英语本科毕业论文-The Application of Task-based Approach Teaching to English Listening in Middle Schools

1、The Application of Task-based Approach Teaching to English Listening in Middle SchoolsI. IntroductionListening is an important skill of human communication and is also one of the four basic skills of language learning, but listening teaching has long been one of the neglected areas in China. In most

2、 listening class, teachers usually play tape recorders, students finish the exercises which given by teachers, and then teachers check students answers while explaining some new words occasionally. Because of the traditional teaching approach has controlled the listening class for a long time, liste

3、ning is not being taught but tested in middle schools. Under this circumstance, students easily get bored and lack of learning interest. From the above analysis of the present English listening teaching situation in middle schools, we need to search for a more effective way to improve students Engli

4、sh listening ability and knowledge, and task-based approach is one of the best choices. People consider TBA a much more effective language learning approach, because it supports the goal of using and learning a certain language. In other words, learning language is not only for the language form its

5、elf, but also, and most importantly, for the meaning or use of the language. This approach has many advantages: Firstly, students perform tasks given by teachers which can not only arouse students interest and motivation but also create a relaxed and pleasant atmosphere. Secondly, students exchange

6、their ideas with each other and learn from each other during the process. This not only helps to improve students English learning, develop their mental intelligence, but also greatly increases their learning interest and confidence. II. Existing Problems in Current Listening Teaching2.1 Deficient W

7、ork before ListeningSome teachers believe that they can teach listening course without any preparations so long as they have the tapes and reference books. So I would like to emphasize the importance of preparations for a class, it is the basic need of an effective listening teaching.Firstly, the te

8、acher does not train students to make predictions and do not choose suitable listening materials. If the students can learn to make predications about what they are going to hear, the listening comprehension must be easy. If they give a daily telephone conversation, students may learn much more abou

9、t the language and start to gain confidence. Secondly, the listening materials we use nowadays are usually not well organized, and many of them are not as interesting as what students desire for, which will decrease students learning interest. In this case, we should reorganize the materials in an e

10、xciting way. We may resort to more games, stories or other activities to make the task more attractive to the students. They even do not know the length of the materials, the difficult points and the focus of the materials, and they can not decide in advance how to go on with the teaching in class.

11、Thirdly, the teacher does not help the students overcome linguistic Knowledge obstacle, do not let students pay attention to the different phonemes; do not improve students ability of distinguishing sounds. Teachers should have students become familiar with the phenomenon of sound change, with the d

12、ifferent sentence structures and grammar structure. A language is established by people who use it; people speak differently in different situations. Knowing some common formulas, the students will quickly determine speakers position, social status and attitude. 2.2 Old Pattern of TeachingFirstly, t

13、he traditional method is to play a tape several times for the students, and then give tests to examine how much they have understood according by doing a lot of comprehension exercises, rather than being taught how to get information and how to deal with their listening problems in class, the main t

14、ask of the teacher is to check the answers and explain the difficulties. The center of this kind of teaching method focuses on whether the students answers are right or wrong.Secondly, many classroom listening comprehension exercises have no response until the end of long speech, so these responses

15、are very largely a test of memory rather than of comprehension. In fact, psycholinguistic studies have shown that people do not remember what they hear word for word, they can remember the meaning. If the teacher always gives the listening comprehension exercises like that, the students may become p

16、assive even bored listeners because of the lack of participation in the process of listening. As to lose motivation and interest or have a so-called panic feeling when listening.Thirdly, the teacher does not contrive a situation for English teaching. A teacher should try to speak English in class. H

17、e can use gestures, authentic materials, and pictures to help himself with teaching. Fourthly, because there are about 50 to 70 students in one class and the level of their listening are different, so it is difficult for teachers to take care of everyone. If the teacher can divide the students into

18、groups and give them several tasks, they will feel easier. Deficient Task after ListeningThe teacher only checks the answers after listening, and does not focus on the listening comprehension. They can not realize that listening must be integrated with the other basic skills such as speaking, writin

19、g and reading. No matter in class or after class, the teacher should contrive a situation for English teaching, after class the teacher can hold the English corner, it not only increase students listening ability but also their speaking ability. After class, the teacher does not give the students us

20、eful assignments, the level of assignments should be proper for students, because if the assignments are too difficult for students, the students may lose their learning interest. III. The Application of Task-based Approach Teaching to English Listening in Middle Schools3.1 Framework of Task-Based A

21、pproachTask-based language teaching has emerged since the 1980s; it is new teaching methodology, which is recommended as an effective teaching approach. TBLT is developed on the basis of communicative language teaching. Task-based language teaching approach is a great challenge for teachers to teach

22、, students to learn and course books to design. It requires teachers to transfer from a controller into a designer, director, a manager, and a helper and demand students from passive learners into student-centered learners. Task-Based Language Teaching has been advocated by language teachers and edu

23、cationalists. But what task really is, linguists and researchers only have a framework of Task-based Approach. The author of this thesis will talk about it from the following aspects:.1 Definition of a Task and TBA“A task is a piece of work undertaken for oneself or for others, freely or for some re

24、ward (Long 1985).” (Zhang Helan, 2007:2) It means what people do in everyday life, at work, at play, and in between, e.g. 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 test, taking a hotel res

25、ervation, writing a check, finding a street destination, helping someone across a road.“In Williss idea, a task means a goal-oriented activity with a clear purpose. Doing a communication task involves achieving an outcome, creating a final product that can be appreciated by others.” (Zhang Helan, 20

26、07:1) Examples include compiling a list of reasons, features, or things that need doing under particular circumstances, comparing two pictures to find the differences, and solving a problem.“According to Brumfit & Johnson, task-oriented teaching is defined as teaching which provides “actual mean

27、ing” by focusing on tasks to be mediated through language, and where success or failure is seen to be judged in terms of whether or not the tasks are preformed.” (Zhang Helan, 2007:1)Nunan claimed, “in general, I too will consider the communicative task as a piece of classroom work which involves st

28、udents in comprehending, manipulating, producing or interacting in the target language while their attention is principally focused on meaning rather than form. The task should also have a sense of completeness, being able to stay alone as a communicative act in its own right.” (Zhang Helan, 2007:1)

29、Although the above definitions are different, they all imply that tasks involve communicative language use in which the users attention is focused on meaning rather than on linguistic structure.“TBA is a kind of teaching or learning approach that takes specific learning or teaching tasks as the moti

30、vation, which takes the task completion as the learning or teaching process, which takes the task presentation and task implementation as showing the effect of teaching and learning.” (Zhang Helan, 2007:2) In brief, task-based approach is an English teaching approach in which students learn English

31、through doing. Types of TaskWillis considers tasks as the following types:Listing: students are required to speak out the things related to titles and list them. This listing task can cultivate students competences to collect information, which can also help teachers to know more about their student

32、s.Ordering, sorting, classifying: through analyzing and concluding a series of input materials, students can sort and classify them in order. This task can cultivate students how to deal with and apply information, and competences of logic thinking and analysis.Comparing, matching: through comparing

33、 and matching different input materials, students can find out their differences and can also speak out by using their own language.Problem solving: these tasks focus on finding out methods to solve problems by participants collaborating, communicating and negotiating and its answer is not unique. T

34、his open and creative task can help students to develop their competences to solve problems, to apply knowledge and to create thinking.Sharing personal experience: by imitating what happens in real life, students can communicate with each other, getting various information about their families, lear

35、ning, hobbies and so on and share personal experience.Creative tasks: to accomplish these tasks, students should consult references or carry out investigations to gain information on a certain topic. Holding kinds of activities, editing newspapers and writing research reports are such tasks.3.1.3 Pr

36、inciples for TBAThe authenticity principle: tasks should be combined with students personal experience and social life. In the teaching process, teachers should not only help students to master new language knowledge but also pay more attention to developing students language skills. Therefore, it i

37、s necessary to create communicative context close to students real life so that students can be actively involved in tasks. Students can both raise interest in learning and apply what they have learned to their real life through task performance.Task dependency principle: tasks should be designed in

38、 the order from simplest to the most complex and easiest to the most difficult. We can assume that each task representing a rung on the ladder, enabling the student to teach higher and higher levels of communicative performance.The principle of form-function: in designing a task, we should pay speci

39、al attention to combine the language form with language function. The tasks in every step should have a definite guiding purpose on the basis of learning language form. The students can learn the language function and the skills of communication through performing a series of tasks. For example, whe

40、n we deal with a new language item, instead of teaching students its meaning directly, we should try to create the context where it is used so that students can understand not only its meaning but also know how to use it. Learning by doing: Teachers should direct students to learn language by perfor

41、ming specific task activities, to attain and enrich learning experiences and strategies and to conduct language activities for the special purposes and enjoy the happiness of success through completing certain communicative tasks. Learning by doing motivates students to fulfill their potential and e

42、nhances students interest in and enthusiasm to learning. Students master the language by using it communicatively in the classroom, although they still have to learn grammar and memorize vocabulary.Scaffolding: Proper concerns and supports should be given to students in language teaching. Language l

43、earning is a gradually developing process in which sufficient help given by teacher is significant for students progress. Scaffolding is a process of setting up the situation to make the students entry easy and successful and then gradually pulling back and handing the road to the student as he beco

44、mes skilled enough to manage it. The task of a teacher is to create the conditions in which learning can take place. In other words, teachers should act as a facilitator of learning. In class, teachers should create rich learning experience by offering a multiplicity of authentic learning tasks. Whi

45、le students are doing task, the teacher should walk around the classroom and observe how well the students are doing. If students are not doing the right task, the teachers can give them help. When the students are not sure how to start a task, or what to do next, or how to express themselves in pro

46、per target language, the teacher should give necessary prompts. 3.2 Pre-taskPre-listening is a kind of preparatory work. In real life situation, a listener always knows in advance something that is going to be said, who is speaking or what the subject is going to be about. At the pre-listening stage

47、 the teacher should help the students to find out the aim of listening, provide the necessary background information and help them to guess what they are going to hear next. And the teacher needs to prepare students psychologically for the listening activity, telling them that they will not be able

48、to understand everything they hear, and that they should not be panic because of this.3.2.1 PredictingResearch in listening has shown that good listeners are good predictors. If we want our students to become better predictors, we must help them become better listeners. If there is a picture with th

49、e listening passage, the students can be asked to predict what the passage will contain before they listen. Visual aids can help students in listening comprehension, maybe the students have difficulty predicting in the beginning, the teachers can help them by asking leading questions. It attracts st

50、udents attention and encourages them to focus on the topic.The other predicting task is to let students read the listening comprehension questions before they listen. Through this way, they can guess the topic of the listening text and start a discussion in pairs or in groups, and the teacher should

51、 encourage them to exchange ideas and opinions about the topic. Sometimes, the teachers can ask the students to guess the answers to the questions before they listen, maybe the answers are not right, but the students will be more motivated to listen to the passage to see whether their predictions ar

52、e correct or not. Introducing Cultural Background Different countries have different cultural backgrounds, introducing cultural backgrounds to students can arouse their interest in learning English. If listeners know little about English speaking countries history, literature, living style, traditio

53、ns, festivals, and customs and so on, they can not have a good understanding of the speakers even though they are familiar with the word they have heard. So it is important for teachers to introduce something related to cultural background, then they will have a good understanding of the content. Fo

54、r example, in western countries it is impolite to ask peoples personal affairs. If you ask a woman: “How old are you? Are you married? How many children do you have? she will feel annoyed. If you ask a western people “Have you had lunch?” he/she would understand that you want to invite him/her have

55、a lunch. The teacher also can introduce the festivals like Easter Day, Fools Day and Christmas Day, what kind of foods will be eaten or what kind of activities will be hold on the festivals. To some extent, good listening comprehension relies on how much learners understand the cultural background.3

56、.2.3 Providing Language KnowledgeLanguage knowledge is necessary for listening comprehension. The level of listening comprehension is always based on the level of knowledge. Little language knowledge will lead to failure in listening, so teaching language knowledge is vital.Firstly, there will be se

57、veral easily confused words in listening, such as light/night/fight; short/sought/thought. And the difference between British English and American English should also be noticed, for example: white/wait/ in British English and /hwait/ in American English. Students also find it hard to understand the

58、 real meaning because of different intonations. For example, Jerry has passed his English examination. Jerry has passed his English examination? Different stresses and rhythms also lead to different meanings of the sentences. Secondly, there maybe some important words those students do not know, so

59、teacher must encourage students to overcome the vocabulary obstacle. Because when the students first meet with a new word, they will feel uncomfortable, the second new word can make them confused, and the third and the fourth one always lead to them giving up. Giving Task InstructionStudents must understand the aim and the result of the task before learning. In order to finish the task, the teacher should try their best to let every student clear about how to deve