The teacher variable in TBLT
Martin East · Task-based language teaching · 2025
Abstract Over the last 40 years, TBLT has received growing attention from a wide range of stakeholders in the language teaching and learning endeavour. Among these stakeholders, teachers have increasingly shown great interest in TBLT, whether motivated by what they hear about TBLT in different contexts or responding to task-based initiatives in their own locations. However, it is evident from studies into the impact of TBLT from the perspective of teachers working in a variety of contexts across the world that TBLT in practice continues to face obstacles. Research into the teachers’ perspective has demonstrated that teachers show variable understandings of and commitment to TBLT ideas, leading to a range of practices and outcomes in classrooms. This makes teachers a crucial variable in the success (or otherwise) of TBLT and teacher education an important mediator of change. This chapter presents an account of how my own work as a teacher educator has been shaped and influenced by my own lived experiences as a language learner and language teacher. It also outlines what I have learned about effective TBLT-oriented teacher education in the course of ten years of working with pre-service teachers of languages in schools.