A study of pre-service teachers’ perceptions of task-based language teaching via metaphor analysis in a Chinese context

ABSTRACT

In spite of the fact that task-based language teaching (TBLT) has been extensively researched in both experimental and authentic contexts, there is a scarcity of research on TBLT in the area of pre-service teaching. Our current study seeks to help fill this gap via the examination of the attitudes of thirty-nine pre-service teachers – after an eight-week period of instruction – towards the understanding of TBLT in a Chinese context. This research also sheds light on what factors may be contributing to these attitudes. The data were collected via the means of a metaphor elicitation questionnaire, followed by in-depth interviews. Findings reveal that pre-service teachers primarily hold neutral (with a tendency towards the positive) attitudes towards TBLT, while their understandings are basic and also still shallow and narrow due to individual and contextual factors. The study finally highlights a few implications for pre-service EFL teacher education programmes.

KEYWORDS:

• EFL teaching skills course
• task-based language teaching
• pre-service teachers
• perception
• metaphor

Acknowledgement

We’d like to thank the anonymous reviewers and editors for their comments. Thanks also go to Mr. Paul Raymond Doyon and Mr. John Cruft for their proofreading.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by the National Social Science Fund of China (for Education Studies) [No. BHA190134].