A Study On Task-based Language Teaching In Junior Schools Based On The Analysis Of The Textbook Go For It

Task-based Language Teaching is a school of teaching theory emerged in the 1980s. In2001, the National Ministry of Basic Education issued the new "English CurriculumStandards" , which advocates "Task-based Language Teaching"（TBLT）. At present, all juniormiddle schools in Binzhou City use Go for it! as the textbook for English juniors. Actually,this set of textbooks emphasizes the effective integration of topics, functions, structures andtasks and thus develops a gradual, scientific and life-like learning process, both in advocatingand encouraging the concepts of Task-Based Language Teaching, or in the real teachingprocess. And in the design of teaching materials, the textbook follows the teaching principlesand ideas of Learning by Doing and attaches great importance to guiding the students toexperience cultural differences and developing students ’ autonomous learning ability.However, through years of teaching practice, the author finds out that with the teachingmaterial there are many problems in teaching practice. For example, the compiling of theteaching materials bear the features like so high starting point, more content and greatercapacity, all of which conflict with the limited class time and students’actual level, thusresulting in students’low interest in English learning and polarization of students’performance. In addition, many teachers, in the use of textbooks, are not flexible in choosingthe teaching contents and teaching procedures and just follow the textbooks step by step,ignoring the actual needs and learning conditions of the students and being too careless in thedesign and selection of teaching tasks. The result is that the effect of Task-based LanguageTeaching is undermined. Thus, based on the analysis and practice of the textbooks Go for it!,this study intends to explore the scientific and effective integration of English Task-basedLanguage Teaching and the textbooks Go for it! in junior middle schools.Task-based Language Teaching is of great help in implementing advanced teaching ideasadvocated by the new curriculum standard and in overcoming the drawbacks of the traditionalteaching method. The drawbacks include: the teacher-centered approach in teaching ideas,focus on grammar teaching and ignoring the practical abilities in teaching objects,inflexibility in teaching methods, neglect of students’ psychological developmentcharacteristics and students’ experience of self-learning, and so on. Task-based LanguageTeaching embodies the idea of“students as the central participants, tasks as the focus andactivities as the major method”. It plays a valuable role in persuading students to study ontheir own, improving students’practical ability to communicate in English, increasing students’interest and confidence in learning and it is the embodiment of quality education inEnglish teaching. There are several theories which provide a solid theoretical base for theeffective application of task-based teaching method in the practice of teaching the textbooksGo for it! , such as comprehensible input and output hypothesis in English learning,interaction hypothesis, constructivism learning theory and humanistic psychology.This study attempts to integrate task-based teaching approach with the textbooks Go forit! and test the effectiveness and feasibility of task-based teaching of the textbook Go for it!for junior schools. Seventy-eight students took part in the experiment and after a pre-test, thestudents were divided into two classes randomly, one for the experimental class and the othercontrol class. At the beginning of the new term, a questionnaire on English learning wasconducted among seventy-eight students. At the end of this experiment, another questionnairewas conducted for the experimental class and a post-test was given to all students. This studyaims to address the following questions: 1) Whether the application of Task-based LanguageTeaching method in teaching Go for it! can effectively improve the comprehensive languageability of the students of the experimental class; 2) Whether the improved comprehensivelanguage ability of the students from experimental class can improve their examination resultsand produce a marked contrast with that of the control class students who are taught bytraditional teaching methods; 3) Whether the application of Task-based Language Teachingmethod in teaching Go for it! can effectively promote students’consciousness of independentlearning and cooperative learning. Questionnaire , teaching practice and English proficiencytests are used as the research tools in this study. SPSS is employed for data and result analysis.By experiments, analyses and discussions, the results demonstrate that the application ofTask-based Language Teaching method in the teaching of Go for it! can truly realize theconcept of the new curriculum, effectively stimulate students’interest in learning andsignificantly improve teaching qualities. The application of the Task-based LanguageTeaching has improved the students’ English communicative competence greatly, andpromoted the students’ awareness of autonomous learning and cooperative learning. However,it requires further exploration and research as how to make use of the teaching material in amore scientific, reasonable and student-centered way and how to design a more scientific andeffective evaluation system, which puts special emphasis on students’learning anddevelopment processes.