A Research On The Application Of The Task-based Language Teaching In College English Reading Instruction

There is no doubt that reading is one of the most important means of acquiring extensiveknowledge. With the development of economy and society, for college students today, it is bypromoting the students’ reading comprehension ability that they can keep with thedevelopment of society. However, in the course of many years of practical teaching, theauthor finds that there still exist quite a lot of problems with Chinese college students’ readingability. For example, teachers are the conveyors of knowledge and the teaching model isteacher-centered. In class, teachers put too much emphasis on the vocabulary and grammarterms and neglect the importance of integrated linguistic application. It is the traditionalteaching model that makes this happen, which hinders the improvement of the students’reading ability.The task-based language teaching (TBLT) is another foreign language teaching modelwith international influence, which emerged in the1980s. It basically reflects the latestunderstanding of foreign language education. At present, this kind of model is widely used inthe foreign language teaching circles all over the world. It emphasizes “learning by doing’’,getting learners to experience the target language and construct language system bythemselves. This new teaching method will help Chinese college students improve theirreading abilities. However, despite numerous researches on TBLT in domestic and abroad,many of them are concerned with the theoretical exploration of TBLT and its application inprimary and secondary school classrooms in China. The application of TBLT in collegeEnglish reading instruction is few and far between.The thesis is aimed at exploring the feasibility of applying the TBLT method into thereading teaching in the college instruction by combining the theories of TBLT with thepractical reading teaching. The one-term experiment was conducted among130subjects fornon-English majors from Changzhou University. In the course of the experiment, the TBLTteaching method was employed in the experimental class while the traditional teachingmethod was used in the control class. Besides, questionnaires and tests are used in thisresearch. The relevant experimental statistics are processed by SPSS13.0. The results fromthe experiment show the experimental class who takes task-based reading teaching methodmakes more progress in the reading ability compared with the control class. This indicatesthat the TBLT method is practicable and effective in promoting the college students’ Englishreading ability and can also arouse their interest in learning and reading. Meanwhile, incontrast with the traditional reading teaching method, it is found that TBLT method is betterthan the traditional method in cultivating students’ learning autonomy and communicative competence．The thesis consists of the following parts:Chapter One is the brief introduction to this thesis. It includes the background of theresearch, the research into task-based language teaching abroad and in China and significanceof the research. Chapter Two is the literature review which covers the relevant theories aboutTBLT method, including definitions and characteristics of a task, principles of designing tasksand theoretical foundation of TBLT, etc. In this chapter, the traditional teaching method is alsointroduced. In comparison with the two teaching methods, the author discusses the feasibilityof applying the TBLT method into the reading teaching in the college instruction from theperspective of theories. Chapter Three is methodology which describes the whole procedureof the experimental study. In the process of the experiment, on the one hand, the author looksat descriptions of two questionnaires and reading tests, on the other hand, the author has adetailed statement about the practical teaching process, in which the experimental classemploys TBLT reading model on the basis of Willis’ model and the traditional teaching modelfor the control class. Chapter Four involves data descriptions and discussions. The datacollected from the questionnaires and reading tests are calculated systematically and analyzed.First, the statistical results from the questionnaires are aimed to find out students’psychological change about the students’ learning motivation and reading strategies, theirattitude towards English and their interests in English reading, and to see whether theexperimental class students are interested in the task-based language teaching. And then, theauthor looks at the scores of the two tests processed by SPSS13.0respectively，using theindependent t-test. The results are described and analyzed to find out that there is a significantdifference between the TBLT reading teaching and the traditional3P approach. Based on theanalysis results, within the95%confidence range, the author draws a conclusion that it isfeasible and effective to apply TBLT into college English reading instruction. Chapter Fivefunctions as a conclusion in this thesis, which involves major findings, implications andlimitations of the empirical study, together with some suggestions for further study in thischapter.