Task-Based Approach And The Development Of Teaching Skills For English Majors In Normal Universities

Task-based approach is a teaching method that puts tasks at the center of the methodological focus. It views the learning process as a set of communicative tasks that are directly linked to the curricular goals(Brown,1994). The use of task has gained increasingly acceptance in second language teaching field (Nunan,1989). Task-based instruction(TBI) is frequently promoted as an effective teaching approach, superior to"traditional"methods, and soundly based in theory and research(Swan,2005). In the last decade, much research has been carried out to demonstrate the advantages of task-based approach. Since the 1980s, much has been written about main issues about task and TBI(Prabhu,1987;Nunan,1991,1999; Willis,1996,2001; Skehan,1996, 1998; Robinson,1996,2001;Ellis,2003,2005; Littlewood, 2004, etc.).In China, with the advocacy by the new National English Curriculum Standards(Experimental draft)(2001) that task-based approach should be exercised in ELT classroom, TBI has been conducted and practised in English teaching classroom in basic education and it has been proved to be one of the most effective methods to help the young school students to improve their language ability and fulfill the objectives of English teaching and learning. The successful application of task-based instruction in basic education has given implications to implementing task-based framework in English teaching for the university English majors. In order to fulfill the task of cultivating English comprehensive talents with all-round development which is the objective of college English teaching for English majors, college teachers should modify traditional pedagogic thoughts and adopt new teaching methods to improve their teaching development and develop students' language competence in an effective way.Some college teachers have put theory of TBI into their teaching practice(See Chen& Wu,1998;Cai,2001;Wei&Tang,2004;Hu,2005;etc).But research on the implementation of TBI in developing teaching skills for English majors in normal universities has been rarely found in current literature review. The present study is expected to prove the effectiveness and practicability of implementing frameworks of TBI, as compared with the traditional teacher-centered teaching method, in developing teaching skills for English majors in normal universities.The paper begins with the orientation and motivation of the present study. Then a literature review of task and TBI is followed. The third chapter is the focus of this thesis on the implementation of TBI in teaching the course of English Teaching Methodology(ETM). An experiment was made, designed as a comparative study between TBI and current traditional teacher-centred teaching methods dominated the ELT classroom for English majors. The purpose was to explore a more suitable and effective way to develop English majors' teaching skills in...