Task-Based Approach And The Improvement Of Oral Proficiency In ESL

Speaking ability is regarded as one of the most important aspects in learning a foreign language. The teaching practice has proved that the three traditional teaching models which have had a strong influence on classroom practice and which teachers and trainers still refer to are not effective to improve speaking proficiency. The models are Grammar Translation, Audiolingualism, and PPP (Presentation, Practice, and Production). The main problems in the models are that they separate the teaching of language form from communicative meaning, so that they neglect the characteristics of creativity and communication of language, and they share an assumption that acquiring a foreign language is a linear process, that learners learn one item at a time, mastering the simple items first, and then moving on, in a step-by-step fashion to more complex items.Based on the problems described above, this paper argues that the enhancement of oral proficiency depends on the full development of communicative language ability, because communicative language ability includes all the main knowledge of the use of language. When all the components of communicative language ability are fostered fully, language learners will speak the language fluently and effortlessly. Task-based approach is adopted in this paper to overcome the shortcomings in traditional teaching models, because it emphases on learning to communicate through interaction in the target language, it introduces authentic texts into the learning situations, it provides opportunities for learners to focus, not only on language, but also on the learning process itself, it takes an enhancement of the learner's own personal experiences as important contributing elements to classroom learning, and it attempts to link classroom language learning with language activation outside the classroom. In task-based instruction, the priority is not the bits and pieces of language but rather the functional purposes for which language must be used. The learning process is multi-dimensional, creative, and spontaneous, not a linear sequence.Therefore, to improve oral proficiency by developing communicative language ability through task-based approach is the main concern of the paper.