students reflect on the language needed to complete the task and how well
they did. This is their opportunity to concentrate on accuracy and make sure they resolve any
doubts or problems they had.
Tasks can be as simple as putting a list of animals in order from fastest to slowest and then
trying to agree with a partner on the correct order. Or it could be something more
complicated like a survey to find out which parts of town your classmates live in and how
they get to school, ending in visual information presented in the form of pie charts and maps.
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Or it could be something really complicated like a role-play involving a meeting in the Town
Hall of the different people affected by a new shopping center development and the
consequent demolition of a youth center and old peoples home. Whatever the task, it should
always have some kind of completion; and this completion should be central to the class the
language resulting naturally from the task and not the other way around.
The advantage of TBL over more traditional methods is that it allows students to focus on
real communication before doing any serious language analysis. It focuses on students needs
by putting them into authentic communicative situations and allowing them to use all their
language resources to deal with them. This draws the learners attention to what they know
how to do, what they dont know how to do, and what they only half know. It makes learners
aware of their needs and encourages them to take (some of the) responsibility for their own
learning. TBL is good for mixed-ability classes; a task can be completed successfully by a
weaker or stronger student with more or less accuracy in language production. The important
thing is that both learners have had the same communicative experience and are now aware
of their own individual learning needs.
Another advantage of this approach is that learners are exposed to a wide variety of language
and not just grammar. Collocations, lexical phrases and expressions, chunks of language, and
things that often escape the constraints of the traditional syllabus come up naturally in taskbased lessons. But this can also be a disadvantage. One of the criticisms of TBL is this
randomness. It doesnt often fit in with the course book/syllabus, which tends to present
language in neat packages. Some teachers (and learners) also find the move away from an
explicit language focus difficult and anarchistic. Many teachers also agree that it is not the
best method to use with beginners, since they have very few language resources to draw on to
be able to complete meaningful tasks successfully.
What Is Project-Based Learning (PBL)?
The PBL approach takes learner-centeredness to a higher level. It shares many aspects with
TBL, but if anything, it is even more ambitious. Whereas TBL makes a task the central focus
of a lesson, PBL often makes a task the focus of a whole term or academic year. Again, as
with TBL, different teachers approach project work in different ways. Some use it as the
basis for a whole years work; others dedicate a certain amount of time alongside the
syllabus. Some use projects only on short courses or "intensives." Others try to get their
schools to base their whole curriculums on it. But there are generally considered to be four
elements which are common to all project-based activities/classes/courses:
1. A central topic from which all the activities derive and which drives the project toward a
final objective.
2. Access to means of investigation (the Internet has made this part of project work much
easier) to collect, analyze, and use information.
3. Plenty of opportunities for sharing ideas, collaborating, and communicating. Interaction
with other learners is fundamental to PBL.
4. A final product (often produced using new technologies available to us) in the form of
posters, presentations, reports, videos, web pages, blogs, and so on.
The role of the teacher and the learner in the PBL approach is very similar to the TBL
approach. Learners are given freedom to go about solving problems or sharing information in
the way they see fit. The teacher acts as a monitor and facilitator, setting up frameworks for
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communication, providing access to information and helping with language where necessary,
and giving students opportunities to produce a final product or presentation. As with TBL, the
teacher monitors interaction but doesnt interrupt, dealing with language problems at another
moment.
The advantages and disadvantages of PBL are similar to those of TBL, but the obvious
attraction of project-based learning is the motivating element, especially for younger learners.
Projects bring real life into the classroom; instead of learning about how plants grow (and all
the language that goes with it), you actually grow the plant and see for yourself. It brings
facts to life. The American educational theorist John Dewey wrote education is not a
preparation for life; education is life itself. Project work allows life itself to form part of
the classroom and provides hundreds of opportunities for learning. Apart from the fun
element, project work involves real-life communicative situations (analyzing, deciding,
editing, rejecting, organizing, delegating ) and often involves multi-disciplinary skills
which can be brought from other subjects. All in all, it promotes a higher level of thinking
than just learning vocabulary and structures.

Conclusion
Both TBL and PBL focus primarily on the achievement of realistic objectives, and then on
the language that is needed to achieve those objectives. They both treat language as an
instrument to complete a given objective rather than an isolated grammar point or lexical set
to learn and practice. They give plenty of opportunity for communication in authentic
contexts and give the learner freedom to use the linguistic resources he/she has, and then
reflect on what they learned or need to learn. Finally, as EFL/ESL teachers are eclectic by
nature, teachers often use a combination of TBL, PBL, and traditional techniques such as
PPP. Some teachers use TBL and PBL as a small part of a more conventional approach and
many teachers on 100% TBL/PBL courses resort to PPP type activities when dealing with
grammar or vocabulary problems. As always, the important thing is to use what works best
for you and your learners.