基于任务型教学方法的应用英语口语-On the Application of Task-based Approach in Teaching Oral English

Abstract摘要

As we all know, the purpose of learning English is to understand and to be understood. That is to say, we should have successful communication skills with others. But how can we communicate successfully? It requires that we improve our oral English to express what we want to say correctly.
 
In recent years, a lot of researches in second language study have revealed the importance of task-based teaching approach in language learning. This method can engage students in discussions and oral activities, and make their learning outcomes more effective. It can also provide a more active learning environment, increase the motivation of students, innovate on the work of teachers and generally enable a real learning communication in the classroom.
 
The factors affecting oral communication ability are many, such as grammar knowledge of internalization, accumulation of lexical words and phrases, pronunciati-
 
on and intonation acquisition, the teaching environment and cognition, culture, emotional and psychological factors. In this paper, the author has made a summary of the factors on the basis of previous literature and put forward the measures to improve the oral communication ability, and the task-based learning approach is believed to be the most effective measure to improve oral English in classroom.
 
There are mainly three elements about oral English: pronunciation, fluent grammar, and correct content. In the paper，approaches and ways to improve oral English are presented, which discuss pronunciation, practice, and cultural influence relating to oral English. Practice is the most important aspect of oral English, and practice is an indispensable way to improve oral English. It is related to the fluency of oral English. And the task-based teaching approach can provide more opportunities for students to take practice.
 
Keywords: Task-based teaching; Communicating ability; Practice
 
Table of Contents目录
 
INTRODUCTION………………………………….….…………….…………1#p#分页标题#e#
 
Chapter One LITERATURE REVIEW……………………..…...……………3
 
1.1 The Background………………...…..………………………………....3
 
1.2 Historical Development of Language Teaching Approaches………..4
 
Chapter Two PREVIOUS RESEARCHES …..…………………………......7
 
2.1 Previous Researches Abroad……..…………………….......…………7
 
2.2 Previous Researches in China …………………………..…..……….9
 
Chapter Three RESEARCH DESIGN…………………………………......12
 
3.1. Main Types of Tasks in TBLT ……………..………………………...12
 
3.2 Practical Use of Six Types of Tasks in Oral English Teaching……13
 
3.3 Results and Analysis……………………………..…………………...16
 
3.4 Some Problems in Using Tasks in TBLT……………………………18
 
Chapter Four SUGGESTIONS………………………………………….20 
 
4.1 The Requirements of Task-based Teaching Approach………....….....20
 
4.2 Suggestions…………………………………….……………..…….21 4.2.1 Attention to be paid to the task features…………….….……..…21
 
4.2.2 Problems to be noticed in the process of designing tasks………..21
 
CONCLUSION………………..……………………..….........23
 
WORKS CITED………………………………….……..………………..…...24
 
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS……………………………………………….......26
 

INTRODUCTION引言
 
As international communication increases in the trend towards globalization and technology, and the implementation of the open-policy started in China, international exchanges have been more frequently，the demand for communication in English is becoming greater and greater, mastering English has become a basic quality to the Chinese people.#p#分页标题#e#
 
In China, students begin to learn English from they enter the primary school. When they graduate from collage, they have studied English for more than twelve years. However, the reality of English teaching in China is that many students can get top grades in their exams, but the results of fostering students’ communicative competence are still far from satisfactory, especially their oral efficiency. In fact, the aim of learning a language is for interactive communication in everyday life. Speaking is mostly regarded as the most important skill for language learners.
 
In Chinese classes, the teacher usually stands at the front and do most of the talking, while the students listen to the teacher and take notes. The exams focus on the grammar and reading stills, so in English classes, the students mainly study the texts and their grammar. Also, there are no oral English tests in the graduation examinations in middle school and the entrance examination to the universities. So the students are in low proficiency in oral English. Such influence has already affected both teachers and students a lot. Teachers mainly explain grammar methods and texts-translation, language in school study is treated as knowledge-analyzed, explained, and practiced in much the same way as other subjects. The communicative skills need learners to practice in real situations, but they are totally ignored. Oral English is taught and learned mostly in reading and reciting activities.
 
Widdowson (1972) has found out the reason of the problem, the learners themselves are lack of the ability to practical use of the language. Traditional teaching
 
method can not meet the needs of communicative competence (i.e. the ability to use
 
the target language for communication). This kind of teaching method faces big challenge. The reason why many students in China are lack of competence in spoken and written English to a certain extent is related to the teaching methods.
 
The traditional language teaching method is out of date nowadays. A good many researchers in the west have concentrated on the study of Task-based Teaching Approach and claimed that language instruction requires the development of interactive competence and interaction is the key to language teaching.
 
In recent years, a lot of researches in second language study have revealed the importance of Task-based teaching method in language learning，however, most researches on the exert of Task-based Teaching Approach in China are mostly limited in reading areas, little researches advert oral English teaching. Thus, the author of this paper focus on oral English learning, studying how to apply Task-based Teaching Approach to oral English and trying to find out its contributions to students’ language competence, and intends to find out the capability of task-based language teaching method to oral English teaching.
 
This paper is composed of six chapters. Chapter One is a brief introduction of this research, including the situation of oral English teaching, the theory, aims and the organization of this paper. Chapter Two is the literature review, introduces the background, reveal the relevant studies on oral English learning and classroom Task-based Approach usage. Chapter Three is a previous researches at home and abroad. Chapter Four shows a research; it is a sample lesson in a Task-based teaching model. the results and analyses the information from the research. Chapter Five concludes some positive findings from the research and some suggestions. Chapter Six is a conclusion.#p#分页标题#e#
 
Chapter One LITERATURE REVIEW文献综述
 
1.1 The Background
 
Prabhu (1987) in his “Communicational Teaching Project” (CTP) defined a task as follows:
 
“An activity which requires learners to arrive at an outcome from given information through some process of thought, and which allowed learners to control and regulate that process”
 
Nunan (1993) defines a task as “a piece of classroom work which involves learners in comprehending, manipulating, producing or interacting in the target language while their attention is principally focused on meaning rather than form.”
 
J. Whillis defines a task in her work “A work for task-based Learning (TBA)” (1996) as an activity “where the target language is used by the learner for a communicative purpose (goal) in order to achieve an outcome.”
 
Breen (1987) describes a task as any structured language learning endeavor which has a particular objective, appropriate content, a specified working procedure, and a range of outcomes for those who undertake the task. “Task” is therefore assumed to refer to a range of work plans which have the overall purpose of facilitating language learning --- from the simple and brief exercise type, to more complex and lengthy activities such as group problem-solving or simulations and decision making (Breen 23)
 
Long (1985) characterizes task using its everyday meaning. So for Long a task is nothing more or less than the things people do in everyday life. He cites as examples buying shoes, making reservations, finding destinations, and writing cheques. The Longman Dictionary of Applied Linguistics provides more pedagogically oriented characterization. Here, it is suggested that a task is any activity or action which is carried out as the result of processing or understanding language (i.e. as a response). For example, drawing a map while listening to a tape, listening to an instruction and performing a command, may be referred to as tasks (Richards, Platt, & Weber 289)
 
Williams and Burden (1997 168) adopt this broad definition “A task is any activity that learners engage in to further the process of learning a language.” Within this broad definition, some writers distinguish subcategories such as (a) communication tasks and (b) enabling tasks (Estaire and Zanon 13-19) according to the extent to which they are involved (a) in communication or (b) focusing on form.
 
Learners are undertaking tasks; they are using language in a meaningful way. A task is a means of not only using what has been learnt but also gaining opportunities for learning.
 
Skehan (1998), following Nunan (1989), Long (1989), and others, proposes that a task is an activity, which meets the following criteria:
 
(1) Meaning is primary;
 
(2) There is a goal, which needs to be worked towards;
 
(3) The activity is outcome-evaluated;
 
(4) There is a real-world relationship.#p#分页标题#e#
 
That is, the central part of Task-based Approach is meaning, but language is taught through a series of tasks. These are activities whose aim is not necessarily for students to practice a specific linguistic point but to use language to work towards a goal (Skehan, 1998). Tasks are outcome evaluated and have a relationship with the real world (Foster and Skehan, 1996). Often problem solving is an element present in tasks; in order to solve a certain problem students need to use the target language.
 
There are many viewpoints about and definitions of task. Initially the definitions involved a tax, piece of work, everyday activity, job responsibility, or general activity for learners. In second language teaching and learning, task is now often viewed as an outcome-oriented instructional segment or as a behavioral framework for research or classroom learning. Most often it still has the connotation of being externally imposed on a person or group, although the connotation of being burdensome or taxing is no longer emphasized. I now turn to ways by which we can analyze tasks for task-based teaching and learning.
 
1.2 Historical Development of Language Teaching Approaches
 
In recent years increasing numbers of teachers, in English teaching, have been looking for ways to change the traditional forms of instruction in which knowledge is transmitted, in a one-way process, from a dominant teacher to a class of silent, obedient, “passive” learners. They have sought ways to make the classroom more “student-centred” and have investigated the different ways in which students can play more active roles in discovering and processing knowledge. Hong Kong is no exception to this trend. Both the Primary School Syllabus for English Language and the Secondary School Syllabus for English Language state that “teaching efficiency is improved when the learners and their learning are the focus of attention instead of the teacher and his/her teaching”. The Secondary School Syllabus for the Use of English expresses the similar message that “learning is most effective when learners take an active role in the learning process”
 
This desire to make learning more student-centred is reflected in widespread attempts, in different areas of the curriculum, to introduce approaches which engage students actively in the learning process. These approaches have been described under a variety of labels: “experiential learning”, “discovery learning”, “problem-based learning”, “co-operative learning”, the “activity-based approach”, and others. Underlying all of these approaches is a desire to involve students in some kind of purposeful interaction with information, objects and/or ideas, often in groups, in order to develop their skills and knowledge. In the field of language teaching, the approach which is currently best known in this respect is “task-based learning”. Again, this is a general trend to which Hong Kong is no exception. Thus, in each of the Syllabuses mentioned above, substantial sections are devoted to the principles and practice of task-based learning.#p#分页标题#e#
 
Task-based learning can be regarded as one particular approach to implementing the broader “communicative approach” and, as with the communicative approach in general, one of the features of task-based learning that often worries teachers is that it seems to have no place for the teaching of grammar. In Teaching Grammar and Spoken English: A Handbook for Hong Kong Schools (English Section of the Advisory Inspectorate, 1993), my own contribution attempted to show that task-based approach is as important in a communicative approach as in any other approach. This applies with equal force to task-based learning. The aim of task-based learning is to develop students’ ability to communicate and communication (except in its most simple forms) takes place through practicing the language. Or in other words: ‘communicative competence’ can only exist on a foundation of practice.
 
During the process of linguists’ study on language teaching, many methods have been proclaimed, such as Grammar-Translation Method, Direct Method, Audio-lingual Method, Cognitive Approach, Total Physical Response, Communicative Approach and Task-based Language Teaching Approach, etc.. Some schools of methodology regard the teacher as ideal language model and commander of classroom activity (e.g., Audio-Lingual Method, Natural Approach, Suggestopedia, Total Physical Response) whereas others see the teacher as assistant and classroom colleague to the learners (e.g., Communicative Language Teaching, Cooperative Language Learning).
 
Quite a few approaches concerning task-based learning as a central component have been developed and accepted by many teachers and learners such as the Whole Task Practice, Learner-directed Activity, Cooperative Learning and Collaborative Learning, etc. These approaches all depend for their success on the quality of the task-based teaching and learning in the classroom. In modern languages the maturity of language and language learning has resulted in two major changes in foreign language teaching, i.e. from thinking much of “how to teach” to “how to learn” and from an emphasis on knowing about the language to an emphasis on knowing how to use it in daily communication.
 
Chapter Two PREVIOUS RESEARCHES前期调查
 
2.1 Previous Researches Abroad
 
There are two main approaches currently employed in the teaching of oral skills in the language classroom (Richards 76). One approach is characterized by the 'conversation class', where primarily social interaction skills are practiced, and the second is through the use of a variety of communicative or interactive oral tasks (hereafter referred to as oral tasks) which provide learners with an opportunity for oral practice with other learners. This approach is potentially useful in teaching situations such as those encountered in Hong Kong, where large classes, and lack of oral English practice opportunities outside the classroom, create particular problems for learners.#p#分页标题#e#
 
Now, let’s see Willis’ Task-implementing model in English teaching:
 
He pointed that in a task-based instruction classroom, the students start with the task. When they have completed it, the teacher draws attention to the language used, making corrections and adjustments to the students’ performances.
 
The following is Willis’ task implementing model:
 
Pre-task Task Cycle Language Focus
 
(Introduction to (Task Planning (Analysis and
 
Topic and task) Report) Practice)
 
In this model we can see three stages: Pre-task activities; Task cycle; Language focus activities:
 
The pre-task phase will usually be the shortest stage in the work. It could vary between two and twenty minutes, depending on the learners’ degree of familiarity with the topic and the type of the tasks (Willis 42). In pre-task activities, it is necessary to involve learners to explore the task topic and give learners relevant exposure to topic language. For teachers’ part, they need to introduce a few vital topic-related words and phrases that learners are unlikely to know, and, above all, to create interest in understanding a task on the topic. Teachers may help learners recount a similar experience. Teachers may discuss with learners about questions they might ask if they were involved in the situation stated in the task. Teachers may show learners a picture related to the task topic or write the main topic word(s) in the centre of the board and then encourage learners to call out anything they know about the task topic. As learners think of words and phrases, teachers should write them on the board and talk about them. Teachers should ensure that all learners understand what the task involves, what its goal is and what outcome are required. In the text books of the students in Grade One, many of the topics are quite familiar to the students, such as the topics of holidays, traveling, music, and cartoon movies. In this phase, once the teacher introduces the topic, the students will recall and activate their knowledge of the related topics and lots of brainstorming activities are done by the students. But some of the topics seem to be difficult for some students, for example, in Unit 17, SEFCIB, Great Women, the students may have no knowledge of Oprah Winfrey, Pearl S. Buck and Mother Teresa. In this situation, there will be a lot of preparations for the teacher to make beforehand and the teacher has to highlight useful words and phrases, and help students better understand the task instruction and make adequate preparations for the task. The students may hear a recording of others, undertake a similar task or see a piece of video related to the topic. In the class, the author let the students see a piece of video about the three women mentioned above. The students were inspired by their spirits. As a teacher, we will usually be surprised at the amount of English the students know and use. For example, (Unit 13, SEFCIB) the students have a lot to say about Healthy Eating. To begin with, the teacher wrote on the board “Healthy food” & “Junk food”. They thought of fruits, green vegetables, fish, and so on, which are all healthy food and ice cream, hamburgers and French fries, chocolate, and so on which are junk food. All of these come from their lips.#p#分页标题#e#
 
Then, Language Focus, The teacher’s role as a monitor should be emphasized at this stage
 
A language focus on phase, in which students have to give feedback, making analysis and practice certain language items with the help of the teacher.
 
In the present study, Michael Courtney offers a principled analysis of the effects of a range of tasks designed to elicit oral production in English as a second language, and finds a significant correlation between task difficulty and the quality of language produced. With data from a series of experiments carried out in the Language Centre at UST, his investigation constitutes an important contribution to the under-researched areas of how particular features of language (e.g. accuracy, fluency, organization) alter under different task conditions, the way tasks are developed and classified, how tasks may influence quantitative assessment scores, and how language output may be influenced by different levels of task difficulty (cf. Porter 1993). Indeed, it has been shown how only small changes in the characteristics or conditions of tasks can influence scores for oral performance (Wigglesworth 2000), and that different factors influence different types of tasks to differing degrees - Henry (1998) has suggested, for example, that variability in a person's oral performance may even be affected by his/her interlocutor’s language ability, but the findings are inconclusive.
 
This issue has crucial implications for the general Hong Kong educational context, where oral proficiency constitutes a significant component of public language examinations at secondary level, and is included in many tertiary language assessment schemes. The import of Courtney’s findings is those candidates’ grades for oral performance may be less a reflection of their real proficiency, more a function of the tasks they are called upon to accomplish for the purposes of evaluation. While it is like that some features of language, e.g. Pronunciation, are more general sable across different tasks than others, performance in, for example, the use of vocabulary, may vary greatly depending on the task (James 1989 and Huhta 1996). Great faith is put in grades, but the generalisability of universal 'oral' grades awarded on the basis of performance on one task, to other tasks and contexts is, by Courtney's study, called into doubt.
 
Courtney concludes that the design of tasks as assessment instruments should include a precise specification of the task and the roles of the interlocutors. What is needed is a calibration of tasks according to difficulty and expected outcome, which have been extensively trialed on a range of learners with a range of interlocutors.
 
2.2 Previous Researches in China
 
In China, more and more educators have come to realize the significance of task-based language teaching in terms of improving students’ communicative skills, and actually they have done a great deal of work to come up a with some feasible ways aiming to make students actively involved in learning on English teaching and learning. Task-based approach views the learning process as a set of communicative tasks that are directly linked to the curricular goals they serve. It is the perspective within a communicative language teaching work that forces you to carefully consider all the techniques used in the classroom in terms of a number of important pedagogical purposes. In task-based approach, the priority is not the bits and pieces of language, but rather the al purposes for which language must be used. It focuses on whole set of real-world tasks themselves.#p#分页标题#e#
 
Tasks involve input in the form of a piece of text or language, either written or spoken; they involve activities, which are what the learner is required to do and they involve cognitive operations, which are the cognitive processes needed in order to carry out the activity.(Fang Lixin)
 
A task is seen as a forum within such meaningful interaction between two or more participants can take place. It is through the ensuring exchange and negotiation of meanings that learners’ knowledge of the language system develops.
 
With regard to the empirical study in English learning, Wang (1989) summarizes mufti-direction classroom communication as an important teaching principle. Wen Qiufang’s study (1993) holds a prominent position on classification of elements of English learning into conception and strategies. And her conclusion drawn from the experiment confirms the fact aforementioned that the difference between a more proficient student and a less proficient student lies in their differences in interaction. It is obvious that a more capable student is superior to the less proficient one in interaction.
 
In order to release students from boring learning in traditional classroom and find some ways to make reforms on non-English major teaching, Ying, He and Zhou (1998) have carried out an experiment to test the effectiveness of student-centered teaching model whose effect is rather successful and feasible after more than one year’s practice because for both teachers and students, their reactions are positive and students have made a firm support to the effectiveness and great progress in all the languages skills. During the procedure, they have made reforms from teaching ideology to teaching model and course book.
 
The starting implementation of The New English Curriculum indicate that student-centered, task-based interactive language teaching approach should be a subject for language teachers in China. Wang Qiang and Wang Lei (1993) begin their action researches on observing classroom behaviors and analyzing communicative patterns . Cheng Xiaoqiao, Li Baoqing and Zhang Shishi (1998) also make a study of interactional teaching in a sociological viewpoints, even offering some possible strategies to promote interaction between teacher and students. Yan&Liu (2001) summarize the characteristics of native English speaking teachers’ teaching and analyze their advantages of teaching in Chinese context, for example, language proficiency, life experiences and personality, etc, which can make students practice their oral English in an authentic environment.
 
Rao(2002)investigates Chinese students’ perceptions of communicative and non-communicative activities and their difficulties in English classes. He finds that Chinese students prefer a combination of communicative and non-communicative activities in class. As the old saying goes, where there is one thousand readers, there will be one thousand Hamlet. No single teaching method can deal with everything related to the target language. Different students have their own characteristics and differ greatly on various aspects. And he suggests that teacher may help their students understand the nature of the language, the function of the class, the role of the student and the teacher, students have to take part in various classroom activities in language teaching process and find a suitable way for him or her to learn English.#p#分页标题#e#
 
Zhu (2003) summarizes communicative language teaching has started to be accepted and teachers are encouraged to teach communicatively and interactively in class from the increasing series of communicative language textbooks published at the threshold of 2000.
 
Chapter Three REREACH DESIGN研究设计
 
Over the last two decades, the term Task-Based Language Teaching (TBLT) that employs communicative task as basic unit has played an important role in current oral English teaching and consequently, has continued to draw attention of language teachers and researchers.
 
TBLT involves students in performing a task which is an activity “where the target language is used by the learners for a communicative purpose in order to achieve an outcome” (Willis 26), and is a real-world activity “that people do in everyday life and which require language for their accomplishment” (Norris 33). During oral English teaching and learning, teachers or task designers should keep in mind that a task in TBLT is goal-directed and bases on meaning and linguistic competence, and meanwhile, students should fulfill the work by using their language knowledge and communicative competence. A task for oral English learning is a simulation of a real-life activity which is not simply replication of real life. Authenticity of tasks is a critical quality in TBLT (Candlin 1987; LONG, 1992; Nunan, 1993; Peter Skehen, 1998; Rod Ellis, 2003). With the ever-increasing publications on TBLT, its findings remain a hotly contested point for language pedagogy and curriculum design. This paper sets the goal of making the findings in TBLT, esp. the six types of task, more accessible and meaningful.
 
3.1 Main Types of Tasks in TBLT
 
Willis (149) lists six types of tasks of TBLT in her A framework for task-based learning as follows:
 
(1) Listing: Including brainstorming and fact-finding, the outcome is a completed list or draft mind map. This type of task can help train students’ comprehension and induction ability.
 
(2) Ordering, sorting: Including sequencing, ranking, categorizing and classifying, the outcome is a set of information ordered and sorted according to specified criteria. These types might foster comprehension, logic and reasoning ability.
 
(3) Comparing: Including matching, finding similarities or differences, the outcome can be the appropriately WU Yi-ping (1976- ), female, M.A., lecturer of Foreign Languages College, Zhejiang University of Industry and Commerce; research fields: applied linguistic, English teaching, TBLT .Practical use of task design in oral English teaching focus on task types matched or assembled items, or the identification of similarities and/or differences. This type of task could enhance students’ ability of discretion.
 
(4) Problem solving: Including analyzing real situations, analyzing hypothetical situations, reasoning, decision-making, and the outcome might be solutions to the problem, which can then be evaluated. The tasks can help foster students’ reasoning and decision-making ability.#p#分页标题#e#
 
(5) Sharing experience: Including narrating, describing, exploring and explaining attitudes, opinions, reactions, the outcome usually can be largely social. This can help students to share and exchange their knowledge and experience.
 
(6) Creative tasks: Including brainstorming, fact-finding, ordering and sorting, comparing, problem-solving and many others, the outcome might be end product which can be appreciated by a wider audience. Students can cultivate their comprehensive ability of solving problems with their ability of reasoning, logical and analyzing.
 
From easy to difficult, these six types of tasks all reveal the recognition process of students. The tasks in TBLT should be comparable to real life which might help students accomplish the tasks and show their communicative competence in classroom teaching and real life situations (Willis 149).
 
3.2 Practical Use of Six Types of Tasks in Oral English Teaching
 
Here we will introduce some practical use of tasks in oral English teaching. Some researchers organized the oral activities in English class through three semesters by using the above six types and how they benefit learning outcomes were investigated. Here, some samples of practical use are listed in detail.
 
(1) Listing
 
Text: Unit 6 in Book 2, New college English (2nd ed.)
 
Topic: Food
 
Task: Brainstorming—work in pairs, students should list all the possible dishes in the dinning hall of the university.
 
Outcome: After careful investigation, students should hand in a completed list of dishes they have found in the dinning hall and have a dialogue with partners about what they have eaten every day in the school dinning room.
 
Benefit: Students can accumulate many expressions of food, esp. Chinese traditional food by making the list of dishes; meanwhile, they can improve their comprehension and induction ability.
 
(2) Ordering, sorting
 
Text: Unit 6 in Book 3, New college English (2nd ed.)
 
Topic: Animal
 
Task: Classifying—firstly, students name those animals on pictures that the teacher presents and can add some animals which are not included in those pictures. Then, classify all the animals mentioned according to some given specified criteria they themselves put forward, such as types, colors, food, etc.
 
Outcome: After hot discussion and careful thinking, students should hold a discussion with their group members and list the specified criteria and animals as many as possible. Then, give a report about their discussion in public. Benefit: Students can accumulate many expressions of animals; meanwhile, they can enhance their comprehension, logic and reasoning ability.
 
(3) Comparing
 
Text: Unit 9 in Book 1, New college English (2nd ed.)
 
Topic: Festival
 
Task: Finding similarities or differences—firstly, brainstorming. Students are divided into two groups, one should find out some Chinese traditional festivals while the other might try to list all the foreign festival they’ve known, and list them on the blackboard. Secondly, try to find out some similarities between those festivals. Thirdly, try to find out some differences between those festivals. The categories they used might differ, such as which festival is the most united one? Which festivals relate to ghost?#p#分页标题#e#
 
Outcome: Students can give a role-play to present the custom how people celebrate those festivals and give a speech or discussion on what the differences and similarities are. By using different categories, the result might be different.
 
Benefit: Students can share the knowledge of different festivals and their cultural background; meanwhile, they can strengthen their ability of discretion.
 
(4) Problem-solving
 
Text: Unit 1 in Book 3, New college English (2nd ed.)
 
Topic: Personality
 
Task: Decision-making—students are given several situations where positive person and passive person encountered the same difficulties. After careful thinking and hot discussion, students should put forward some possible solutions to solve the problem. For example, two students took a math’s exam yesterday. One is so worried about his exam while the other is quite confident and relaxed. Then, how could the latter comfort the former student by using some effective methods?
 
Outcome: Students should give a role play or dialogue between the two types of person.
 
Benefit: In order to make a right choice, students should find a balance between different opinions and try to persuade others, which help foster students’ reasoning, persuading and decision-making ability.
 
(5) Sharing experience
 
Text: Unit 7 in Book 3, New college English (2nd ed.)
 
Topic: Travel
 
Task: Students share their experience of traveling with group members, describe some beautiful scenes during the process, explore some difficulties and troubles they have encountered and explain their attitudes and opinions towards those problems during their journey.
 
Outcome: Students should give a role-play or dialogue between the travel agency and travelers to solve some problems during the journey.
 
Benefit: Students can share some personal feelings, experience of their personal life, which can help students to express themselves clearly and smoothly.
 
(6) Creative tasks
 
Text: Unit 4 in Book 3, New college English (2nd ed.)
 
Topic: Career planning
 
Task: Work in groups. Firstly, students will do a brainstorming to list all the jobs they think about. Secondly, find out the differences and similarities between those jobs. Thirdly, share some experience when they do some part-time job or the summer practice with group members. Fourthly, pick up some friends or teachers, name their personality, and try to make a career planning for them.
 
Outcome: Students give a report of a certain person’s career planning. Try to explain the procedure they
 
3.3 Results and Analysis
 
All of the lessons above are task-based ones because, rather than being plotted around a pre-selected item, the purpose of the lesson is to achieve a task outcome: in this case, deciding how upbringing affects attitudes. While this may seem contrived just as contrived, in fact, as pre-selecting a item-it could be argued that the task focus encourages learners to take more creative risks with their language. They needn't restrict themselves to the teacher’s teaching agenda; theoretically, they could choose any language from the sample text. Finally, and most importantly, a task invests the lesson with an intrinsic interest, apart from a concern only for language. The language is simply a means, not an end in itself.#p#分页标题#e#
 
It should be clear that this task-based lesson shares many of the ingredients of the PPP lesson, but that the order is radically different: the major difference being that the production stage is brought to the front of the lesson after an initial introduction to the theme. The lesson starts in the deep end, as it were. The production stage acts as a trial run, where learners attempt to put into words the meanings they wish to express. The problems they have doing this should motivate them to look for solutions in the sample text. That is, they have an incentive to use the text as a resource, and may be better primed for noticing features of the text than if they had just read it for the sake of reading it. The teacher's role is to guide students to notice features that she herself has diagnosed as being misused or underused in the trial run. Students are then ready, theoretically, to re-attempt the task. As a final push towards accuracy, the report stage, in which the students 'go public', imposes an element of formality that forces attention on to form. TBL offers a change from the practice routines through which many learners have previously failed to learn to communicate. It encourages learners to experiment with whatever English they can recall, to try things out without fear of failure and public correction, and to take active control of their own learning, both in and outside class.
 
For the teacher, the framework offers security and control. While it may be true that TBL is an adventure, it can be undertaken within the safety of an imaginatively designed playground.
 
In all, the characteristics and merits of a task as an activity in language teaching and learning are:
 
(1) It centers in the principles of how language is to be used rather than taught or learned. The focus of a task is on solving a communicative problem, which has some connections with a real world of learners’ life and learning experience, and which can arouse learners’ interests and participation;
 
(2) The completion of a task must be taken into consideration when designing and performing a task and the evaluation of a task is a significant sign of the result of completion of a task;
 
(3) In task-based syllabus, the emphasis is on the learning process and the way in which it automatically defines the methodology is new and attractive to language teachers;
 
(4) Task-based syllabus is more effective way of learning a language since it provides a purpose for the use and learning of a language other than simply learning language items for their own sake;
 
(5) When task-based syllabus is combined with a focus on language in language teaching, the task receives more support in second language acquisition research;
 
(6) During doing the tasks planned by teachers, the generative educational aim is to make learners understand and maximize, and control their cognitive powers and cognitive weaknesses;
 
(7) During doing the tasks planned by teachers, learners’ differences can be easily found by teachers and teachers can be always getting ready to offer help to learners who need a hand at different settings;#p#分页标题#e#
 
(8) There is a new and important tendency in the program of teacher development that teachers are not passive receivers, but active researchers and designers and practitioners of their own language teaching. It is high time that teachers changed their roles of providing learners with forms of language into ones of designing tasks that can stimulate their learners to response just like in a real world. It is the task-based syllabus that can loosen the bind that is tied to the language teachers.
 
Some of the advantages of using a task-based approach to language teaching are stated as follows:
 
(1) It is compatible with a learner-centered educational philosophy, so it allows for a needs analysis, thus allowing course content to be matched to satisfy student needs.
 
(2) It is supported by a large body of empirical evidence, thus allowing decisions regarding materials design and methodology to be based on the research findings of classroom-centered language learning. (This distinguishes it from other syllabus types and methods, which have little empirical support);
 
(3) It allows evaluation to be based primarily on task-based criterion-referenced testing. Students can now be evaluated on their ability to perform a task according to a certain criterion rather than on their ability to successfully complete a discrete-point test.
 
(4) It emphasizes meaning over form but can also cater for learning form, so it can be used alongside a more traditional approach. It allows for form-focused instruction. There is now considerable evidence (Long 1988), particularly from research studies which have compared naturalistic L2 learners to instructed L2 learners, that form-focused instruction within a communicative context can be beneficial.
 
3.4 Some Problems in Using Tasks in TBLT
 
Although TBLT helps students practice oral English in a more complete way, it bears some problems when put it into practice.
 
Firstly, not all tasks can be performed in terms of oral language ability. Some tasks in daily life or even in classroom teaching are not suited for students. Meanwhile, the difficulty of properly using tasks is unpredictable and uncontrollable. Students’ knowledge and experience, to some extent, can influence the performance of those tasks. For example, students might not be familiar with the expression of Chinese traditional dishes/animals so that the task cannot be performed smoothly in class spontaneously and teachers’ help and guidance is of vital importance.
 
Secondly, how to evaluate TBLT needs to be considered. Since the content and purpose of TBLT are much more complex than before, we might find that students’ language ability and their degree of accomplishment of tasks should be taken into consideration at the same time. Thus, how to choose a certain fair, proper, systematic
 
evaluating criteria might be taken into consideration.
 
Finally, teachers must have a further understanding of using the six types of tasks in TBLT. Though many researchers study TBLT in China and abroad, it is still a new topic for most teachers in China, especially in oral English teaching. How to properly and creatively use the six types of tasks in oral English learning needs a great attention. We hope the discussion of task types and task design in TBLT might be continued and become more practical and meaningful.#p#分页标题#e#
 
Chapter Four SUGGESTIONS
 
4.1 The Requirements of Task-based Teaching Approach
 
The students have learned English for a long time, never the less; most students’ preferment’s in oral English is far from satisfactory. In this case, the Task-based Teaching Approach is definitely a good attempt. It shows a new way to improve the teaching of oral English. But how to use this method effectively and advisability may become a problem for some teachers.
 
By being exposed to Task-based activities, students can have a real taste and feel of language in use. What they have learned can be transferred to solve problems in real life. The students have more opportunities to be authentically and truly involved in the language. We know that it is vital for students to be exposed to as much meaningful language input as possible. In a Task-based oral class, the students can not be “mute” any longer. They can collect information, store data and make plans to solve problems. Those mental activities will contribute a lot to their cognitive achievement, which in turn can boost students’ interest in learning oral English and help them overcome difficulties in their learning process. The students are required to carry out various tasks designed mainly for interactive communication. Such problem-solving activities require the students to find solutions to problems while dramatic activities emphasize role-playing and encourage active involvement of the students. Besides, the Task-based Teaching Approach usually take the form of pair and group work so as to generate more students' talking time and create a richer environment for interaction. In order to create a real-life environment for language learning, authentic materials are taken full advantage of in the oral English class. Furthermore, the language teachers also change their conventional roles to more challenging ones. They are not only to impart knowledge but also to assume varied roles as organizers and facilitators. The class is student-centered and always filled with laughter.
 
The application of the Task-based Teaching Approach makes great demands upon the teachers, as it can be seen as a reform for the teacher and the students. For making full use of the method, some reasonable suggestions areas follows;
 
4.2 Suggestions
 
4.2.1 Attention to be paid to the task features
 
Ellis(1990) has listed six criteria for evaluating task activity, which can be regarded as task features.
 
(1) Communicative purpose: the activity must involve the students in performing a real communicative purpose rather than just practicing language for its own sake. In order to make it happen there must be some kinds of “information gap” that students seek to bridge when communicating.
 
(2) Communicative desire: the activity must create a desire to communicate in the students. That is, even if communications is forced on the students, they must feel a real need to communicate.#p#分页标题#e#
 
(3) Content, not form: when the students are doing the activity, they must be focused on what they are saying, not how they say it. They must have some “messages” that they want to communicate.
 
(4) Variety of language: the activity must involve the students in using a variety of languages, not just one specific language form. The students should feel free to improvise, using whatever resources they choose.
 
(5) No teacher intervention: the activity must be designed to be done by the students working by themselves rather than with teachers. The activity should not involve the teacher correcting or evaluating how the students do the activity, although it could involve some evaluation of the final “product” of the activity when the activity is over. This assessment should be based on whether the students have achieved their communicative purpose, not whether the language they used was correct.
 
(6) No material control: the activity should not be designed to control what language the students should use. The choice about what language to use should rest with the students.
 
4.2.2 problems to be noticed in the process of designing tasks
 
(1) Notice the individual differences
 
Knowledge accumulation and capacity levels of every student are not the same. So the speed and quality of fulfilling the task also are not the same. Teacher should take care of the process of their task fulfillment, encourage and praise students according to their effort not only to their behaviors and progresses. Teacher must give different tasks to different students avoiding to hurt self-esteems of students. The best way is fulfilling the task by groups that students are cultivated to cooperate with others.
 
(2) Notice maneuverability of task
 
Some task designing may be very good, and students can be well inspired into learning. But the class and the room are limited. Teacher must make sure the definitude of the tasks. Then explain the rules of task quickly and clearly. At last, students can fulfill the task better in the limited time.
 
(3) Notice dominant of teacher
 
The success of fulfilling task is based on the designing and organization. The role of teacher is very important. For teacher is the designer, the fugleman, the participant, the organizer, the monitor and the valuator. Teacher must provide not only help to students, but also exert the maneuverability, organize the students to fulfill tasks effectively. Task-based learning embodies the idea that taking the student as main body, the task as the focus, activities as the methods.
 
CONCLUSION结论
 
The ultimate objective of application of Interactive Teaching Approach is to train and develop the students’ ability to communicate in a foreign language as an instrument, which lays emphasis not only on developing the students’ linguistic competence, but also their interactive competence. Therefore, this teaching approach can cast light on the oral English teaching and put quality education in practice in its real sense, it can arouse the interest of most students in oral English learning.#p#分页标题#e#
 
Task-based Teaching Approach aims at developing students’ communicative competence, self-study capacity and comprehensive language skills. It can promote students’ English acquisition, develop students’ strategic competence and creates a harmonious and easy atmosphere, and it can make the students have great enthusiasm on English learning, for instance, they can feel free when talking with foreigners, discussing or debating in class in order to express their own ideas in fluent English, chatting with friends at English Corner, participating in various competitions of English in or out of class. It is undeniable that this teaching method has exerted a positive influence on oral English teaching. We can assert that Task-based Teaching Approach will be continuing to exert a far-reaching influence on oral English teaching and learning.
 
In conclusion, for many learners, the interactive classroom is the one place they get to think about language, practice using it, take risks with it, and reflect on their use of it. Providing learners with activities that allow for performing tasks is important for language development and for preparing learners to use the language successfully when they leave the class environment.
 
Task-based Teaching Approach is by no means the final answer and the best of all language teaching methods; it might be a tendency for English teaching. Further experiment and research are needed to testify its efficiency and practicality in teaching middle school students oral English.
 

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