Chen, Q and Wright, CEM orcid.org/0000-0003-3962-7903 (2017) Contextualisation and authenticity in TBLT: Voices from Chinese classrooms. Language Teaching Research, 21 (4). pp. 517-538. ISSN 1362-1688
Abstract
In view of ongoing debates about the future of TBLT in EFL contexts (Thomas & Reinders, 2015; Zheng & Borg, 2014), we present a detailed case study of teacher beliefs and practices regarding TBLT conducted in a secondary school in mainland China with a long history of communicative and task-based teaching approaches. We used a mixed-methods approach to gather a broad range of triangulated data, combining individual interviews, material analysis and observations coded using a novel task-focused version of the COLT scheme (Littlewood, 2011; Spada & Fröhlich, 1995). Quantitative and qualitative findings revealed positive beliefs about TBLT principles in general, reflecting strong institutional support for communicative teaching. However, there was marked variability between beliefs and practices in using tasks, especially with beginner-level learners. Most teachers demonstrated an intrinsic lack of confidence in using tasks as more than a communicative ‘add-on’ to standard form-focused teaching. We argue this demonstrates a need for building teacher autonomy (Aoki, 2002; Benson, 2007), in implementing TBLT, even in supportive settings, to support successful authentic contextualising TBLT principles in different EFL contexts.
Metadata
Item Type: | Article |
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Authors/Creators: |
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Copyright, Publisher and Additional Information: | © 2016, The Authors. Published by SAGE Publications. This is an author produced version of a paper published in Language Teaching Research. Uploaded in accordance with the publisher's self-archiving policy. |
Keywords: | Case study; China; EFL; task-based language teaching; teacher beliefs and practices |
Dates: |
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Institution: | The University of Leeds |
Academic Units: | The University of Leeds > Faculty of Arts, Humanities and Cultures (Leeds) > School of Languages Cultures & Societies (Leeds) > Linguistics & Phonetics (Leeds) |
Depositing User: | Symplectic Publications |
Date Deposited: | 23 Sep 2016 13:47 |
Last Modified: | 08 Mar 2018 11:54 |
Published Version: | http://dx.doi.org/10.1177/1362168816639985 |
Status: | Published |
Publisher: | SAGE Publications |
Identification Number: | 10.1177/1362168816639985 |
Open Archives Initiative ID (OAI ID): | oai:eprints.whiterose.ac.uk:105131 |