The TATE model: a curriculum design framework for language teaching

Abstract

Abstract This article proposes a curriculum design framework for instructed additional language learning comprising four phases: Text, Analysis, Task, Exploration (TATE). The framework is argued to be compatible with both natural order theory and skill acquisition theory through its ability to integrate meaning-focused tasks within a task-supported approach to language teaching that allows for both implicit and explicit learning processes to occur. It is presented as an integrated skills model consistent with contemporary research on the learning of both lexis and grammar, recognizing the importance of both written and spoken language practice during tasks. Evidence of current trends in global coursebook design is presented to support the framework from a sociocultural perspective. I argue that the framework is potentially compatible with CLIL and project-based approaches to language learning, but caution that the model is not presented as universally applicable; as such it is offered as a tool in the curriculum designer’s and teacher’s ‘toolbox’ for planning courses and curricula.