The Application Of Task-based Teaching Approach To English Reading Teaching In Senior High School

Reading is a most important means by which people obtain information and a most effective approach to improving students’ English levels. To develop students’ability of reading comprehension is the main object of the English teaching for senior high school in our country. But reading is also the weakest part for most Chinese students. Reading speed, the ability of searching for information, the ability of predicting or judging, etc, may all affect the students’reading quality. So how to make students read fast and efficiently turns out to be a main object for English teachers to explore these years.The Task-Based Language Teaching (TBLT), one of the most dominant language teaching approaches in the world today, is becoming a catchword in English teaching circles in China. The New National Curriculum Standard for English Course is advocating the application of task-based approach in language teaching of the senior high school. It explicitly points out that the application of task-based approach is to develop the students’ comprehensive ability of language use in the course of English teaching. The task-based language teaching encouraging students’experiencing, practicing, participating, communicating and cooperating with the teacher’s help. The students may obtain a sense of success by achieving a goal. Task-based approach emphasizes that the students perform tasks in the course of English learning.However, at present, for most of the teachers in China, task-based teaching approach is still quite a new model although a lot of experts at home and aboard have done a lot of researches into task-based language teaching and learning. In addition, The New National Curriculum Standard for English Course just gives a simple introduction of task-based approach, so there exist a lot of difficulties in how to utilize this approach. Especially, many English teachers are short of conventions on practicing task-based reading in English teaching. Hence, it is quite necessary for us to do the research into the task-based teaching approach. There is great significance to promote the performance and practice of The New National Curriculum Standard for English Course.The author did an experimental research into the application of task-based approach to English reading teaching in senior high school. Subject of the experiment was the students from two contrast classes taught by the author. Before the experiment, as pre-test, the author compared the English final exam results of the two classes in last term and the results of a reading test specially prepared for the two classes and found that English reading comprehensive ability of the two classes was similar, so the two classes were comparative; during the experiment, the author applied task-based teaching approach in the experimental class, but traditional teaching method in the control class. Before the term ending, as post-test, the author prepared the other reading test, and also compared the final exam results of the two classes. The author found that students’reading comprehensive ability of the experimental class was improved.Through the experiment, the author’s hypotheses prove to be correct, that is, task-based teaching approach can be used in reading class effectively and it can improve students’ reading comprehensive ability as well as help to arouse students’learning interest. And in the research, the author tries to get the approval by means of questionnaires, too.