Efl Teachers'' Perceptions Of Task-Based Language Teaching A Case Study At A Midtier Language Center In Ho Chi Minh City Ma .Pdf

VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY – HOCHIMINH CITY UNIVERSITY OF SOCIAL SCIENCES AND HUMANITIES FACULTY OF ENGLISH LINGUISTICS AND LITERATURE EFL TEACHERS’ PERCEPTIONS OF TASK BASED LANGUAGE TEACHING A CASE[.]

VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY – HOCHIMINH CITY UNIVERSITY OF SOCIAL SCIENCES AND HUMANITIES FACULTY OF ENGLISH LINGUISTICS AND LITERATURE EFL TEACHERS’ PERCEPTIONS OF TASK-BASED LANGUAGE TEACHING: A CASE STUDY AT A MIDTIER LANGUAGE CENTER IN HO CHI MINH CITY A thesis submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirement for the degree of Master in TESOL By THACH THI QUACH THI Supervised by CAO THI PHUONG DUNG, Ph.D HO CHI MINH CITY, OCTOBER 2022 ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS I would like to extend my sincerest gratitude to several people Without their instruction, support and encouragement, the completion of this thesis would not be possible First, I would like to express my deepest gratitude to my supervisor, Dr Cao Thi Phuong Dung She has provided me with lots of invaluable knowledge, support and guidance I really appreciate her professionalism and admire her patience when I work with her through this thesis Without her dedicated contribution, my thesis is hardly completed Second, my special thanks go to my beloved friends and my dearest person for their care, support and encouragement They always stand by, bringing me lots of energy and motivation to reach the end of the Master-in-TESOL journey Third, I am indebted to my family who always support and listen to me when I have difficulties in my studies They welcome me to get home every time I am under pressure to write the thesis Finally, I would like to thank and congratulate myself on my effort and patience to reach this far This journey is long enough and filled with spikes and thorns, so I am blissful to write these words to accomplish this thesis i STATEMENT OF AUTHORSHIP I certify that the thesis entitled “EFL teachers’ perceptions of Task-Based Language Teaching: a case study at a mid-tier language center in Ho Chi Minh City” is my original work I hereby declare that this study has not been previously submitted to any institutions for any purposes Ho Chi Minh City, October 2022 Thạch Thị Quách Thi ii TABLE OF CONTENTS ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS i STATEMENT OF AUTHORSHIP ii TABLE OF CONTENTS iii LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS vi LIST OF TABLES vii LIST OF FIGURES viii ABSTRACT ix CHAPTER INTRODUCTION 1.1 Background of the study 1.2 Aims of the study .3 1.3 Significance of the study 1.4 Scope of the study 1.5 Thesis organization CHAPTER LITERATURE REVIEW 2.1 Tasked-based Language Teaching (TBLT) 2.1.1 Theoretical Background of Task-Based Language Teaching .6 2.1.2 Defining key terms 2.1.3 Principles of Task-based Language Teaching .9 2.1.4 Task components 11 2.1.5 Task types 12 2.1.6 Task-based lesson procedure .13 2.1.7 Difference among tasks, exercises, activities 15 2.1.8 Previous studies on the use of TBLT in classroom practice .16 2.2 Teachers’ and students’ roles in the Task-based Language Teaching 21 2.2.1 Teachers’ roles .21 2.2.2 Students’ roles 21 iii 2.3 Conceptual framework 22 CHAPTER 24 METHODOLOGY 24 3.1 Research questions 24 3.2 Research design 24 3.2.1 Participants 26 3.2.2 Research instruments 26 3.3 Context of the study .30 3.4 The pilot study 31 3.4.1 Rationale of the pilot study 31 3.4.2 Choice of the participant in the pilot study 31 3.4.3 Pilot study procedure 32 3.4.4 Findings from the pilot study 33 3.4.5 Conclusion 34 3.5 Data collection procedure 34 3.6 Data analysis procedure 36 3.7 Chapter summary 39 CHAPTER 40 FINDINGS AND DISCUSSION 40 4.1 Findings of the study 40 4.1.1 The current practice of Tasked-Based Language Teaching in teenage classes at ASTON language center 40 4.1.2 EFL teachers’ perceptions of the use of Task-Based Language Teaching 51 4.2 Discussion 58 4.2.1 The current practice of Tasked-Based Language Teaching in teenage classes at ASTON language center 58 4.2.2 EFL teachers’ perceptions of the use of Task-Based Language Teaching 63 CHAPTER 69 iv CONCLUSION 69 5.1 Overview of the study 69 5.2 Implications 69 5.2.1 Pedagogical implications .69 5.2.2 Implications for the TBLT users 70 5.3 Limitations 70 5.4 Suggestions for future research 70 5.5 Conclusion 71 REFERENCES 72 APPENDICES 78 Appendix A 78 QUESTIONS FOR INTERVIEW 78 Appendix B 80 OBSERVATION FORM 80 v LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS BA Bachelor of Arts CLT Communicative Language Teaching TBLT Task-Based Language Teaching PBL Project-Based Learning EFL English as a Foreign Language MOET Ministry of Education and Training n.d no date EAP English for Academic Purposes VHU Van Hien University HUS Ho Chi Minh City University of Sport ET Elite Teens IELTS International English Language Teaching System KET Key English Test TQM Teaching Quality Manager e.g For example (exempli gratia) et al and others (et alia) T Teacher vi LIST OF TABLES Table 2.1 The task generator: a taxonomy of task types 12 Table 4.1 The procedure of TBLT implementation by six teachers at ASTON42 vii LIST OF FIGURES Figure 2.1 A framework for TBLT 13 Figure 2.2 Difference among exercise, activity and task (Richards, n.d.) .16 Figure 2.3 Conceptual Framework 23 Figure 3.1 Three main steps of data collection procedure 35 Figure 3.2 The process of analyzing and interpreting qualitative data 36 Figure 3.3 The thematic network of the study 39 Figure 4.2 A framework for TBLT 58 viii ABSTRACT This research is designed to investigate how EFL teachers at ASTON language center in Ho Chi Minh City apply Task-Based Language Teaching (TBLT) to teach teenage students It also aims to explore teachers’ perceived benefits and drawbacks of the use of TBLT A qualitative case design was employed using the interviews and observations as research instruments for generating data.The participants recruited for the study are six Vietnamese teachers who have at least one-year experience in teaching English and are using TBLT in their teenage classes at ASTON The findings from the study showed that the participants had a significant knowledge of TBLT on how they apply it to teach teenage learners, especially procedure, instruction, groupings, task types, skills applied and roles of the teacher and students and hold a positive view on the use of the TBLT approach The study also found that the benefits of TBLT include motivation, authentic practice, formative assessment, creativity, suitability and improvement and drawbacks consist of choice of tasks, preparation, negative factors, imprecision and assessment The study concluded with a discussion of practical implications for pedagogy and TBLT users Key words: TBLT, EFL teachers’ perceptions, benefits and drawbacks, case study ix Interviewee 1: I think the approach of TBLT is quite broad That means I can apply it to four skills in teaching like listening, speaking, reading and writing Interviewer: And which skill you prefer to use TBLT for? Interviewee 1: The skill I prefer to use TBLT for is Reading and Speaking Interviewer: Can you give me the examples why you think that it’s suitable for reading and speaking? Interviewee 1: In reading, after reading a long passage and answering questions about the passage, I will have them discuss maybe some questions related to the reading and also how they apply to their real life And at home I will design a writing task, it means you write that task, the speaking task again in your notebook Then I will mark it the next day And in speaking, while-speaking task is also a TBLT task, and also the homework can be writing too Interviewer: So, it means that you integrate the skills together, right? Interviewee 1: Yes Interviewer: You’ve mentioned about the stages you usually apply TBLT for already So, I want to know more about the way that you group the students when you assign them a task Interviewee 1: “Group the students” means “put into groups”? Interviewer: Yeah, yeah What kinds of grouping you let them when you assign a task? Interviewee 1: Usually for the project task, I put them into three or four students of different language levels Like some have good English competence and some not So, it doesn’t matter what their language levels are, I will put them randomly into groups so that they can have a 87 chance to discuss and develop their skills by talking and then dealing with different situations Interviewer: So you said that you put students into groups of three or four So, I want to know, like how many students are there in total in your class? Interviewee 1: At ASTON center, in the class, there are usually nine to twelve students, so maybe three or four in a group are good Interviewer: So, you think the TBLT is suitable for a smaller class or a bigger class? Interviewee 1: I think TBLT is a task that is suitable for both kinds of classes because in my opinion, the purpose of it is to talk about real-life situations and topics that are relevant to them So, if it is applied in a bigger class I still consider it a good method of teaching Interviewer: When you apply the TBLT approach to your class, when you let the students the task, what is your role? When you give some time to complete the task Can you share about that? Interviewee 1: My role in the class would be to monitor them doing the task, giving questions and answers when needed I mean when they are doing the task they may have difficulties or they may encounter some problems, so I will be there to help and also when they give feedback, I will also correct their answers or give feedback so that everyone can have the right approach to the task they’re doing Interviewer: As I know that sometimes in the group, some quiet students won't talk, so in that case you have any solutions to provoke the students to talk or encourage them to talk more? Interviewee 1: As I mentioned earlier, when I TBLT I also find topics that are relevant to them, so as we are teaching a class we must know each student, so we should design a task that is interesting to them 88 So that they have something to speak about and then also before the task, we may give some instructions or if the class has many students who are very shy to talk, we can give some expressions on the board or on the paper so that they can follow without helping any difficulties Also, we put them into random groups, that means we put them in a group that may have better students and then while monitoring the task I may come closer to encourage them and give them direct clues and cues so that they can have better confidence Interviewer: What you think about this approach? Do you think TBLT is a teacher-centered or student-centered approach? Interviewee 1: I completely agree that TBLT is a student-centered task Because it gives a student a chance to talk about things that are relevant to them and around interest in them so that they can feel more confident Instead of doing other tasks, that is very difficult for them Interviewer: Alright, it sounds fine for the first section of part Now I’m gonna ask more questions about the benefits and drawbacks of the TBLT approach So, through your observation and experience, what are the good points of TBLT? What are the reasons that make you choose TBLT as the approach to be applied in your class? Interviewee 1: The reason for choosing TBLT is that it gives you a chance to think of topics that are related to the students And also it gives students a chance to talk about things that are interesting to them So it gives them more time and more chances to express themselves Interviewer: So, when you apply this approach, is there any difference about the atmosphere in the class compared to traditional methods like Grammar Translation Practice and other kinds of methods? Interviewee 1: The task-based learning gives the class more … atmosphere and I especially prefer this method over other methods because it gives students a chance to let out their creativity and also 89 gives them more interests and opportunities to express themselves so I prefer this one to other methods Interviewer: As you mentioned before, you said that when you apply this approach, you need to prepare the lesson at home like you have to design the task, so if you teach a lot of… several classes, you think that the workload of teachers for preparation is too much? Interviewee 1: I don’t think the workload would be too much because in our language center we have Prepare book that is very suitable for teaching, they have designed all the task and I don’t think I need to prepare too much the only thing I need to prepare is how to give clearer instructions to them; and how to give feedback to students when students give out their presentation, there maybe some situations that I may not know what they are talking about That’s the thing I need to prepare, like I need to know how to deal with different situations and they don’t know they ask me for help Interviewer: So, as you mentioned, as you said, the material is a good source because they provide you with some procedures, instructions, guidelines as well Do you think that TBLT is one of the good approaches for teaching ET levels at ASTON? Interviewee 1: I think so Of course, there are so many different approaches and methods but I recommend TBLT as one of the best methods Interviewer: So when you apply this, will you integrate with other methods or you just use TBLT only when you teach your class? Interviewee 1: I integrate with other methods like the Communicative approach, sometimes I Grammar Translation but not very often 90 Interviewer: Ah, so can you share the ratio of teacher talking time and students talking time when you apply this approach? Interviewee 1: With the TBLT method, I believe that teacher talking time (TTT) should be less than students talking time (STT), so the role of the teacher should be giving instructions, monitoring and giving feedback only And the whole main point of it is to let the students their tasks, it means it’s a student-centered approach Interviewer: So, what is the ratio, how many percent of TTT and STT? Interviewee 1: Ahhh, 40% of TTT and the other…the rest for students’ Interviewer: I heard that you have a positive view about TBLT; however, I also want to know are there any drawbacks/ any disadvantages of this approach? Interviewee 1: The first drawback I think is the imprecision, it means sometimes you give TBLT in class but you give wrong information because it’s real-life related to me The second thing I believe I often encounter is that I often get stuck when I have to find out the topic of the whole task Interviewer: So, to solve that problem, what you usually to get over when you don’t have a lot of topics to let the students in class? Interviewee 1: When I don’t have any ideas, usually the textbook gives a wide range of topics, so within the topics given, I will try to figure out the task that is suitable and add some elements to make it more interesting and also I will think in advance something that is suitable and I put into the task Also, I teach many classes, so I will modify the lesson each time Interviewer: Yes, how about the students’ cooperation when you assign them a task? Do they have good cooperation or you have any difficulties in this problem? 91 Interviewee 1: The students’ cooperation is quite good, they usually follow the task very well Some difficulties for the students are that they not understand the main point of the task and like you said before they may feel shy to speak or feel shy to perform the task Interviewer: So, in the stage of assessment, you have any difficulties or any benefits when you assess their products/ their outcomes? Interviewee 1: The benefit of that is I have a chance to understand my students more and then also I love it when I hear my students present their ideas The difficulty I have is that sometimes I feel stuck to give better topics to them and sometimes I find it difficult to encourage quiet students to perform the task Interviewer: Ah, about the time management, as I know within a session the teacher has to cover two pages of the lesson, right? So, you have any difficulties in time management when you give them tasks to do? I mean the lesson content, you cover everything if you give them two tasks within a lesson like that Interviewee 1: Actually in my English center, they are now changing the curriculum, that means they are giving us one hour for one page only And the next hour they give you one page and one more practice I usually cover the whole task because I find that every task has its own importance and I don’t miss any other task I usually adjust my time very reasonably so that I can cover more in my teaching and if I find a task that is not suitable I still give questions, but then I let it flow a little bit quicker than the others Interviewer: So, you can adjust the time, manage the time Beyond what I ask you, suggest you, you have any other concerns when you apply this method like anything you feel worried about this method? 92 Interviewee 1: The only concern I have is to give better topics and to create a more interesting atmosphere in the classroom I think I can get over it over time Interviewer: Alright, can you give some suggestions and recommendations for users of TBLT in the future? Interviewee 1: My recommendation would be to feel free to apply any topics that you think suitable for the students and feel free to implement it into the classroom because TBLT, in my opinion, is a good method of teaching, so if you don’t know much about this, you can give it a chance to let it perform in your classroom So, I think recommendations would be to feel free to apply it Interviewer: So, for some teachers that they haven’t applied this method to their classes, you have any notices for them like: what should they the research about before they apply it? Like they need any preparation like the students, the learners’ need? Interviewee 1: They have preparation First, they have to look at the lesson beforehand, then they of course need to research learners’ needs like what their concerns are recently so that they can design a task suitable and easier for them to talk about Interviewer: Yeah, we’ve just gone through all the questions in the interview today I’d like to say thank you once more for your cooperation The end 93 OBSERVATION FORM Observer: Thach Thi Quach Thi Type of observation: Teacher: Overt non-participant observer Coursebook: Prepare! Class: ET4BEP5 Time: 17:45 - 18:45 Date: 30 May 2022 Lesson: Unit 17 TALENTED (attached lesson) TEACHERS’ PERCEPTIONS ON TBLT WHAT Pedagogical/ Target tasks Task 1: Game (12 minutes) Remark  After homework check and correction for around 15 minutes, the teacher introduced a task using worksheets and A4-size papers This task’s called ‘How to make a paper boat?’ Which integrated between speaking and target grammar points of that lesson Those are reallife tasks whose content is relevant to students’ life and easy to  Students’ English ability: quite Task 2: Project (15 minutes) After grammar point introduction, the teacher carried out another task by instructing students to write a series of requests to draw a picture on a piece of paper Then, their group members took their turns to read the instructions using Reported Commands to guide the other group to draw that picture on the board This procedure happened exactly the same to the second group 94 good pronunciation, effective communication  Students’ behaviour: behaved, cooperative WHEN Skill? Pre-/While-/ Post-? Task 1: Speaking & Grammar After homework correction, the teacher carried out a task at the beginning of the lesson to engage the students and lead to the target grammar Task 2: Grammar practice After introducing a new grammar point step by step (also called PPP method) The teacher carried out a project to let students practise using Reported Commands HOW Procedure, instruction, language use Task 1: Game: (i) The teacher showed the worksheet on the screen (ii) She put students into groups of four (iii) She gave instructions and demonstration (iv) Students performed the task as instructed (v) The teacher followed and decided which team completed the task earlier and had a better paper boat Task Project Sit in groups of four students 95 Give instructions to students Provide some examples to the project While students were doing the project, the teacher observed and offered some help if needed GROUPINGS Individual/ pair/ group work Both task and 2, students worked in groups of four They were so cooperative to the assigned task T’s ROLE ● Prepare the tasks based on the topic and the main points of the lessons ● Assure the tasks support the lesson points ● Observe students’ performances during the tasks ● Monitor and provide help if needed ● Remind students to use English while doing their task Ss’ ROLE ● Follow the teachers’ instructions ● Work in groups to solve the task ● Discuss and raise questions if needed ● Perform their outcomes BENEFITS of TBLT ● Atmosphere: interesting ● Motivation: students get involved in the tasks because the task is so familiar to deal 96 with They can use English in a simple way to the tasks ● Concentration: students pay much attention to their task and make lots of effort to achieve the tasks ● Topic: the topic of the lesson is quite common to students, so they not feel frustrated DRAWBACKS of TBLT ● The students use L1 to discuss when the teacher observes other groups ● Not all students can the tasks well ● They love to work in groups but they are not willing to change their members OBSERVER’s NOTES Generally, the students have a good interaction in the classroom Both the teacher and students make lots of effort during class time They make efficient use of the class time to conduct lots of activities to improve their English Students come to class not just for studying English but they also have lots of fun and gain something about real-life contexts 97