An Investigation On Application Of Tblt Approach To The Teaching Of English Reading In Junior Middle School

The cultivation of English reading ability is an important part of English teaching in junior middle school.How to conduct effective teaching of English reading in junior middle school and improve the students’ English reading ability has always been a concern of researchers and teachers.In recent years,many research achievements have been mainly concerned with the effectiveness on the application teaching theories and methods to the teaching of English reading,among which is the Task-based language teaching(TBLT)approach.TBLT is based on the theory and practice of foreign language teaching,which is strongly and clearly advocated in Ordinary Senior High School English Curriculum Standard of Full-Time Compulsory Education(experiment draft),Ordinary High School English Curriculum Standard(experiment draft)and Compulsory Education English Curriculum Standard.Based on the presupposition that TBLT approach is helpful to improve the teaching of English reading in junior middle school,this study is majorly concerned with the investigation on the situation of the application of TBLT approach to the teaching of English reading in junior middle school.It aims to find out the positive effects and investigate the major problems as well as the causes for these problems on the application of TBLT approach to the teaching of English reading in junior middle school.Based on the research objectives,this study aims to answer the following three questions:(1)What positive effects does the application of TBLT approach have on the teaching of English reading in junior middle school?(2)What are the major problems of the application of TBLT approach to the teaching of English reading in junior middle school?(3)What are the major causes of these problems?The present research adopts the questionnaires and interview for the investigation,which lasts one semester.This study takes 20 teachers and 200 students in Zhengzhou No.1 Middle School as its research subjects.The results are summarized as follows.(1)The major positive effects concerning the application of TBLT approach on the teaching of English reading in junior middle school include: the improvement of students’ interest in English reading in junior middle school,the enhancement of students’ awareness in their English cooperative learning,theimprovement of the students’ ability in their English comprehensive ability and their English reading ability,and the improvement of the teachers’ ability in innovating their classroom teaching methods to improve the teaching of English reading in junior middle school.(2)The major problems which affect the effective application of Task-based language teaching(TBLT)approach to the teaching of English reading in junior middle school are mainly summarized as the low initiative of the students in participating classroom activities,unsatisfactory results of their tasks,the ambiguity of task objectives from the teacher,the inconformity of tasks to students’ English level from the teacher and the inefficient organization of task-based activities due to a large number of students.(3)The causes of these problems which hinder the effective application of TBLT approach to the teaching of English reading in junior middle school result mainly from the teachers’ factors including teachers’ proficiency,teachers’ teaching concept,and teachers’ heavy working load,the students’ factors including introverted personality,the poor English ability,disordered psychology,low learning motivation,and the objective factors including the inconsistency of the currently-adopted summative evaluation system with the evaluation mechanism of TBLT approach and high requirements of TBLT approach for both teachers’ organizing teaching ability and students’ reading ability.This research has some implications for the teaching of English reading in junior middle school.It is of much benefit for English teachers to have a deep understanding of TBLT approach to improve their teaching practice ability.Furthermore,it is of great help to promote the effective application of TBLT approach to the teaching of English reading.