Journal of the National Council of Less Commonly Taught Languages (Oct 2017)
Chinese Language Teachers’ Perceptions and Implementation of Task-based Language Teaching in the US
Abstract
This study explores Chinese language teachers’ responses to task-based language teaching (TBLT) in the US. It investigates their perceptions and understanding of the approach, views on and confidence in implementing tasks in the classroom. Two hundred and eighty Chinese language teachers at the secondary and post-secondary levels participated in an online questionnaire, and their responses were analyzed quantitatively through the Fisher’s exact test. These data were complemented by qualitative input from the respondents. The results of the study showed that both secondary and post-secondary school teachers had appropriate understanding of tasks and task-based language teaching. Although secondary school teachers tended to recognize more pedagogical and curricular values of implementing tasks than did post-secondary teachers, overall secondary teachers demonstrated a lower level of confidence in creating and implementing tasks than did post-secondary teachers. Limitations of the study and future research directions are discussed at the end of the paper.
