Task-based Language Teaching

1、-作者xxxx-日期xxxxTask-based Language Teaching【精品文档】Task-based Language Teaching Methodology and Its Application in ReadingAbstract: This paper attempts to analyze and discuss the theoretical foundations and basic concepts of task-based language teaching (TBLT)methodology and its application in the Engl

2、ish classroom teaching, especially in reading. The approach is based on a lot of researches done by foreign language teaching research workers. With its development and improvement, it has been one of the most effective language-teaching methods. It is a student-oriented approach. The task-based tea

3、ching activities can activate students language awareness and stimulate their interest. The key of the methodology is “learning by doing”. It can help students discover and work out the rules in language performances through conducting by doing and foster students abilities in creative thinking and

4、problem-solving and develop students abilities in cooperative and interactive learning. 空4个字符，与上面的罗马字I对齐Key words: task; task-based language; methodology; application. IntroductionTask-based Language Teaching is an influential teaching approach which was first started and radically established since

5、 1980s. In fact, it is a further development of Communicative Language Teaching (CLT)hus, and then a lot of studies and experiments have been done on it by many other researchers and linguists. It is becoming popular in China, beginning in 1990s; Chinese language educators began to introduce the app

6、roach to English teaching and challenged the traditional language teaching in 2001. There is a common belief that, owing to the highly teacher-focused form of education, Chinese students are passive learners. Because of using the old-fashioned methods, English teachers often neglect training student

7、s practical abilities, for example, speaking confidently, fluently and logically. As a result, TBLT, a student-centered approach is believed to be implemented. Furthermore, the methodology mediates these contradictions of language form and meaning, developing language structure system and communicat

8、ive competence, class instruction and acquisition, fluency and accuracy, which are always troubling language teaching and learning. With the development of TBLT, it has gradually become mature and been applied in teaching. As for the study, it will base the investigation of TBLT on the applied lingu

9、istics as a theoretical framework. This thesis is composed of three parts. Firstly, a brief introduction is given to the topic, TBLT. This part is mainly associated with its feasibility and effectiveness. Secondly, its researches, basic concepts, and application in reading are introduced. Lastly, a

10、conclusion, limitations and suggestions for further study and development are offered here. The analysis of task-based language teaching methodology In this part, the definition, components and designs of tasks, definitions, features of TBLT methodology are given in this thesis.A. Tasks1. Definition

11、s of a taskLong says a task is a piece of work undertaken for oneself or for others, freely or for some reward. Thus, examples of tasks include painting a fence, dressing a child, filling out a form, buying a pair of shoes, making an airline reservation, borrowing a library book, taking a driving te

12、st, typing a letter, weighing a patient, sorting letters, taking a hotel reservation, writing a cheque, finding a street destination and helping someone across a road. In other words, by task is meant the hundred and one things people do in everyday life, at work, at play, and in between. any struct

13、ured 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

14、 from the simple and brief exercise type, to more complex and lengthy activities such as group problem-solving or simulations and decision making. (Breen , 1987: 23)Prabhu considers that a task is an activity which requires learners to arrive at an outcome from given information through some process

15、 of thoughts, and which allows teachers to control and regulate that process. In the opinion of Nunan, 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

16、 form. Tasks are activities where the target language is used by the learner for a communicative purpose (goal) in order to achieve an outcome. (Willis , 1996: 23)Ur thinks that a task is essentially goal-oriented; it requires the group, or pair, to achieve an objective that is usually expressed by

17、an observable result, such as brief notes or lists, rearrangement of jumbled items, a drawing, a spoken summary. This result should be attainable only by interaction between participants: so within the definition of the task you often find instructions such as reach a consensus, or find out everyone

18、s opinions. From the above definitions we can see that a task can hold different meanings for different persons. So, what is the core of a task? The common core is that they all think tasks involve communicative language use in which the users attention is concentrated on meaning rather than on ling

19、uistic structure. From the point, we agree that a task is regarded as an activity of the communicative classroom. However, a task is different from an exercise. A task needs having the information gap, but an exercise does not.2. Components of a taska. Purpose is a reason for undertaking the task fo

20、r students.b. Content refers to some sociolinguistic issues, real, stimulated or imaginary, such as the location, the participants and their relationship, the time, and other important factors.c. Materials are considered as the things that students can manipulate.d. Activities are regarded as the th

21、ings that students and teachers will be doing during the lesson.e. Process means getting the students to use learning strategies such as problem solving, inquiring and communicating.f. Product is some form of outcome, either visible (a written plan, a play, a letter, etc.)3. Designs of a task By now

22、 we have discussed the definitions and components of a task. The next thing that we are to discuss is how we can design tasks. Breen (1987: 25) suggests that teachers need to address four sets of questions when designing tasks:What is the objective of the task?What is the content of the task?How is

23、the task to be carried out?In what situation is the task to be carried out?In order to answer the above questions, we can take some specific steps in designing tasks. There are basically five steps:Step1. Paying attention to students needs, interest and abilities What kinds of things do they like to

24、 do? What can they deal with?Step2. BrainstormMake a list of some communicative tasks for the topics that students may be fond of doing. However, the tasks should have communicative purposes and should be goal-orientated. For example, describing the changes that have taken place in countryside or do

25、wntowns in the past 5 years.Step3. Choosing the list Firstly, we need to evaluate value, appropriateness according to the students needs, interest and abilities, availability of resources, time limits. Lastly, we need to connect them with the language items. If the level of the task is too difficult

26、 in linguistic, we can reject or modify it. If not, we can accept it. When we select the final tasks, we require to work out the possible language knowledge and skills needed to accomplish the tasks. Step4. Preparing materialAt this stage, we need to prepare the materials that the students need to c

27、arry out the tasks. The tasks should involve the use of communicative language. In a word, we should pay attention to the following points: Firstly, the teacher should review what happened in the task, in regard to language. It may include language forms that the students were using, problems that s

28、tudents had, and perhaps forms that needed to be covered more or were not used enough. Secondly, during the task phase, the students perform the task, typically in small groups, although this is dependent on the type of activity. And the teacher plays a particular role in the task, in other words, t

29、he teachers role is typically confined to one of an observer or counselorThats the reason why it is a more student-oriented methodology. B. TBLT methodology1. Definition of TBLT TBLT, as a further development of CLT, it shares the same beliefs, as Language should be learned as close as possible to h

30、ow it is used in real life. However, it has strongly stressed the importance to combine form-focused teaching with communication-focused teaching. It is a method that encourages learners to do things in the language they are learning. The things that they will do are purposeful and communicative and

31、 bear some resemblance to what they use in their own language. 2. Features of TBLT Nunan (1991: 279) summarizes five features of TBLT:a. An emphasis on learning to communicate through interaction in the target language.b. The introduction of authentic texts into the learning situation.c. The provisi

32、on of opportunities for learners to focus not only on language, but also on the learning process itself.d. An enhancement of the learners own personal experiences as important contributing elements to classroom learning.e. An attempt to link classroom language learning with language activation outsi

33、der the classroom. Freez (1998: 17, via Richards and Rodgers, 2001: 224) also generalize some features about TBLT:a. The focus is on the process rather than product.b. Basic elements are purposeful activities and tasks that emphasize communication and meaning.c. Learners learn language by interactin

34、g communicatively and purposefully while engaged in the activities and tasks.a. Activities and tasks of a task-based syllabus are sequenced according to difficulty.b. The difficulty of a task depends on a range of factors including the previous experience of the learner, the complexity of the task,

35、the language required to undertake the task, and the degree of support available.From the above, we can see the principles of CLT are the goals that TBLT pursues to achieve in language teaching. Besides, TBLT provides learners with opportunities for communication in the classroom as well as supplies

36、 the target language to students through task designs and operation. In fact, TBLT can be expressed in Freezes words: TBLT changes communicative language teaching principles into a practical classroom teaching mode.” . TBLTS Application in ReadingA. TBLTS application in English readingIn the present

37、 day, TBLT method has been adopted by many schools in speaking and writing in English class, however, little attention has been paid to the investigation and application of the model in English reading class. As we all know, the teachers usually employ the traditional grammar-translation teaching me

38、thod, and PPP model in reading, which emphasize forms in the process of drilling and reinforcement. The teachers who are like controllers, are considered as the center in class to dominate the whole learning process, students are required to memorize some grammar rules and do drills repeatedly. Unde

39、r these circumstances, the students fail to develop their comprehensive abilities . Besides, the models prevent students from motivating their activeness of learning, because what students can do is just to listen to the teachers explanation and taking notes on the blackboard during the whole class,

40、 and they have few opportunities to take part in language activities and can not enhance language competence. So students gradually lose their intrinsic motivation of learning. Whats more, the cramming teaching model will be harmful to the communication between teachers and students as the teachers

41、can not get the effective feedbacks from students. To sum up, the traditional teaching models will lead to cultivate a lot of “dumb English learners” and prove to be ineffective models to improve students English comprehensive abilities. Although the EFL teaching method takes the context into the co

42、nsideration, a great-imbalance exists between the receptive skills and the productive ones. Students are urged to extend and strengthen their linguistic knowledge and improve their communicative competence. However, TBLT can make up for the insufficiency. The following surveys can embody its feasibi

43、lity.One of my middle school English teachers makes TBLTs survey for one year. He chooses 90 students to engage in the research. They come from two classes with similar level of English proficiency. Class A is taught with the TBLT approach, the other is the control class B where the traditional PPP

44、model was carried out. There are 30 girls and 25 boys. in class A, while class B consist of 32 girls and 23 boys. Before the experiment, my teacher respectively gives students of two classes one test to check their English proficiency. The results are that two classes are almost at the same level. A

45、fter the experiment, another test is taken. It proves that the level of class A is higher than that of class B. Class A does better performance in the post-test, especially the reading comprehensions than class B. Although the research is not widely and all-round, to some extent, it proves that TBLT

46、 model is a more appropriate and effective way to apply in reading class and improves students comprehensive ability. Although the experiment has got expected success, like any other empirical study, there still exist some inevitable limitations: Firstly, the research with the small sample size does

47、nt represent all the students in other contexts. The students chosen in experiment are the students in Junior 3, No.3 Middle School in Ding Ji, Xiang Chen, and they cannot represent all the students in China. If the size is enlarged as possible, the affected factors can be controlled to the minimum

48、and the validity will be maximized. Secondly, the time length of the experiment seems to be a little short. The whole process of the study only lasts for a year, it is not long enough to meet scientific requirements. In addition, English improvement is a long-term work, so the research may be still

49、not long enough to cover every aspect of the students English proficiency significantly. Lastly, due to the lack of systematic and valid assessment models, the pre-test and the post-test neither assesses students listening , speaking nor writing competence, only be graded by the teachers in line wit

50、h their performance in every class, so there has a space to be improved.B. Advantages of TBLTThe ultimate goal of foreign language teaching is to enable students to use the foreign language in work or life when necessary. Thus we should teach that part of the language that will be used; and we shoul

51、d teach language in the way it is used in the real world. However, the traditional pedagogy tends to focus on the forms or partial language skill. Although the adoption of communicative language teaching solves some problems in some sense, it is not still enough. A better solution to the above issue

52、s is the adoption of task-based language teaching. TBLT is more student-centered. The students are free to use and talk about what they want, even though the teacher presents requirements in the pre-task. This allows them to use all the language knowledge they know and are learning, rather than a si

53、ngle structure. Whats more, as the tasks are supposed to be familiar to the students; they are more likely to be engaged, which may further motivate them in their language learning. Lastly, students will find the class learning is related to the daily life, which can stimulate them to use language p

54、oints they have learnt or are learning to communicate with other people. All in all, the approach applied to reading class has some merit: Firstly, the model can stimulate students interest and cultivate their motivation in language learning. Secondly, the method proves an appropriate and more effec

55、tive way to apply in reading class and improves students comprehensive language competence, especially reading and writing skills. Lastly, the approach significantly affects the students who have a relatively solid language foundation and competence. They can get faster and make more remarkable prog

56、ress than relatively poor students.C. Disadvantage of TBLTDespite the advantages of TBLT and its current prominence in the research literature, there are still relatively few genuine task-based text books on the market. One reason is that it is difficult for teachers to adapt the materials. As TBLT

57、is a new approach requiring a change in methodological focus, meanwhile it needs the overall learning of new techniques. The second reason is that it is a big challenge for designers of textbooks and syllabuses. This requires them to redesign grammatical exercises into task-based language activities

58、 and come up with tasks detailed enough to allow for comparative analysis. The third reason is that it may be not appropriate to regard TBLT as the foundation of a class for beginning students. Conclusion This part mainly summarizes the major findings. Nowadays, the abilities of speaking English cle

59、arly, standardly, effectively, and fluently, the abilities of reading comprehension, self-discovering, creative thinking, problem-solving and cooperative and interactive learning or working have become the essential needs in our society. However, we often feel disappointed with the feedbacks of many work units and graduates.