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Growing With Proficiency The Podcast
Welcome to Growing With Proficiency: The Podcast! Are you a World Language teacher who is looking for ideas, strategies, activities, and inspiration to create a World Language class where you and your students enjoy using the language to learn about the world and each other? Do you want to transform your class into an acquisition-driven instruction space where you intentionally provide a ton of comprehensible input?
If you are, you're in the right place.
Let's start this journey together. Head over to IG, and send me a DM @claudiamelliott to let me know what topics you would like me to cover in an upcoming episode.Join my free Facebook community, Growing With C. Also, check out my blog to start discovering some of these ideas and strategies at growingwithproficiency.com
Growing With Proficiency The Podcast
Episode 168: How Can Task-Based Language Teaching Engage Students in Authentic Communication With Purpose? A conversation with Dr. Claudia Fernández
Have you ever noticed that some students struggle to see their progress in an acquisition-driven classroom?
When your lessons focus on comprehensible input and communication, progress can feel invisible to students used to “right or wrong” answers. That’s why Task-Based Language Teaching (TBLT) can be such a game-changer.
In this episode, I talk with Dr. Claudia Fernández, one of the leading voices on TBLT, about how this approach helps students engage in authentic language use to achieve a real communicative goal.
You’ll hear strategies for bringing TBLT into your classroom while keeping language acquisition and connection at the heart of instruction.
Key Takeaways
- A task isn’t just an activity. It has a clear communicative outcome that mirrors real-life language use.
- Authenticity builds motivation. Students feel successful because they accomplish something meaningful.
- TBLT aligns with CI. It naturally supports acquisition through input, interaction, and purpose.
- You can adapt it anywhere. From textbook classes to upper levels, TBLT fits any context.
Why It Matters
Task-Based Language Teaching bridges the gap between knowing about language and using language.
It helps students experience the power of communication — not just as practice, but as a purpose.
Recommended Resources for Teachers:
Bill VanPatten – The Nature of Language and While We’re on the Topic
Martin East – Foundational Principles of Task-Based Language Teaching (Free online)
Daniel O. Jackson – Task-Based Language Teaching: A Concise Introduction
Florencia Henshaw & Maris Hawkins – Common Ground
TBLT Task Bank – Community-shared tasks by level and theme
Growing With Proficiency The Podcast Playlist about Acquisition, Language and Communication.
More resources:
- Join the waitlist for Growing With Proficiency: The Spanish Teacher Academy → growingwithproficiency.com/academy
- Follow me on Instagram @claudiamelliott
- 📑 Discover culturally rich, month-specific resources for Spanish classes in my TPT Store: Growing With Proficiency.
