Task-Based Language Teaching from the Teachers' Perspective
Insights from New Zealand
1st Edition
Published on 11. January 2012
XIX, 259 pages
978-90-272-8182-1 (ISBN)
Description
Task-based language teaching (TBLT) is being encouraged as part of a major overhaul of the entire school languages curriculum in New Zealand. However, teachers often struggle with understanding what TBLT is, and how to make TBLT work in classrooms. Using the stories that emerged from a series of interviews with teachers (the curriculum implementers) and with advisors (the curriculum leaders), this book highlights the possibilities for TBLT innovation in schools. It also identifies the constraints, and proposes how these might be addressed. The result is a book that, whilst rooted in a particular local context, provides a valuable sourcebook of teacher stories that have relevance for a wide range of people working in a diverse range of contexts. This book will be of genuine interest to all those who wish to understand more about TBLT innovation, and the opportunities and challenges it brings.
More details
Other editions
Additional editions
Book
01/2012
John Benjamins Publishing Co
€104.94
Shipment within 10-15 days
Person
Content
- Task-Based Language Teaching from the Teachers' Perspective
- Editorial page
- Title page
- LCC data
- Table of contents
- Series editors' preface to Volume 3
- Author's preface
- Acknowledgments
- List of key acronyms
- 1. TBLT in foreign language classrooms: Fundamental considerations
- Why New Zealand?
- Why teachers' voices?
- Investigating teachers' perspectives and practices
- Investigating teachers' perspectives and TBLT
- Investigating FL teachers' perspectives on TBLT in New Zealand
- Structure of the book
- 2. TBLT in New Zealand: Curriculum renewal
- Background
- Communicative Language Teaching: A paradigm found wanting?
- 'Weak' CLT
- 'Strong' CLT
- Problems with the guidelines
- Problems with assessment
- Subject enrolments
- New Zealand's 2007 school curriculum
- The new learning area: Moving away from CLT
- Practitioner perspectives
- The number one problem - recruitment and retention
- The impact of 'English-only' attitudes
- Curriculum and assessment requirements
- The advisors' perspective
- Conclusions
- 3. TBLT in New Zealand: Curriculum support
- Background
- The Ellis report: Introduction
- The ten principles in theory
- The ten principles in practice
- Opportunities for professional development and teacher support
- The ten principles and Learning Languages
- New curriculum support guidelines
- Curriculum Support Days
- The Teacher Professional Development Languages (TPDL) programme
- The impact of the principles on New Zealand's teachers
- A new operational framework for FL teaching and learning
- Practitioner perspectives
- The benefits of formulaic expressions
- Formulaic sequences and communicative activities
- The limitations of formulaic expressions
- Conclusions
- 4. TBLT and communication
- Background
- The core communication strand
- Tasks and pedagogical practice: Misunderstandings
- Defining tasks in theory
- Practitioner perspectives
- Viewpoints from the advisors
- Viewpoints from the teachers
- More developed interpretations of task
- Tasks for beginners in the language
- Tasks at the senior level
- Group work tasks as opportunities for co-construction of knowledge
- Conclusions
- 5. TBLT and language knowledge
- Background
- The supporting language knowledge strand
- Formal language knowledge within a TBLT framework
- Pedagogical implications
- Task selection and target structures: Should teachers make deliberate choices?
- Task completion and noticed structures: Should teachers make the rules explicit?
- Task follow-up and practice: Can teachers use grammar exercises?
- Focus on form in TBLT
- Practitioner perspectives
- Viewpoints from the advisors
- Viewpoints from the teachers
- Past and present experiences
- Inductive and deductive approaches
- Differentiating between the junior and senior years
- Transitioning towards TBLT: The case of Sophie
- Conclusions
- 6. TBLT and cultural knowledge
- Background
- The supporting cultural knowledge strand
- Communicative competence and intercultural competence
- Intercultural communicative competence as a theoretical construct
- Intercultural competence and TBLT
- Practitioner perspectives
- Culture as artefact
- Culture embedded within language / language as a mediator of culture
- Being intercultural and relating to otherness
- Culture and tasks
- Conclusions
- 7. TBLT and assessment
- Background
- Assessment paradigms
- Assessment for learning - the use of classroom-based tasks
- Towards the assessment of learning - task-based assessment in a broader context
- The assessment of learning - New Zealand's high-stakes assessment system
- Practitioner perspectives
- Assessment for learning: Opportunities for feedback and feedforward
- Accuracy versus fluency
- Feedback and learner-learner interactions
- Towards the assessment of learning: The place of more formal tests
- Developing more communicative tests
- The assessment of learning: Tasks within the current NCEA
- The assessment of learning: Tasks within the revised NCEA
- Conclusions
- 8. TBLT in foreign language classrooms: Into the future
- Lack of knowledge and understanding
- Concerns about effective learning
- Negative washback
- Into the future: A complex operational context
- Into the future: Teacher professional development
- Recommendations
- Challenge 1
- Challenge 2
- Challenge 3
- Limitations and directions for future research
- Postscript
- Notes
- References
- Appendix 1
- Appendix 2
- Appendix 3
- Appendix 4
- Index
