Task-based Curriculum Design Of Intermediate Culture Optional Courses For The Overseas Students In China

Task-based teaching has experienced a series of improvements since it emerged in1980s, and has proved to be effective in foreign language teaching practice. And this teaching method has been introduced into teaching Chinese as a foreign language since the end of20th century and has got enriched in theory as well as in practice. Task-based teaching method has established itself as a very effective teaching method in teaching Chinese as a foreign language, but there is not much research on how to apply this method to the optional cultural courses related to teaching Chinese as a foreign language, leaving enough space for me to research on.The optional course this paper focuses on refers to the cultural course besides language skill training courses for overseas students in China. Because the time for this type of optional course is limited, currently, most of the universities set the course based on their own teaching arrangement and custom as well as the regional cultural characteristics, and the teaching is still on the exploring stage. Although the courses in certain universities are of their own special feature and can be considered original, they still far lag behind the relatively mature courses of second language teaching and are not very systematic and scientific, making them not widely popular. So I believe the systematic study towards the course design is a necessity.I try to apply the task-based teaching method popular in foreign language teaching world to the optional cultural course and redesign the course based on the interests of overseas students combined with the teaching objectives and characteristics of the course. This newly designed course can change the traditional boring method of imparting cultural knowledge with the fixed contents so as to enhance students’ interest in it and make teaching more effective. I try to work out a well-designed course with good effect through this research and set an example for the optional cultural courses for the overseas students in China.This paper consists of five parts including Chapter1to Chapter4, and conclusion. Chapter Ⅰ is the introduction explains the background and the research value; the review concluded and summarized the research results, including task-base teaching and teaching Chinese as a foreign language research; research method; define and explain of the research object. Chapter Ⅱ is the survey on overseas students’ interests by way of questionnaires. Chapter Ⅲ is the task-based course design on the cultural optional course. Chapter Ⅳ is the case study on the course. The conclusion is a summary of the advantages and disadvantages of task-based teaching in the optional course concerning Chinese culture.