Implementation Of Task-Based Approach To English Teaching In Senior Middle Schools

Current teaching and researching have been increasingly focused oncognitive psychological processes through communicative languageteaching. Unlike the traditional syllabuses whose focuses are on thelanguage forms, task-based language learning and teaching approach(TBA), which emerged in the 1980s and has been prevailing for nearly 20years, focuses on the process of learning and problem solving and carriesthe first principle of "learning by doing". Based on the cognitive theoryand the hypothesis of input , output and interactivity, TBA offers a greatdeal of flexibility and leads to more motivating activities for the learners.Through the review of some traditional teaching approaches, thethesis tries to present the necessity of transition of the TBA which isavailable to senior English classroom teaching approaches. Hence thepurpose of this thesis is to survey some theoretical principles of the TBAand to explore the effective ways of implementing those principles insenior English teaching.The thesis consists of three chapters: in Introduction, the authormainly introduces the origin of TBA by analyzing the current situation ofsenior middle schools oral English teaching. Chapter One concentrates ona review of literature. To start with, the thesis makes an elaboratecomparison among ELT approaches and methods. In Chapter Two the author makes a brief introduction of TBA such as its definition, types,characteristics and theoretical basis. Chapter Three deals with theimplementation of TBA to English teaching in senior middle schools.Willis' task-based implementing model is adopted: pre-task, task cycle,language focus and the author gives some task examples and a samplelesson is given. In Chapter Four, the author, by making analysis of theresults, draws the conclusion that TBA is beneficial to the students and isa workable and efficient way to teach English in senior middle schoolscompared with the traditional teaching methods. According to thelimitation which TBA conveys the author also gives her own suggestionsfor implementing of TBA. In Conclusion the author summarizes the studyof the TBA discussed in previous chapters and asserts the TBA, which ischaracterized by its practicality and applicability, will be accepted bymore teachers in the near future. However, it is not desirable to beaccepted completely due to the various learning and teaching factors. It ishoped to give some enlightenment for the future study on this topic.