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Communicative and task-based language teaching in East Asian classrooms

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  20 June 2007

William Littlewood
Affiliation:
Hong Kong Institute of Educationblittle@ied.edu.hk

Abstract

As educators and governments in East Asia aim to increase the number of people in their population who can communicate effectively in English, national policies and syllabuses have moved increasingly towards various versions of communicative language teaching (CLT) and task-based language teaching (TBLT). This paper reviews, on the basis of published reports, some of the practical and conceptual concerns that have affected the implementation of CLT and TBLT in primary and secondary schools of East Asia. It discusses some ways in which teachers have responded to the challenges by adapting new ideas and developing methodologies suited to their own situations. It proposes a methodological framework which may help such adaptation. The experiences and concerns described in the paper may be shared by teachers anywhere who move from a teacher-centred approach to one in which the learners play a more active, independent role.

Type
Plenary speeches
Copyright
© 2007 Cambridge University Press

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Footnotes

This is a revised version of a plenary paper presented at the International Conference of the Korean Association for Teachers of English, held in Seoul, Korea, in June 2006.