The Application Of TBLT In Chinese Elective Courses In American Middle Schools

In the 1990s,with the development of functional linguistics,linguists generally agreed that the meaning and form of language constitute the basis of language learning,task-based approach is developed based on this principle.It advocates the idea of"learning by doing",that is,to acquire language by completing tasks.Each task has specific goals,procedures and outcomes.Learners need to understand and express,communicate with each other,use and create,and solve problems by target language ultimately.As soon as it was put forward,Task-based Language Teaching(TBLT)has quickly become the main method for second language teaching.However,the PPP(presentation-practice-Production)teaching approach is still widely used in teaching of Chinese as a second language at home and abroad.A large number of teaching feedbacks show that the traditional PPP teaching mode is difficult to adapt to the oversea Chinese language education,especially the primary and secondary course in Europe and America.This paper studies the task-based Chinese teaching for American middle School students who take the Chinese as elective.It is hoped that this study can make an objective analysis of the feasibility of TBLT in Chinese elective courses in American middle schools through investigation and research,and provide theoretical support and practical methods for Chinese teachers when they are teaching in Confucius classrooms in American middle schools as a reference.The full text is arranged as follows:The first chapter reviews the historical background of task-based language teaching theory and relevant research at home and abroad,discusses the definition and types of tasks,principles to design tasks and its characteristics,analyzes the evaluation criteria of TBLT,and makes a comprehensive review of the emergence,current situation and development of TBLT theory.In addition,the research methods used in this paper are also introduced.The second chapter analyzes the results of the questionnaire of 106 Chinese teachers from Confucius institutes in America,and finds that the traditional PPP teaching approach has many problems to teach Chinese in local middle Schools,such as low student participation and low teaching efficiency,so it is imperative to reform the teaching mode.On this basis,combining with the Chinese levels and learning characteristics of the students in Athey Creek middle School,where the author once worked,the feasibility of TBLT is analyzed from the perspectives of the differences of classroom between China and the United States,the differences of educational evaluation system and the characteristics of TBLT.Chapter three chose Learn Chinese with Me as the reference textbook after comparison,integrated the whole book into 11 themes,finalized the teaching objectives of each theme and designed specific teaching activities.The case studies of the structure-intensive task and the structure-loose-type task are respectively carried out,which fully presented the teaching process and evaluation methods of task teaching.In chapter four,two classes in Athey Creek middle School are taken as the experimental objects.Teaching methods PPP and TBLT are respectively used to teach the same theme,and unified tests are organized after.It is found that compared with PPP teaching method,TBLT has significant advantages in improving students'listening and speaking ability.The fifth chapter makes a teaching summary and reflection,and puts forward three suggestions on using TBLT in Chinese elective courses in American middle Schools:Mature teaching materials and corresponding teaching materials are needed for support;Confucius institutes and universities need to offer training to teachers related to TBLT;Chinese teachers need to change their teaching ideas,update their theoretical knowledge and teaching methods.