A Study On Task-based Teaching In English Reading Class In Senior High School

Reading ability is an important skill that learners should acquire in English learning and meanwhile reading teaching has raised great concern of teachers and experts. However, after teaching English in senior high school for ten years, the author finds that most students are still rather poor in reading learning, although teachers have paid a lot of attention to reading teaching. This study makes an attempt to find out, analyze and solve the problems confronting senior high school students in reading learning with a more effective teaching method called Task-based Teaching.Task-based Teaching is a teaching method, which concentrates on the completion of a task, emphasizes "learning by doing", and advocates that the learners themselves should observe and explore to develop their learning effectively. In other words, Task-based Teaching focuses on students in teaching practice. This study applies Task-based Teaching to reading teaching based on Communicative Language Teaching, Second Language Acquisition and Social Constructivist Theories.Based on the theories mentioned above, a study on Task-based Teaching in English reading class in senior high schools was carried out for one academic year in Haicheng senior high school. The object of this study is to prove if the Task-based Teaching method can be used in reading class effectively and enhance students’ learning interest and improve their reading ability. The control class and the experimental class were chosen in Grade2in September in2012. Task-based Teaching is adopted in the experimental class, while traditional teaching methods are adopted in the control class. The instruments of this study are tests and questionnaires. By analyzing the results of the tests and questionnaires, the author arrives at the conclusion that the reading level of the control class and the experimental class is almost the same before the experiment but the reading ability of the experimental class improves a lot and the students in the experimental class show great interest in reading learning after the experiment. It indicates that Task-based Teaching is an effective method in reading teaching.