Application Of Task-based Language Teaching In Oral English Class Of Junior High School

With increasingly rapid development of Chinese economy and rising international status,more and more English talents,especially qualified English speakers are desired in every walk of life.The newly issued English Curriculum Standards(2011)by Chinese Ministry of Education also made specific demands in learning oral English.Thus it can be seen that people have realized the importance of improving oral English ability.However,on the contrary,being influenced by the exam-oriented education,English education in middle school of China always focuses on the contents that are closely related to the exams,such as reading and writing instead of speaking.What’s wore,oral English classes are taken by exams or exercises sometimes.Even though oral English classes are conducted,the teaching activities would be very boring and meaningless.In doing so,students become very inactive to take such classes and unwilling to open their mouths to speak.Therefore,the author tried implementing TBLT in oral English classes to examine how well this method can work.TBLT was put forward in 1980s and has been gradually developed since then.This method is centered by "task" and enables students to learn the target language by doing things.That is to say,in the process of finishing tasks,students can achieve the goal of language learning and using at the same time.Supported by Communicative Language Teaching,Constructivism Theory,Interaction Theory,Sociocultural Theory and Willis’s teaching framework,the author aims to address the three issues:(1)How well can TBLT motivate Grade 9 students to speak?(2)What effect can TBLT exert on students’ oral English learning?(3)To what extent can TBLT improve students’ oral English competence compared with the method being used?To find out the answers to these three questions mentioned above,the author chose two parallel classes in Grade 9 of Shenzhen Guangming New District Experimental School,which were randomly designated as control class and experimental class.Firstly,questionnaires and pre-test for both experimental class and control class are to find out students’ present situation and attitudes toward oral English teaching and learning before the experiment.Besides,post-test is organized for both classes.Finally,the interview is designed to obtain feedback only from students in experimental class after the experiment.By means of comparing and analyzing students’ scores,questionnaires and the interview,the author found that the nearly three fourths students in experimental class became more enjoyable in oral English learning and thus took delight in using English after class.In addition,TBLT made English lessons of Grade 9 more dynamic and meaningful,which resulted in high motivation of learning and speaking English.Half of the students articulated that they got enough opportunities to use English in class and some of them would utilize multimedia to learn English.At the same time,this method improved the relationship between the teacher and students greatly.Lastly,students in experimental class performed better than those in control class with regard to the fluency and accuracy of language using.Together with the classroom observations of students’ performance,the author concluded that TBLT can be a possible and feasible way of improving students’ speaking ability.More importantly,TBLT provided students with opportunities of exploring new things independently and narrowing the gap between classroom language learning and real life experience.Through this thesis,the author expected that enough importance could be attached to oral English teaching.The author also expected to affect or change the attitude of some teachers toward oral English teaching and offer the basis for wider application of TBLT in oral English teaching.Without doubt,due to the limited theoretical level and practical teaching level,the thesis still remains to be improved.