The purpose of this study was to investigate Korean secondary EFL teachers’ task-based language teaching (TBLT) practice, their task choice during lesson planning for an imaginary class and the factors which influence their decision making. A total of 146 English teachers in middle and high school were surveyed, and the data were analyzed using Importance-Performance analysis, frequency analysis, factor analysis, multiple response analysis, t-test and ANOVA. Also, in-depth interviews were conducted with four Korean English teachers: a male middle school teacher, a female middle school teacher, a male high school teacher, and a female high school teacher.
The results show that Korean secondary EFL teachers believe TBLT is important, particularly to teach speaking. On the contrary, they reported applying TBLT to their actual class most frequently when they teach writing. There is no statistically significant difference between middle school teachers and high school teachers, but middle school teachers are revealed to practice TBLT more frequently than high school teachers. To examine whether there are any differences among the groups of novice teachers and experienced teachers, the results of ANOVA show that teachers with less than 5 years of teaching experience are reported to believe using TBLT is important when teaching speaking and teachers with more than 15 years of teaching experience believe using TBLT is important when teaching writing; however, experienced teachers use TBLT more frequently than novice teachers, particularly when teaching writing and reading-and-writing integrated skills. The reasons to avoid practicing TBLT were categorized into four factors: the learner, the teacher, the instruction, and the institutional support, which confirmed the reasons supported by previous studies but with a different interpretation.
The second part of the research reveals what types of tasks they prefer when they are asked to choose a certain task type to teach a unit using a textbook in an imaginary classroom: prediction tasks when introducing a unit; general knowledge tasks to teach listening and speaking; student as question master tasks to assess listening and speaking; prediction task to teach reading and personalization tasks to assess reading as well as to teach and assess writing; discussion tasks to teach culture; and personalization tasks to assess culture and to wrap up a unit. The findings also reveal differences between middle school teachers and high school teachers in task type choices. In addition, the factors teachers take into consideration are explored. Lesson objectives, the contents, ways to assess, teaching experiences, and learners’ proficiency are highly considered when the teachers choose task types to plan a certain class. The in-depth interviews reveal the teacher-participants’ detailed uses of TBLT and interpretations on their TBLT practice.
This study leads to the discovery of Korean EFL secondary teachers’ tendencies and their criteria for task type choices. Therefore, it suggests a different approach to both pre-service and in-service teacher training programs as well as a focus change in future research in spite of some limits of the research.