Beliefs and Practice in Task-Based Learning

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Task-Based Learning (TBL) as a popular western English Language Teaching (ELT) methodology is now widely adopted by many textbook writers and language teachers in the ESL/EFL classroom. Teachers in Hong Kong “are already being urged to move on from earlier forms of CLT” and introduce TBL to teach English (Littlewood, 2006). Yet there is a doubt that whether the Task-based approach is being effectively implemented in the Hong Kong ESL context as the conventional PPP (Presentation, Practice and Production) approach can still be observed in most Hong Kong classrooms. Grounded on such arguments, it is worth studying teacher’s beliefs about using TBL which essentially influence instruction and contribute to the successful implementation of the pedagogy in the ESL/EFL classroom. Furthermore, it is worth of note that students need to believe that they can learn effectively in TBL lessons and hence like the Task-based approach to bring out the benefits of using the Task-based approach such as arousing students’ interests in learning. However, students’ beliefs and their attitudes towards the use of TBL have not yet been fully explored and investigated in literature. In this presentation, the notion of the adaptive use of TBL will be explained and discussed with reference to an experimental study of the use of such pedagogy to teach English among a group of SL learners in a Hong Kong secondary school. The presentation will be divided into three parts to discuss: 1) students’ beliefs about using TBL; 2) how students’ beliefs about using TBL differ from/similar to those held by the teacher; 3) the interactiveness between teachers’ beliefs about using TBL and how students’ attitudes towards the use of TBL in classroom are directly influenced by the teacher’s instruction.

Stream: Literacy, Language, Multiliteracies; Languages Education and Second Language Learning

Paper: A paper has not yet been submitted.

Miss Ingrid To is trained as an English teacher at the Faculty of Education, The Chinese University of Hong Kong. She has been involved in coaching supplementary English classes at primary school and developing language enhancement projects for secondary school students.

Dr. Eunice Tang has extensive experience teaching English at secondary
school and training English teachers at university. Her research interest and
publications include vocabulary teaching and learning, multi-media language
learning and pre-service English teacher education.