The Application Of Task-Based Language Teaching (the TBLT) Approach To Teaching English Writing In Grade 7

The new curriculum reform has been going on for several years, and the task-based language teaching approach (the TBLT) has been widely advocated and popularized among English teachers in China. This study was conducted from September, 2006 to June, 2007 to explore how to use the approach to instruct English teaching to Grade 7 students or Grade 1 students in junior middle schools.The experimental subjects are 110 Grade 1 students of one private junior middle school. This paper begins with a review of various teaching approaches to English writing instruction, designs ten activities based on the TBLT, and then analyzes the results of the experiment. The findings show that teaching English writing with the TBLT can greatly improve the teaching effect, fully arouse students' enthusiasm for writing, and as a result, the writing level of the students in the experimental class can write much better than those in the contrast class. However, the author finds that teaching English writing with the TBLT is not so easily managed. Each task activity is time-consuming, since it has to be well planned and well organized and teachers and students have to interact to design tasks, taking into account factors like task complexity, task sequence, task continuity and time allotment.In the concluding remarks, the writer points out the limitations of the present study and expresses the willingness to accept criticisms.