Teachers' roles and teaching method in Task-Based Language Teaching

Abstract

This action research paper describes JLT teachers' roles and methods in Task-based language teaching. It is based on my self-reflection of 5 years teaching Japanese at a British university in China. Two major challenges were identified: how a teacher conducts tasks and how grammar should be taught within TBLT.Teachers have many roles in helping students with Task-based learning. Not only do they have to advise and teach the target language, but they also have to facilitate the tasks and ensure that these are effective for language learning. My self-reflection revealed that due to limited class-time I sometimes failed to perform these roles effectively. However, through this action research I can better identify what went `right' and what went `wrong' in each task. I found that my teaching belief was too focused on communicative outcomes, and therefore I felt nervous about correcting students who made numerous grammatical errors while communicating effectively. I now realise that effective correction of grammatical errors is a vital part of teaching and a successful task is not one in which everyone enjoys themselves, but one in which everyone learns in an enjoyable way.