Speaker
Description
Abstract
Task-based language teaching (TBLT) has been a well-established research area and gained prominence in language teaching for the last few decades. In Vietnam, to develop EFL learners’ communicative competence, TBLT has recently been promoted in education at all levels. A good illustration for this is the recent launch of "Tieng Anh 10" textbook series. However, little has been known about how TBLT is perceived and implemented by English teachers who are in charge of teaching English to 10 graders at public high schools with the new coursebooks. This study is an attempt to explore teachers’ perceptions and practices of TBLT in speaking classes with "Tieng Anh 10 Bright", one of the three newly design textbooks. The study employed a mixed-methods approach in which a questionnaire for quantitative data and semi-structured interview for quanlitative data were used. The findings showed that majority of teachers had a good understanding of tasks and TBLT in general. All the teacher participants revealed that TBLT is included in the treatment of all the four skills in the coursebook. In addition, it was found that most of the teachers had a positive view of the integration of into their classrooms, although they shared some significant difficulties in utilizing the method. However, large class size and limited preparation time were the most serious reported obstacles they faced when implementing the method. This study suggests some recommentation for the implementations of TBLT in the teaching of speaking skills to high school students in Vietnam and similar contexts.
