A Study On Task-based Language Teaching In Rural Middle Schools From Teachers’ Perspective

With the advent of communicative language teaching approach in1980s,theemphasis of language teaching transfers from obtaining grammar knowledge todeveloping communicative competence of students. In this process, the term task-based language teaching came into use. Task-based language teaching was derivedfrom a procedural syllabus created by Prabhu in1982. After that, there have been alarge amount of researches on task-based language teaching in terms of theories,principles, and teaching procedure. It is believed that TBLT can motivate students andpromote language acquisition in some extent through creating more chances forstudents to use language, obtain more comprehensible input and produce moreunderstandable output. In the end of1990s, TBLT embarked to have an influence onforeign language teaching in China. In2001, the New English Curriculum Standardsfor Compulsory Education was issued, and TBLT began to attract more and moreattention, and then it has become one of the most popular teaching approaches inChina.This paper intends to investigate TBLT implementation situation in rural areamiddle schools of Yunnan Province through exploring teachers’understanding on task,and task-based language teaching, teachers’ views about benefits and limitations ofimplementing TBLT and asking their suggestions for improving effectiveness ofimplementing TBLT.60teachers from5rural area middle schools are invited to finisha questionnaire which contains30close-ended questions and two open-endedquestions. Two teachers are invited to do a semi-structured interview including threequestions.After analyzing the data, some major findings would be presented here:First of all, it can be confirmed that most of the teachers in rural area have acomparatively high-level understanding of task, and task-based language teaching.Specifically, more than80%of the teachers know that tasks in the class should be communicative goal directed.83.4%of the teachers agree that task-based languageteaching should follow a cycle of pre-task, during-task, and post-task three steps.These two items in the questionnaire reveal the key points of the task and task-basedlanguage teaching. Combining the data of other items, it is obvious that teachers havecommon knowledge about task-based language teaching.Secondly, with regard to teachers’ opinions on task-based language teachingimplementation in rural middle schools, teachers admit the advantages of this teachingmodel. About50%of the teachers believe that this method could increase students’communicative competence, and they insist that this teaching model could motivatestudents and enhance interactions among students in some degree. Despite of a higherlevel of understanding of TBLT concepts and positive attitude towards TBLT, manyteachers are not willing to adopt TBLT in their instruction. A clear majority ofteachers perceive that traditional exam-oriented evaluation system is the mainconstraint for them to implement this method. At the same time, limited teachingresource, large-sized class, and students’ poor English should be responsible foravoiding.Facing this situation, teachers give their suggestions to guarantee theimplementation of TBLT. They hope that more chances could be provided with themto do more professional training on task-based language teaching to help them solveproblems of designing tasks. Assessment is always the guideline of teaching, so adjustassessment system is a good way to change teachers’teaching behavior.