A Study Of The Task-Based Approach To EFL Writing Teaching In China's Senior High School

The Task-based Instruction (TBI) is the teaching theories put forward by foreign language teaching method researchers and the second language acquisition researchers according to the large quantity of studies and practice in the 1980s. For a long time, Task-based Teaching has had a significant effect on language teaching and most of the language experts and foreign language educators think consistently that Task-based Teaching in the classroom is very effective.With the developments in linguistics, psycholinguistics and sociolinguistics, we begin to realize the limitations of the product-based and process-based approaches. "Task-based approach" remedies their defects and emphasizes the nature of writing and learning from others. It is worth testing in teaching practice. In China, writing is always a weak aspect of English teaching. In spite of the hard work of many teachers and scholars, the effect is still not satisfactory. And all students regard writing as a tough job that can't be accomplished, some even give it up. Currently, the National New Standard for English Curriculum promotes definitely the TBI to improve students' overall English competence.This thesis defines task along the lines of Willis and Skehan and Nunan, whose theories on TBI provide the basis for this task-based writing study. This study has aimed at investigating the effect of the Task-based writing approach on high school students. The design of the experiment was based on the Task-based Instruction and the experiment lasted for a term. The 83 subjects in this study were Senior Grade One students from Nanshan School Affiliated with China National Institute for Educational Research in Shenzhen. The subjects from the experimental class were taught to engage in interactive and authentic writing activities that simulate real-world situations while the traditional PPP approach was used in the controlled class. The pre-test, mid-test and post-test were given to the students before and after the experiment respectively; pre-questionnaire and post-questionnaire were also assigned to the students before and after the experiment to check the students' achievements obtained in the different teaching methods. SPSS (V 15.0) was used to calculate the data collected from the experiment and analyze the findings. The results of the research indicate that Task-based writing approach has had a considerably significant effect on the subjects' English writing proficiency and shows that it is able to significantly increase the subjects' interest in English writing in Chinese EFL context.