The Application Of Task-based Approach To English Grammar Teaching In Senior High Schools

Grammar is an indispensable part of language, and also an important and difficult part of English teaching and learning. Yet the situation of grammar teaching in senior high school is far from satisfaction. Grammar has become a main obstacle that influences students’improvement in English learning. The debate about the effective way of grammar teaching still continues. Since the last century, various foreign language teaching theories and methods have turned up in western countries. In China, the present grammar teaching in senior high schools is still characterized by the application of traditional teaching method, which is known as the traditional3Ps (presentation, practice and production) approach. This traditional approach is chiefly based on teacher’s grammar analysis, and the students’task is to recite grammar rules and do lots of exercises. The advantages in improving accuracy of grammar teaching should not be neglected, but this approach does not provide students with ample chances to practice and use English, and it can not arouse students’interest and motivation in learning grammar. Even worse, some students gradually lose interest as well as confidence in learning English. As a result, in the teacher-centered class, students passively receive the grammar knowledge and have few opportunities to use it, so low efficiency of grammar learning has become a problem perplexing both teachers and students.The task-based language teaching, which was first put forward by the Indian linguist Prabhu in the1980s, focuses on the process of completing a task in target language, in other words,"learning by doing". Task-based approach, as an innovative teaching model advocated in the New English Curriculum Standard for the Senior High School (2003), is being increasingly applied to English teaching. Theoretically, unlike the traditional3Ps approach which emphasizes the language forms, the task-based approach simultaneously takes account of both form and meaning. It is considered as an effective method in language teaching. However, there are few studies or works of task-based approach applied in grammar teaching in China, especially in the senior high schools. This thesis, based on an experiment lasted for three months, tried to prove the task-based approach is more effective than the traditional3Ps approach in grammar teaching, hoping to provide some reference and suggestions for teachers of English language. The subjects of the experiment were100Senior Grade One students from two paralleled classes:Class7and Class8in Songgang High School, Guangdong Province. The author chose Class7as the experimental class and Class8as the controlled class, and each class has50students. Task-based approach was carried out in Class7, and the traditional3Ps approach was adopted in Class8. The instruments involved in the study were:two tests of grammar knowledge and two questionnaires before and after the experiment aiming to find whether students make progress in grammar knowledge, learning motivation and learning methods; and an oral English test after the experiment aiming to check students’improvement in communicative competence through task-based approach.The analysis of the results of the experiment proves that the task-based grammar teaching is more effective than traditional3Ps approach in grammar teaching, and it can promote students’grammar level, increase learning motivation and improve grammar learning methods and communicative competence as expected.