A Study On The Practice Of Task-based Language Teaching In English Reading In Country Senior Middle School

Task-based Language Teaching (TBLT) put forward in 1980s refers to a type of language teaching approach which is based on practice from foreign language teaching researchers and second language acquisition researchers. It is another influential language learning theory and model that emphasizes "learning by doing". Today, TBLT is adopted in syllabus in many countries and regions in the world, such as the USA, Canada, Singapore, Hong Kong and so on. In China, the new National English Curriculum Standards (2001) for Middle Schools explicitly stipulates that "TBLT should be advocated "and command "teachers should avoid using simple teaching methods to teach language knowledge, they need to adopt TBLT as possible as they can". At this situation, the author is going to study if TBLT is effective in English reading teaching in country senior middle school(CSMS).Based upon Willis' model for TBLT, the author has done experiment in grade one in Yongchang No.4 Senior Middle School of Gansu Province from September 2005 to January 2006 to test if TBLT is effective in English reading teaching. The author raises only a few views on the use of TBLT in English reading teaching in CSMS. The comprehensive analysis both in qualitative and quantitative methods will be made on the use of TBLT in English reading teaching in CSMS through the students' scores and questionnaires. By doing so, the author is expecting to get some substantial conclusion from the analyses, which can be of some benefits to improve the students' reading ability in CSMS.There are five parts in this thesis. Part one begins with a brief introduction to the purpose; significance of this study and clear-up of the key term——CSMS. In part two, the goal of reading teaching in senior middle school and the latest investigation on an analysis of English reading teaching in CSMS are presented. Part three includes a brief review of reading theories; advocacy of task-based English language teaching; about task and TBLT theory, which includes the definition of task and TBLT, features, components, types and the principles of use; theoretical basis of TBLT; the implementation of TBLT; the situation of study of TBLT in English teaching field in our country, Part Four is the kernel of this thesis, it deals with the study, which includes three sections: 1) the purpose of the experiment, the hypothesis, the subjects, experimental time, experimental materials, variables and the specific process of experiment. 2) the implement of experiment, including the pre-test and post-test of reading and questionnaire, teaching techniques used in the experimental class (EC) and the control class (CC). 3) data of tests and questionnaires, analysis and comparison by using SPSS 13.0 (Statistical Package for the Social Science, Version, 13.0). The statistical data and analysis fall into two sections. One is about reading test which includes pre-test between EC and CC, post-test between EC and CC, pre-test and post-test of EC and pre-test and post-test of CC. By comparing scores to see if there are some significant differences between them. Meanwhile, the paired-samples t-test will be used to test whether there are any correlations between reading scores and the use of TBLT. The other is the questionnaires on students' interest and self-confidence (I & S) of English reading. The ways of analysis are the same as reading test used above. In this way, a substantial conclusion can be arrived that whether there are correlations between I&S and the use of TBLT or not. Part five is discussion and conclusion, including major findings of the study, limitations of the present study, and suggestions for further research.