Maintaining Children's Interest In Task-based English Learning

At a time when Chinese educators have been advocating enthusiastically the concept of "quality education", when English is becoming a tool for international communication in transportation, tourism, commerce, banking, technology, diplomacy and scientific research, when English teaching at primary schools is establishing itself as a discipline in its own right, asserting its place, not merely an offshoot of junior or senior English teaching, language teaching requires not only courageous, well-determined, and committed teachers but also creative and innovative teaching techniques. Although the new course requirement calls for all the primary school teachers to adjust their teaching to the goal, it often happens that some primary school English teachers use new books with the old methodology. It seems that no great success has been achieved in making the transition from education for test to education for quality. So we have to find practical ways to motivate the students to learn and appreciate the language, and at the same time, sustain students' interest throughout the language learning process. Hence, in this thesis I suggest that we should implement task-based learning (TBL)-continuous, interrelated, and meaningful activities, which are process-oriented rather than product-oriented. I also report my research in some primary schools in Jinhua. The research shows that TBL is an effective way of maintaining children's interest in English learning and improving their communicative competence.