Action-oriented Approach in Practice

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Despite developments over the past 20 to 30 years in theories that inform language education, the predominant pedagogical approach in at least English Language Teaching (ELT) has not changed radically since the introduction of the coursebook-dominated ‘mature version’ of communicative language teaching (CLT) in the late 1980s and early 1990s. Task-based Language Teaching (TBLT) tried to address this issue, but the tasks involved generally remain very teacher-directed, with very precise instructions for the learners that leave them little room to decide how to approach the task or opportunity to (co-)construct a personally-meaningful artefact. By contrast, the action-oriented approach foregrounds learner agency in situated, collaborative learning. Learning needs to be experiential, rooted in dynamic learning situations that aim to maximise student engagement.

Learners are seen as a social agent: acting collaboratively in a defined context to complete a series of subtasks (steps) that lead towards the production of a performance or artefact. The teacher sets the frame for the action, provides scaffolding and may intervene to help learners with certain language that they need, but it is the learners who plan their ‘project.’ By drafting and redrafting/rehearsing, learners mobilise and extend their linguistic resources and general competences. Agency is developed through having a defined goal and some kind of plan, by monitoring how things are going and by reflecting on how to better achieve the goal. The effect of successfully developing such agency is to promote self-efficacy (the belief in future success based on experience of past success).

Exercise ✏️📕

  1. Please watch an 8-minute video by clicking on the link  The action-oriented approach (2023: Council of Europe) (08:18).
    • Think about the way in which the teachers who talk in the second part of the video have interpreted the action-oriented approach. How did the tasks they used give their learners more agency?
  2. Please read the extract The action-oriented approach: From theory to practice, (which is taken from the work From communicative to action-oriented: A research pathway).
    • Look at the scenario summaries that are given at the end of the extract. Could any of these be adapted to work with your class?
  3. Now watch this extract from the workshop presentation The action-oriented approach: From theory to practice in which scenarios are discussed in more detail.

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