The task-based approach (TBA) has gained popularity in the field of language teaching in China in the last decade. There has been a general consensus about the strength of this teaching approach; namely, that communicative tasks can facilitate the learning process by engaging students in negotiation of meaning during pair or small group work in class. Nevertheless. recently, some scholars have expressed their concerns about the effectiveness and practicability of this approach especially in China. Their concern mainly revolves around the conflict between TBA and the social-cultural EFL context, and the problem that TBA may not be so successful in promoting high levels of linguistic competence. Although the task-based approach has been the subject of much pedagogical research and language syllabus design work in recent years, there is a lack of empirical research on task-based teaching in school foreign language contexts. Therefore, this study aims to provide a picture of how secondary school teachers in China are attempting to come to terms with the implementation of a task-based pedagogical approach. Specifically, the researcher investigated task-based instruction as implemented by selected Shenzhen English teachers in their classrooms. In addition, their attitudes towards and understandings of this approach were explored through interviews. An adapted version of the COLT (Communicative Orientation of Language Teaching) Observation Scheme was used for classroom-based data collection. Adaptations incorporated TBLT principles and Littlewood’s five-category framework of activities. An initial group of ten teachers was refined to observations of four teachers, two each in two schools. Findings from the four case studies showed that two of the teachers successfully applied most of the principles of TBLT in their observed lessons, while the other two were still in a transitional stage. Findings indicated the teachers' TBLT practices were: i) largely congruent with their educational beliefs, and ii) teachers beliefs towards TBLT were key to effective implementation of TBA.. Particularly, a trend emerged from this study that the more theoretical knowledge teachers had, the more appropriately they might implement TBLT in practice. The study contributes to the enrichment of the knowledge about TBA practice in the EFL context and enhances our understanding of ELT pedagogic innovation on China’s mainland. It can provide educational insights into issues arising during TBA implementation, information useful to educational policymakers and school administrators. It provides pedagogical implications for Chinese EFL teachers with an aim to assist them in a more successful transition to student-centered, communicative-oriented task-based approaches to English language teaching.