TBL (Task-Based Learning) approach and multilingual environment

Abstract

For the last few years multilingual education has become very popular in Georgia. Multilingual classes consisting of Georgian and Azeri or Armenian, or both students have become common at Tbilisi State University. The paper aims at studying the emerged problems related to this issue as teaching English in multilingual classes poses challenges to the teaching approaches, strategies, methods and procedures applied in the multilingual environment. The solution to this problem requires from a certain teacher to find new approaches or adjust the existing well tried methods to teaching English to the students with multilingual backgrounds.

The paper deals with the problem of teaching English in a multilingual classroom. The main focus is made on the application of the TBL (Task Based Learning) method in teaching vocabulary, namely, phrasal verbs compared to the other traditional approaches, in particular, PPP (Presentation, Practice, Production). Analyzing the opportunities of the TBL approach the presented paper highlights the advantages as well as the anticipated drawbacks. The ways of the elimination of these downsides are outlined, as well. Taking into consideration the obstacles in the process of the introduction of the material, then its comprehension and acquisition by the students, the paper attempts to single out the benefits of the TBL approach in multilingual groups. The results of the experiment conducted in the target multilingual groups of ESP students, level B1, has revealed the priority of the TBL versus PPP approaches.