A comparative study of Grades 8 and 9 students' beliefs towards task-based approach and teacher-centered approach in teaching Chinese as a foreign language class at a private school in Bangkok, Thailand

Abstract

The purpose of this studywas to investigate the levels of Grades 8 and 9 students'beliefs and determine whether there were significant differences between task-based and teacher-centered approachesin teaching Chinese as a foreignlanguageclass at a private school in Bangkok, Thailand. This study had 92 Grade 8 and 90 Grade 9 participants as a population sample in the 2020-2021 academic year. This research was designed as a quantitative comparativestudy. The students'beliefs towards teaching approaches questionnaire from Zhang and Liu (2014)was usedas the research instrumentin this study. Descriptive statistic was utilized to analyze the levels of Grade 8 and Grade 9 students'beliefs towards task-based and teacher-centered approaches in teaching Chinese as a foreign language (CFL) classes. Dependent samples t-test was used to compare whether there weresignificant differences between task-based and teacher-centered approachesin teaching CFL classes. The findings revealed that Grades 8 and 9 students expressed their positive beliefs towards a task-based approach in teaching CFL class butshowed their neutral belief toward a teacher-centered approach. There was a significant difference in Grade 8and Grade9 students'beliefs towards task-based and teacher-centered approaches in teaching CFL classes. According to these findings, the researcher provided recommendations for students, Chinese teachers, school administrators, and future researchers.