Abstract:
The purpose of this study was to investigate English language teachers’
perception, implementation and challenges of task-based language teaching at
secondary schools in Gamo Zone, Ethiopia. This research was mainly
descriptive survey in design. Due to the low number of teachers, the study
used a comprehensive sampling strategy to include all 165 English language
teachers as subjects for the questionnaire. The study employed questionnaires,
interviews, and classroom observations to collect data from the participants.
Techniques for both quantitative and qualitative data analysis were applied.
Six teachers were interviewed and observed. Questionnaires and observation
were used to gather quantitative data, which were then subjected to
quantitative analysis. Descriptive statistics (mean and standard deviations)
were used by SPSS (Statistical Package for Social Sciences) version 22 to
interpret data collected via questionnaires. The information gathered from
observations was subjected to quantitative analysis. A yes/no structures were
used to develop the observation checklist. Thus, yes/no binary data were
quantitatively evaluated to determine frequencies. However, the qualitative
information obtained from the interviews was analyzed using thematic
analysis. The study's conclusions demonstrate that although the respondents
understood task-based language instruction well and were curious about their
opinions, the majority of teachers were not correctly incorporating task-based
activities into their lesson plans. According to the study, the implementation
of task-based language teaching in schools is severely impacted by a number
of significant problems, including a shortage of language teaching materials,
big class sizes, students' backgrounds, time limits, and inadequate training.
The study concluded by advising English language instructors to give task
based language instruction careful thought.
