The Application Of Task-Based Approach To Oral English Teaching In Senior High Schools

In the past twenty years the field of language teaching and learning has witnessed a profusion of evaluation of syllabuses. Based on the development of applied linguistics, the second language acquisition, learning theory and the instructional theory, the Task-Based Approach emerged in the 1980s. "Learning by Doing" is the first principle of Task-Based Approach. Unlike the traditional syllabuses whose focuses are on the language forms, Task-Based Approach focuses on the process of learning and problem solving, and it is always organized around a variety of different kinds of tasks which are related to the real life , taking the learners' desire of accomplishing some specific tasks as the motivation of their further communicative learning. It is the approach recommended to be applied in senior high schools by China's Ministry of Education. It explicitly points out that to carry out the Task-Based Approach is to develop the students' comprehensive ability of language use in the course of English teaching. The Task-Based Approach advocates experiencing, practicing, participating, communicating and cooperating. The students obtain a sense of success by achieving a goal.Nowadays, in China, many books and articles have been written on the adoption of the Task-Based Approach in reading or writing, yet few of them have a systematic study of the application of the Task-Based Approach to oral English teaching. What this thesis focuses on is the application of Task-Based Approach to oral English teaching in senior high schools. It provides a detailed study on the literature review of Task-Based Approach. It makes an analysis of what is drawn from the experimental teaching, and designs a questionnaire to have feedback of the application of Task-Based Approach to oral English teaching in senior high schools. Lots of works and the experiments on the Task-Based Approach show that this kind of teaching approach is an advanced and efficient one which puts the students in the first place and which reflects the language value. It proves that the Task-Based Approach is effective in enhancing the students' oral English competence. The author asserts that the Task-Based Approach, whether in theory or in practice, will be continuing to exert fundamental influence on oral English teaching and learning in China.At the end of the thesis, the author gives her suggestions of the application of the Task-Based Approach, which may not be perfect.