A Study On The Application Of TBLT To English Writing In Junior High Schools

The Compulsory Education English Curriculum Standard(2011)(ECS)claimed that to cultivate the comprehensive language applied capacities was the overall objective of the English course in the process of primary education.And the writing ability was one of the most important comprehensive language applied capacities which students should master.Writing,as one of the language output skills,could reflect the students’ comprehensive language proficiency and cognitive competence.By classroom observation lasting one month in Affiliated Middle School of Henan Normal University,the author found students’ English writing still existed many problems.For example,students’ self-learning ability was not strong;students didn’t have a keen interest in writing.There were many mistakes of spelling,expressions or others in their writing.Therefore,based on Stephen Krashen’ input hypothesis and Mirril Swain’s comprehensible output,the author attempted to adopt the task-based language teaching approach(TBLT)into English writing,looking forward to improving students’ interest and skills of English writing.The author took these sixty students as the subjects of this research.These students were all from Class 3 and Class 4 of Grade 9 in Affiliated Middle School of Henan Normal University.During the research,the author applied many research instruments,such as classroom observations,interviews,tests,and questionnaires.The research was mainly conducted based on the two research questions as follows.(1)What are the influences of TBLT to the students’ motivation and attitudes towards English writing?(2)What changes may TBLT bring to the students’ English writing skills and strategies?The research showed that(1)TBLT had many effects on the ninth grade students’ attitude and motivation in English writing,such as,to enhance students’ interest in writing;to reinforce students’ confidence in writing;to help students more actively engage in classroom activities;to shift their attitude towards writing;to strengthen their motivation to perfect their writing.(2)TBLT could improve the ninth grade students’ writing skills in many aspects.For example,at the end of the research,the majority of the students mastered the essential writing skills demanded by ECS;the students’ writing content began to be meaningful;their logic and expressive capacity were developed;their writing scores were enhanced.