“Exploring a task-based English learning and teaching practice: An integrated approach”

Abstract

This ethnographic study attempts to find, reveal, and understand the quality of life in a College English classroom for non-English majors in China, where a task-based language learning and teaching practice is conducted under the guide of the principles of Exploratory Practice, aiming at exploring the viability of the practice in this specific instructional context. It takes the perspective of a practitioner’s and researcher’s, and that of an anthropologist’s, to conduct qualitatively the study of the task process. By inspiring students to free themselves from the rationality of instrumental curriculum, and encouraging them to exercise their agency and creativity, through the joint four-stage activities of the task, the study witnesses a harmonious classroom life, in which the students, in the direction of their teacher, engage actively in the activities, creating not only language learning opportunities, but also social and cultural ones, and critical thinking chances. The study confirms the positive effect of this context-sensitive instructional practice which prioritizes quality of life in the task-based language learning and teaching classroom.