Teaching writing through task-based instruction: Exploring English teachers’ experiences

Abstract

As educationists and policymakers have been concerned much in increasing the English proficiency of their citizens, educational policies on curriculums and syllabuses have moved increasingly towards various versions of learner-centered teaching approaches including task-based language teaching. TBLT is one of the widely discussed learner-centered approaches for the last few decades. It aims at developing students’ communicative skills through their active engagement in various tasks focusing more on meaning than on form. The study aims to explore English teachers’ experiences in teaching writing with respect to the intent of the secondary level English curriculum prescribed by the Curriculum Development Center, Ministry of Education, Nepal. The study is qualitative where five teacher participants were interviewed. The data were analyzed based on the taxonomy of task types by Willis and Wills (2007). The findings showed that the teacher participants are theoretically aware of TBLT, especially in teaching writing, and the intent of the prescribed curriculum; however, they are not able to fully bring their knowledge and skills into practice to meet the objective of the curriculum. Thus, the study purposes a way forward to strengthen teachers’ ability to bring TBLT theory into practice through training, workshops, research, and higher studies.