To begin with the Task Based Language Teaching general definition, TBLT is an approach that

focuses on the use of authentic language, the language that we use in the real life to perform daily
actions, so the students can achieve meaningful tasks inside the classroom using the target language,
they are encouraged to use the language in a creatively way, so they use the language unconsciously
through the tasks that are assigned in this way students can develop their proficiency in the target
language as well as their confidence using this method. During the teaching practicum sessions that
were developed this semester, it was required to implement the TBLT procedures proposed by Nunan
2004, during this paper we are going to describe the experiences we had tried to implement the TBLT
procedures in a real life context, the different adaptations we had made in order to start implementing
the theory, also the strengths we found during the implementation as well as the different challenges
we faced.

When we tried to implement the TBLT procedures to a real life context, it was necessary to adapt the
different stages to the specific scenario we had, so all the activities and tasks could be performed in
the best way. It was necessary to skip some specific stages proposed by Nunan in his book Task-
based language teaching due to some factors such as learners needs and age, the step that we skip was
the one in which the focus was on the linguistic elements and the grammatical structures (step number
4), this does not means we underestimated their skills, we are referring to their age and that was why
we always focused on teaching real content taken from reliable sources, however, some of the
adaptations we did were the Schema Building in order to warming up activities, call student's
attention, to promote motivation in every single class in that way, we were able to introduce each the
new topic, introduce the basic vocabulary and some expressions that enable the students to complete
any specific task. The second adaptation was the modification of the authentic material we used in
order to fit it to the context, needs and was as closed as possible to the real word, in that way, they
could create activities that were meaningful and relevant for them .

Some of the strengths that we could noticed while implementing the TBLT approach, were the fact
that it is totally possible to teach content even though the student's age, proficiency level and their
age. It is important to mention that our schoolers were between 4 and 6 years old, so they were not
able to read or write yet, however they always were willing to develop those skills. One of the
activities we implemented during a lesson were “the means of transportation” when it was evident
that they have a huge potential to produce and discriminate the ways to different vehicle use to go by
(land, water and land), on the other hand, another strength was the use of authentic audio- visual
material allowed us to implement the third step from the TBLT approach, that is to give the learners
an authentic listening practice. they were very receptive to this kind of tasks since they most of the
times got the main idea and discovered the purpose of the activity, we used interactive videos because
in that way students started to imitate and made some repetition drills taking into account what they
were observing, it was evident that through the use of the videos , all the students were exposed to the
target language in an intrinsically way, at the same time how to use it to perform real life tasks, since
that is the main objective of the TBLT approach.

Besides all the positive aspects we could experienced from the practicum teaching classes, there are
some relevant challenges that we as pre-service teachers faced, one of them is classroom
management, keep the students focused on the tasks assigned was not an easy effort, surely we had to
improve the classroom management since from the beginning of the teaching practicum the use of
different strategies that most of the times worked, one of the strategies was the use of rewards used to
enhance positive behaviours in the classroom, such as keep focus during the implementation of the
tasks proposed, this was one of the most difficult aspects regarding the classroom management, since
most of the students tended to get distracted easily, their attention to certain task that required to be
focused was limited also because of the disruptive behaviours that were evident in the classroom,
however, we need to be aware that these kind of situations are very typical or usual in our context,
since they are very young children, nevertheless at the end of the teaching practicum, we notices that
there were an improvement in some aspects of our classroom management skills, that is why we
realized and allowed us to raise awareness on classroom management as such.

Finally, after been implemented some of the steps proposed by Nunan 2004, and had accomplish
some of the requirements attached to the course, we can say that there will be always the need to
adapt or modify some features from the theory when trying to implement it in a real life context, adapt
some authentic material is one of the most important things when we want to teach the target
language, also during the implementation of the theory there will be some positive aspects and
strengths as well as big challenges to face. As a recommendation for the teachers who intend to
implement the TBLT in the classroom, will be to follow all the steps (Take into account the ages and
students needs) in order to obtain better results and outcomes for all the tasks and activities proposed
by the curriculum , the idea is try to link the previous background knowledge with the main purpose
of every activity or task that the students will perform.