Abstract

THE TEXT-BASED APPROACH TO LANGUAGE TEACHING AND LEARNING IN EFL CLASSROOM

Qabas Jameel Rashid

Volume: 10 Issue: 1 2020

Abstract:

The article deals with the Text-Based Approach to Language Teaching and Learning (TBTL) in which text as the key focus is viewed through the prism of linguistics and pedagogics and is determined as the main didactic unit that serves as a goal and a result of a communicative interaction (addresser-material-addressee). Text is considered the means of communication and a way of storing and conveying information. The quality of text hinges upon how ably a communicant follows the particular structural, syntactical, morphological, and stylistic text-building rules. Being a unit of communication, text can be used for educational purposes in EFL classrooms and thus, can be studied as a linguistic object, vehicle for information, and a springboard for production. The text as a teaching/learning material should be selected according to the didactic and methodological text selection principles and the work with a text should go through four stages: familiarization, reading, text analysis, and production. Working with a text in the framework of the TBTL is regarded as effective, because the TBTL is an integrated communication-oriented approach, which enables learners to perceive, understand, and interpret a text and on its basis to create an authentic text: the one similar to the source text or absolutely independent. The way to the independent construction of the text goes through four stages: building a context, modelling, joint construction of the text, and finally independent construction of the text. On the example of the work with ONE text the author of the article demonstrates how the four language skills are developed through text. The activities analyzed show how the four skills can be integrated with the use of receptive, receptive-andreproductive, receptive-and-productive, and productive exercises. The advantages of integrated activities are significant: they develop basic skills, provide a deep understanding of content, form a critical thinker, encourage learners to communicate. The output of the TBTL is an authentic independent text creation, not an “average” text, but the text of a certain type and genre which proves that the TBTL involves genre-based teaching. The practical value of the text-building process lies in learner’s autonomy: it is obvious that to create their own text, learners should elaborate a number of texts, but the positive side of this proces, is that learners may select texts out of interests, work with texts beyond the boundaries of the syllabus and the borders of the classroom, be independent from the textbook and teachers’s directions. And this is a good springboard for critical thinking and creativity.

DOI: http://doi.org/10.37648/ijrssh.v10i01.054

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