10 January 2009, Volume 19 Issue 1

    

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Guest Editors’ Introduction
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  TBLT in Asia: Constraints and Opportunities

  Rebecca Adams, Jonathan Newton

  Asian Journal of English Language Teaching. 2009, 19(1): 1-18.

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  Task-based language teaching (TBLT) has been adopted by several Asian governments as the national approach to English language pedagogy, and principles associated with task-based teaching have been advocated in a range of other curriculum initiatives. However, large scale top-down curricular revisions may not directly impact actual language teaching practice. In this article, a brief description of curricular innovation and curriculum dissemination, as well as an overview of task-based teaching is provided. This is followed by a discussion of institutional, classroom, and teacher development constraints that may limit the implementation of TBLT in Asian English language teaching. Despite these challenges, emerging evidence of successful, grass-roots implementation of task-based teaching in Asia points to opportunities for further adoption—and adaptation—of task-based English language teaching in Asian educational settings.
Articles
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  Student Attitudes toward Task-based Language Teaching at Japanese Universities

  Michael Hood, James Elwood, Joseph Falout

  Asian Journal of English Language Teaching. 2009, 19(1): 19-48.

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  Little is known about student beliefs regarding task-based language teaching (TBLT) in Japan, although the changeover from traditional methods (i.e., grammar-translation) as mandated by the Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science, and Technology can be seen across the country. This study investigates the beliefs of 739 university students in the Tokyo area regarding fundamental principles and features of TBLT. After becoming familiar with a TBLT learning environment, these learners evaluated TBLT in relation to their experiences with the traditional teacher-centered classroom model. Learner perceptions of TBLT were investigated and compared across majors, colleges, background with L2 use and culture, and reported proficiency levels. We will assess whether students interpret TBLT as an effective way to acquire a foreign
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  Revisiting the TBLT versus P-P-P Debate: Voices from Hong Kong

  David Carless

  Asian Journal of English Language Teaching. 2009, 19(1): 49-66.

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  Whilst there is a body of research evidence on task-based language teaching (TBLT) with adults, less is known about its suitability for implementation in secondary schools, particularly in Asian contexts. This study uses interview data from a purposive sample of 12 secondary school teachers and 10 teacher educators based in the Hong Kong context, a setting in which task-based approaches have been adopted since the 1990s. The focus of the paper is to explore informants' perceptions of the pros and cons of TBLT as opposed to long-standing presentation-practice-production (P-P-P) approaches and discuss issues arising. Four main sub-themes are addressed: the extent of reported implementation of TBLT and/or P-P-P in Hong Kong secondary schools; the reasons for preferences for task-based teaching or P-P-P; how well teachers are perceived to understand TBLT and P-P-P; and calls for further evidence on the effectiveness of TBLT for schooling. Following from this, the paper discusses implications for teacher education and suggests some avenues for further research.
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  Preparing EFL Students for Communicative Task Performance: The Nature and Role of Language Knowledge

  Jasmine Luk

  Asian Journal of English Language Teaching. 2009, 19(1): 67-90.

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  This paper examines how a secondary school English teacher in Hong Kong prepared her students for a communicative task. Of particular concern are the nature and the role of language knowledge (LK) in the pre-task stage. The data came from the initial phase of a wider project that investigated whether and how English teachers in Hong Kong integrate a focus on LK with meaningful communication in a task-based teaching context. A qualitative analysis of the classroom teaching and interview data reveals that the teacher concerned was not always able to address students' language needs for the subsequent communicative task performance. Such a phenomenon seems to be the result of the teacher's predominantly code-based view of LK. With a tendency to equate LK with acquisition of lexical meanings, pronunciation and grammar rules, the teacher failed to equip students with appropriate language resources to deal with tasks that require discourse and genre awareness in the pre-task stage. The results of the analysis point to the need for teachers to revisit their perceptions of what LK should constitute in terms of its scope and nature, relevance to the communicative tasks, as well as transferability from one task to another in different language use contexts. A framework with guiding principles is proposed to assist teachers to identify key components of LK for communicative task performance.
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  Taking Risks in Task-based Teaching and Learning

  Gertrude Tinker Sachs

  Asian Journal of English Language Teaching. 2009, 19(1): 91-112.

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  Further to Tinker Sachs (2007), this paper reports on the development of taskbased learning and teaching (TBLT) within a cooperative learning (CL) and teacher action research context. The three-year longitudinal project involved 12 teachers and their students from 3 government primary schools in Hong Kong. When innovative ways of teacher professional development in language teaching are fostered, a great deal of teacher and learner risk-taking is necessary for teaching and learning success. This paper reports on the risk-taking behaviours of teachers and students as they engaged in TBLT and CL. Data were drawn from teacher and learner interviews, questionnaires, lesson feedback and transcriptions. The results indicated that with an action research framework in a TBLT and CL classroom environment, both teachers and students increased their use of the target language. Teacher risk-taking involved development of learner-centred teaching routines and the creation of tasks for language development. Similarly, learners exhibited a need for more learner-centred activities in English to extend their conversational repertoire. Recommendations are offered for promoting the conditions in which both teachers and learners can engage in the kinds of risk-taking that underpin successful task-based teaching and learning.
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  The Communicativeness of Activities in a Task-based Innovation in Guangdong, China

  Chunrao DENG, David CARLESS

  Asian Journal of English Language Teaching. 2009, 19(1): 113-134.

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  This paper analyses the extent of communicative activities in a Year Four primary school class in Guangdong, where a national task-based innovation has been mandated. The framework guiding the study uses a continuum of communicativeness of activities, developed by Littlewood. The research methods comprised 12 classroom observations and 17 interviews. The findings indicate that most of the activities were on the left hand side of Littlewood's (2004) continuum, in other words, were mainly focus on forms, rather than focus on meaning. There was not much evidence of teaching congruent with principles of task-based teaching due to constraints such as traditional examinations and limited teacher understanding of how to carry out communicative activities. Implications for Littlewood's communicative continuum and contextually appropriate teaching approaches are discussed.
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  TBLT and SCMC: How Do Students Use Communication Strategies?

  Nik Aloesnita Nik Mohd Alwi, Rebecca Adams

  Asian Journal of English Language Teaching. 2009, 19(1): 135-158.

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  Recent research has highlighted the valuable role that synchronous computermediated communication (SCMC) can play in second language learning. While the advantages of using SCMC for second language communication opportunities are well documented, little is known about how students engage in tasks via SCMC. The current study examines the communication strategies (CS) used to promote and manage communication in an SCMC-based group discussion task in the context of a Malaysian tertiary EFL class for engineering students. The findings reveal that, although the pattern of use is different from that found in previous studies of CS in face-to-face communication, CS are frequently used in the SCMC-based task indicating that SCMC can provide a rich and communicatively challenging environment for task engagement. These results emphasize the importance of the careful development and use of communicative tasks in SCMC to promote language practice.
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  The Effects of Task-based Intercultural Instruction on the Intercultural Competence of Japanese Secondary EFL Learners

  Eriko Ishii

  Asian Journal of English Language Teaching. 2009, 19(1): 159-182.

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  The present study was designed to investigate the effects of the integration of task-based language teaching (TBLT) and intercultural education on learning outcomes and learners' cross-cultural attitudes. It was a single-factor matchedpairs design with two levels of TBLT instructional conditions: (a) TBLT with intercultural education; (b) TBLT without intercultural education. Thirty-eight Japanese high school EFL learners (M=12, F=26) participated in this experiment. A culture assimilator (Fiedler, Mitchell, & Triandis, 1971), one of the most researched and effective intercultural educational methods, was incorporated into the decision-making task. Regarding individual differences (ID) in learning, the study also drew on aptitude-treatment interaction theory (Cronbach & Snow, 1977) and examined main and interaction effects of ID and treatment on learning outcomes. The results showed that there was no significant post-/delayed-test mean difference between the experimental and control groups. However, some interaction effects between ID and treatment condition on cross-cultural attitudes and a main effect of treatment on how much English the participants learned in the oral communication lessons were found to be statistically significant. This study suggests that integrating FL/L2 education and intercultural education enhances both students' cross-cultural attitudes and English learning.
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  Submission Guidelines

  Asian Journal of English Language Teaching. 2009, 19(1): 183-185.

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  All articles should have an abstract between100, 200words in length