A Study On Relationship Between High School English Teachers’ Beliefs About Task-based Language Teaching And Their Classroom Praxis

Language teachers’ beliefs about language teaching and learning play an important role in their classroom practices.Teachers make decisions about classroom instruction in light of their theoretical beliefs about teaching and learning.The new English curriculum for senior high schools(2003)recommends task-based teaching methods(TBLT)be used to develop students’ overall language competence.Therefore,teachers’ perception on TBLT has a direct impact on the successful implementation of new curriculum and teaching innovation.The motivation for this thesis stems from our interest in exploring what sense teachers make of the need to use tasks and the implications this has for the implementation of the curriculum.In order to explore senior secondary school English teachers’ beliefs on TBLT and its implementation,this research investigates and compares the stated beliefs and observed classroom praxis of secondary school teachers of English with regard to TBLT.The study aims to find answers to the following three research questions: 1)What beliefs do high school English teachers have toward TBLT? 2)Are teachers’ beliefs consistent with their teaching practices in classroom observations? 3)If there exists any discrepancies,what accounts for this phenomenon?The author mainly adopted questionnaire,interview and classroom observation to research on the study.The questionnaire was adapted and modified from Nunan’s(2004)checklist for evaluating communicative tasks,and was used to explore English teachers’ beliefs on TBLT.100 high school English teachers from six schools in Nanchang city and Wannian county of Jiangxi province participated in the study,and completed the questionnaires for their understanding of TBLT.Interviews and classroom observations were conducted to get deeper insights into teachers’ beliefs and teachers’ classroom praxis.6 out of the 100 teachers were chosen to take part in the qualitative study.The author observed one lesson of each teacher,six lessons in all.Six teachers were all chosen randomly from the Attached Middle School to Jiangxi Normal University(the Attached Middle School to JXNU)and Wannian Middle School.After classroom observation,each teacher was interviewed for their classroom practices and opinions on TBLT implementation.Results of the data are analyzed by SPSS.The overall findings of the survey show that: 1)The majority of respondents have a high level of understanding about TBLT concepts and implementation,regardless of which grade they teach.70% respondents understood that task has a communicative purpose.89% considered task as a kind of activity.86% responded positively when questioned about interest in implementing TBLT in the classroom.2)According to classroom observations and after-class interviews,however,teachers’ beliefs are not consistent with their teaching practices.Few of observed teachers used TBLT in their classes.Even the youngest one had to be accustomed to traditional teaching model.It seemed difficult to change.And experienced teachers were unwilling to adapt to the new teaching model.3)Data analysis showed that difficulties in assessing students’ performance and large class size were the main two reasons teachers were reluctant to implement TBLT,giving a response rate of 51% and 51% respectively.Additionally,some useful implications are proposed based on research findings.On the one hand,since teachers’ understanding of TBLT impacts greatly on teachers’ attitudes toward its implementation,teachers should be given more opportunities to acquire the knowledge of TBLT concerning designing,planning,executing,and evaluating.On the other hand,it is suggested that reducing the large-sized class and reforming the assessment system be stressed on the agenda.Traditional assessment is recommended to be replaced by formative assessment which highlights the diversity of forms,contents,and methods.