任务型教学法在初中英语课堂的实施

论文总字数：31494字

摘 要

任务型教学法是20世纪80年代兴起的一种强调“做中学”的语言教学法。国外诸多研究证明任务型教学法在培养学生学习兴趣、提高学生学习能力、促使学生综合素质全面发展等方面起到重要作用。2001年3月，我国九年制初中义务教育英语教学大纲明确倡导实施任务型教学模式，提高学生综合运用语言的能力。本文探究了任务型教学法的定义、任务的分类，以及国内外的研究现状，表明了任务型教学法对学生英语学习的积极影响，同时分析了初中生的特点，以及在初中英语课堂实施过程中出现的主要问题，并提供了具体的教学应用实例和参考意见以期望英语教师能加深对任务型教学法的理解，改善英语课堂教学效果。

关键词: 初中；英语教学；任务型语言教学法；教学启示

Contents

1. Introduction 1

2. Literature Review 2

2.1 Definitions of TBLT 2

2.2 Types of Tasks 2

2.3 Previous Researches of TBLT 3

3. The Significance of TBLT 6

4. The Implementation of TBLT in Junior Middle School Class 7

4.1 The Characteristics of Middle School Students 7

4.2 The Procedure of Implementation 8

4.3 The Main Problems During Implementation 9

4.4 An Application Example 10

5. Pedagogical Implications 11

6. Conclusion 12

Works Cited 13

1. Introduction

Task-based language teaching (TBLT) is an influential teaching approach which was first started and radically established since 1980s. In fact, it is a further development of Communicative Language Teaching (CLT). It is first advocated by N.S.Prabhus, and then a lot of studies and experiments have been done on it by many other researchers and linguists. It becomes popular in China, beginning in 1990s. In May 2001, the ministry of education issued a New English Curriculum Standard, which advocates experiencing，practicing，participating，communicating and cooperating . It is in the New English Curriculum Standard(2001)that TBLT is advocated．It explicitly points out that to carryout the task-based approach is to develop the students’ comprehensive ability of language use in the course of English teaching．Task-based language teaching fully embodies modern education idea that is based on the development of people’ education. The teacher can design different tasks according to different levels of students, which enables students to complete tasks by working with partners, so as to cultivate the consciousness of cooperation, improve their ability to find and solve problems and experience the joy of success in the process of completing tasks, which meets the fundamental requirements of quality-oriented education.

Looking at the present situation of English teaching in China, we may find that there exist some problems. To begin with, most English teachers have laid more emphasis on language knowledge teaching than cultivation of students’ comprehensive abilities of using foreign language because of the test—orientated education. And most English teachers in junior schools are not highly qualified and proficient in cultural aspect of the language. What’s worse, EFL learners often lack “the informal linguistic environment”(Krashen，1976:25)and thus have little chance to use the target language in daily life.

Therefore, task-based language teaching is gaining more and more attention and widely adopted by teachers in their lessons of English teaching to change the current situation of English teaching. So it is highly necessary to explore this advanced teaching approach.

This thesis makes an attempt to explore the experts’ theory on TBLT and its implementation. Through the thesis, it will be helpful to deepen the understanding of the TBLT and it can give enlightenment for English teachers to make better use of this method so that students can learn English better and develop themselves in an all-around way.

2. Literature Review

In this part, the author will present literature review, including theoretical account of TBLT, a brief description of previous study of TBLT both in China and abroad and its significance.

2.1 Definitions of TBLT

Nunan (1989) thought “The communicative task is 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.” He also analyzed the framework of communicative tasks from the following six aspects: goals; input ;activities ;settings ;learner role; teacher role. While, Skehan (1998) defined a task as an activity in which meaning is primary; learners are not given other people’s meanings to regurgitate; there is some sort of relationship to comparable real-world activities; task completion has priority and the assessment of the task in terms of outcome. Richards (2001) considers a task as an activity or a goal that is carried out using language, such as finding a solution to a puzzle, reading a map and giving directions, making a telephone call, writing a letter, or reading a set of instructions and assembling a toy. Although there is no single widely-accepted definition of tasks, most scholars would agree that: tasks are activities with a clear outcome in the teaching process; communication tasks are classroom activities that require learners to understand and use the target language learned to communicate; tasks resemble communicative activities which people carry out in every day life and they are the reproduction of people’s communicative process; tasks are activities where learners use the target language to do things for a communicative purpose; tasks should be complete communicative activities, often with a non-linguistic outcome and to assess whether a task is successfully completed depends on whether it has an outcome.

2.2 Types of Tasks

Generally there are six types of tasks from the perspective of teaching:

1. Prediction tasks: before students finish reading or listening to the whole context, let them predict the content of the text according to the title, the segments of the text or the pictures

2. Jumbles tasks: teachers can upset the paragraphs and the order of the pictures and then let students rehearse in sequence. This requires students to understand the text and comprehend the coherence of the text.

3. Comparison tasks: this kind of learning task requires students to compare similar things, objects, and find out the similarities and differences between them. Contrast can exercise the students" ability of oral expression and judgment

4. Problem solving tasks: this task require students to solve the problems in real life according to their own knowledge and reasoning ability.

5. Memory challenge tasks: it demands students to finish reading an article in the prescriptive time, and then they summarize and retell the main content of the article or it requires students to ask several questions to improve their reading ability and memory ability.

6. Creative tasks: it refers to tasks with exploratory, openness and practicality. It includes a list, the arrangement of order and classification, the contrast and the settlement of tasks. In these tasks, team cooperation and organization skills play a very important role.

2.3 Previous Researches of TBLT

In the recent 20 years，the application for use as a linguistic task of classroom teaching is an important part of the study. The most famous one may be Bangalore Communicational Teaching Project by N·S·Prabhu ，hereinafter referred to as BCTE. But N·S·Prabhu wasn’t the first one who started it．Tasks in language teaching courses have been used for many years. But in Prabhu’s experiment，he first made the task as an important part of teaching．Prabhu defined the tasks in his Second Language Teaching like this: students are required by teachers and thinking process control and regulate the process and results of the activity. Task—Based Language Teaching is a language teaching method which started in the 1980s in Bangalore of India, where N·S·Prabhu also made a strong communicative experiment-Bangalore Project. This experiment may be regarded as the first attempt which takes the duty in class and has aroused the language teaching interest．From then on，Many linguists invest in the research upsurges．They all consider the tasks as the research center．With the deep research, task-based language teaching in the1990s gradually matures in theory. Prabhu’s book has carried on the limits in his Second Language Pedagogy(Prabhu, 1987:23)．He thought a task is an activity which is given by students when they are thinking of the information, and can make students control their own thinking process．He divides activities into these four kinds：rules of the center, form center, target center activities and significance of the center．He totally agreed on the last one．He thinks there is no need to teach the students too many grammar rules and correct those too often so as to make the students themselves learn internalization grammatical system when they focus on the meaning of language grammar system. This coincides with the concept of Natural way of Krashen. But Prabhu’s task—based language teaching is not complete，for instance，the choices of the tasks has no demand analysis，Also the tasks rating is arbitrary. And any forms of activity center in language teaching are rejection．(Longamp;Cmokers,1992:42)．These became the primary problems for the researchers．

Yalden，J．thinks the global language teaching practice should be summarized in two forms: strong version and weak version．The difference between the two communicative language teaching lies in how to treat Communicative language teaching and how to treat language knowledge．(Wei Yonghong,2003:43). In 1989，Nunan put forward communicative classroom of the task of design patterns．In his view, the analysis of the communicative mode should include：goals，input activities，roles of teacher and learners and situation．So-called task goal is each intention of learning tasks．Goals includes communicative goal, learning how to learn and the language culture consciousness of language．The task of input is to provide data which starts up the task．In practice，the communicative input source is very wide. It can be in letters, newspaper stories, pictures and shopping list．Task requires learners according to actual input．Therefore，the classroom activities should reflect the “real world” as much as possible. The scene is required to design task classroom，and classroom design must comply with the real situation. The goal of learning social culture and learning how to communicate in real situation reflects the transfer from the form to the significance，from the language to culture，from the knowledge to the emotional，from how to teach to learn，to the whole teaching .

Willis proposed the guidance of operation and five principles for English teachers ．These five principles include contacting meaningful and practical language, using language, tasks forcing students to use language, paying attention to language itself in task cycle, and highlighting language successively to varying degrees. He also proposed three phases in task-based learning：pre-task，task cycle and language focus．Task-based learning objective is to integrate all four skills，and to cause transition from accuracy to fluency. The task of choice scope(reading text，listening text，problem solving，role playing，questionnaire，etc) can stimulate students’ more motivation to participate in the task. Skehan(1 995, 1 998) thinks pre-task is very important，and these activities can introduce a new language knowledge，promote the activation of the original language knowledge related to students，and reduce the burden of information processing tasks.

In China, task-based language teaching research is still in its infancy. The initiation of the curriculum and textbook reform in English Language Teaching a decade ago，which advocated more communicative-oriented approaches than ever, has brought about great and remarkable changes in the English Language Teaching of China．Since the introduction of TOC(Target Oriented Curriculum)in September 1995，task-based learning approach has been first greatly promoted and adopted by many primary schools in Hong Kong．Task—based approach allows children to be actively and creatively involved in their own learning，which has in some way had a positive impact on schools in Hong Kong．Many materials and experiences of TOC have greatly benefited many mainland cities in their textbook and curriculum reform，especially in Guangxi．

Task-based language teaching approach were introduced since the 1990s in China，It received much attention from domestic language scholars in teaching research field. Professor Xia Jimei from SunYat-sen university and others published an article entitled theoretical basis and the model comparison of "problem teaching" and "task-based language teaching" in 1998, which had detailed analysis of TBLT．Some scholars and teachers as Lu Ziwen，began to research the application of task-based teaching. Jia Zhigao(1999)thinks the use of target language in classroom communication activities involves the processing of information．As for the understanding of a task definition，Xu Xiaoping(2004)thinks we should focus on visual range, authenticity, language skills，cognitive process，etc. Cheng Xiaotang (2004) thought the communicative classroom is important in designing tasks. Also Ge Wenshan(2003) Jia Zhigao(2003) and Ruan Zhoulin(2001)introduced the characters of the tasks．Liu xia (2004) introduced principles of designing tasks. These help the language teachers better design their communication tasks．

3. The Significance of TBLT

As a new teaching approach, TBLT is of great importance. It is beneficial to both teaching and students’ learning and development.

It can help solve the long existing problems of the traditional language teaching. Task-based language teaching is helpful to solve several difficult key problems in the traditional language teaching, such as the relationship between the Language meaning and language form and the relationship between the language function and language structure. The traditional language teaching pays attention to language form and language structure but ignores the meaning of the language and the function of language. Task-based language teaching asks students to use language to do things, so that students inevitably need to focus on language form and language structure, and to pay more attention to the significance and functions of the language. When they understand the meaning and function, they are likely to complete the task. Using task-based language teaching approach can change the situation where language knowledge is over emphasized and, is conducive to the implementation of the new curriculum standard.

It can help optimize students" learning styles. Task-based language teaching emphasizes the participation, exploration, induction, and cooperation. During this process, they build their knowledge system, and strengthen their ability, so it can help them change the past rote learning style, make the knowledge and skills of learning from passivity to activation, thus optimizing students’ learning as a whole. It also conforms to the general trend and requirements of basic education course reform.

It can help promote the comprehensive development of students" comprehensive quality. Task-based language teaching is conducive to the cultivation of language skills combined with the development of students" other quality. First of all, in the task-based language teaching, students need a lot of language input, then they need to use language to receive, and process tasks and to communicate with others; secondly, they want to use language for certain activities, accomplish some tasks; Thirdly, to complete the task, they need to discuss, cooperate, and communicate in the process of doing things, where students" emotional attitude and values are involved. Because task-based language teaching involves a variety of learning activities, a variety of knowledge and skills, and a variety of study methods, thus it is advantageous to promote the comprehensive development of students’ comprehensive quality.

4. The Implementation of TBLT in Junior Middle School Class

4.1 The Characteristics of Middle School Students

During junior middle school stage, students’ growth and development is very rapid and their body function has been gradually improved. With the change of the body, they will realize as if they have become an adult overnight and begin to imitate adults, such as adults’ tone and manner of speech and to pay attention to others for their judgments. Moreover, their self-awareness, independence, self-esteem, and competitiveness are obviously strengthened. Compared with pupils, it is believed by them that teachers are neither an absolute authority, nor their unconditional object of worship. They regard teachers more sanely. Meanwhile, they have higher demands on teachers and expectations.

With the change of psychological characteristics and cognitive level, they show obvious enthusiasm, initiative and independence in morality development. At this stage students begin to pay close attention to their spiritual world, and others’ moral quality, consciously have moral evaluation on their own and others’ behavior, begin to form their own moral system, set up a moral goal for themselves, and begin to realize the responsibility for others and the sociality.

With the significant changes of physiology, psychology, the intelligence development also has made much progress. The main characteristic of middle school students’ thinking is abstract logical thinking which dominates, but sometimes the specific image thinking elements also play a role. Due to the lack of maturation and experience，they get used to the direct contact on the surface and ignore the nature during the process of solving and analyzing problems. In conclusion, they have strong thirst for knowledge and curiosity, active thinking, rich imagination, wide range of hobbies, though there is one-sidedness and superficiality of thinking.

4.2 The Procedure of Implementation

Designing tasks: analyze both the knowledge aims and the application aims of teaching content; select proper tasks; check whether the task conforms to the basic requirements of real task and whether it is in line with the real conditions. Presenting tasks: the tasks should be presented at the beginning, and let students learn a language and train skills by the motivation of tasks to form a task-driven learning process, which is beneficial to improving students’ interest and strengthening students’ learning motivation. Completing tasks: students transform their knowledge and skills into the ability to use English in real life by completing tasks.

On learning language knowledge, task-based teaching emphasizes that knowledge teaching should be related to the task, which means knowledge should be what students must master but they are lacking in. During knowledge teaching, the importance of tasks to knowledge should be noticed. On teaching culture and information, there must be a gap of culture and information and the teaching content should contain the connotation of culture and information when students complete the tasks, so teachers are required to teach culture and information to fill the gap. On training language skills, which mean the teaching of listening, speaking, reading and writing, they should be related to tasks and skill itself is what students lack but is the necessity to complete the task. When teaching skills, teachers should pay attention to tasks about skills. Teaching should focus on the completion of tasks. At the same time, the knowledge and skills students are learning should be frequently used and a direct connection should be made between the new knowledge, skills and their application during the teaching to enable students to not only master the knowledge and skills but also have the ability to use them.

4.3 The Main Problems during Implementation

Though TBLT has been an effective method to teach English, it still has some problems when it is implemented. They are worth valuing for English teachers.

Firstly, there is no information gap in tasks. "Gap" is one of the characteristics of "task". There should be a gap between tasks and students’ knowledge and ability and students can’t accomplish these tasks until they study this content. The gap can be knowledge gap, ability gap, skill gap, information gap, or culture gap. In class teaching, gap is often ignored by teachers. For example, students and their desk mates are required to find the location of post station. Because they can easily find the location on the map without asking for help, this task is meaningless and it only helps students do mechanical drills;

Secondly, tasks lack authenticity. In the task-based language teaching there is the phenomenon where the context is missing, and the task-based teaching activities involved are not close to real life, lacking authenticity. In fact, English itself is only a tool of communication, and we learn it in order to put this to use, and solve the problems in real life. To cultivate students’ ability to use English language in real life, teachers should let students do some real tasks in teaching activities.

Thirdly, tasks break away teaching materials. Proper and workable tasks should not only be based on students’ life, learning experience and social communication but also stick to the teaching materials because tasks are designed to realize teaching objectives. Only when the tasks are closed to teaching objectives, can they achieve these goals and make good teaching results.

Lastly, students lack strategies. In the task-based language teaching, most students don"t realize they can adopt some strategies to solve the problems when the communication is beyond their language knowledge. Students generally equate language knowledge with communication skills, and believe that the problems of oral English are due to the lack of knowledge, In the classroom questioning, we can see some students express themselves in a few words because of the lack of vocabulary or because there are some psychological barriers. And some students use single language forms and repeat them frequently because their speech is not fluent. Even some students dislike English and are weary of studying.

4.4 An Application Example

Now take the reading passage in 8 A "unit 6 natural disasters" as an example to illustrate the application of task-based teaching method in junior middle school English teaching

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