The Application Of TBA In Facilitating Junior Students' English Conversational Competence

With the development of modern educational theory, the elementary education and the operation of the reform of traditional teaching model, the new English teaching model is being applied in primary and middle school in China, and the teaching instructional ideas and teaching strategies has changed a lot in English language teaching. "The English Course Curricula for the High School of the Fulltime Compulsory Education", made by the Ministry of Education of People's Republic of China in 2003, requires that "English teacher's teaching principle, teaching strategy and teaching method should meet the demand of new curricula. Classroom teaching should reform the old-fashioned and teacher-centered model, in which only book knowledge is taught in classroom. We should add some tasks and research materials to the classroom activities so that the students can have the chance of expressing their ideas. Students should be encouraged to develop the ability to coordinate and communicate with others." From this we can see that "task" has become an important term in English teaching and task-based language teaching( abbreviated as TBLT,TBA or TBI) which has been widely used in English teaching.In traditional English class in China, we mainly follow teacher-centered principle. The teacher is the leading role in class, and teaching students is the main responsibility. The model, in which teacher's presentation is the main part of the class, students just listen to the teacher, has lasted for many years. With the development and of our reform and open policy, the situation in and out of China has changed a lot. The traditional teaching model can't adapt to the new situation, with many shortcomings; the most obvious one is that developing students' problems and ability to use English leading in an all-round way is not attached enough important. The students' role in class is neglected. The direct result from this kind of teacher-centered model is that students are accustomed to the passive learning, and the students depend greatly on teachers. The dependence on teachers would prevent students from studying independently. In this thesis, the teaching principle is provided for English teaching reform through the research on the teachers' roles in pushing the application ofTBA.It is without doubt that the purpose of English major education is to develop theability of students' English utilization in the reality; the purpose of Oral English education is to develop the ability of learners' social intercourse and the ability of oral expression. One of the most frequently given reasons in today's China for the teaching of English is that it affords a 'window on the world'. The role of English thus is changing from being the language merely for the understanding of other cultures to being a tool of communication in learning advanced science and technology. With the development and of our reform and open policy, the situation in and out of China has changed a lot. The traditional teaching model can't adapt to the new situation, with many shortcomings."Task-based Instruction came into being in the 1980s with the background of communicative language teaching was being widely used. TBA is based on the application of authentic language and the theory of second language teaching. TBA insists that the language learners develop the language ability through language, and individualism is one of the most important factors.TBA is a kind of teaching strategy emphasizing "learning by doing". It emphasizes that students accomplish various tasks of social and academic life in classroom which are according to the students' interests, life experience and social abilities. And it emphasizes the interaction among students and the interaction between teachers and students. So the students can experience the success by ' accomplishing the tasks through practicing, experiencing, participating and communicating. In this way, the students' conversational competence will be developed gradually.In the process of TBA, developing the students' independent learning means the center has changed from teachers to students. The teacher is the task designer, planner, governor, organizer, and at the same time the students' partner. In TBI, the teacher must participate the following: learning strategy instruction, materials suggesting and results evaluating.The designing and applying of the tasks in class gives the teacher a rather high requirement. The quality of the teachers is the key to the application of TBI. The English teachers must have the basic knowledge to be able to take the chance of classroom to create learning situation for students, make reasonable use of curricula and textbooks, and become the creators of teaching materials, and also they should realize fully the students' cognitive difference, and emphasize the students' comprehensive ability of using language and the harmonious physical and mental development.TBA combines the advantages of modern educational ideas with those of traditional teaching theories and gets rid of the disadvantages of traditional teaching. It helps teachers to create the various classroom activities, to train and strengthen the students' creative thinking ways and creative ideas. In such way, we can reach the objectives to develop the students' conversational ability of using language and independent learning.There were 100 students from Grade Two of Weiqiao Experimental School to take part in the experiment activity. They were divided into 2 classes according to their oral English proficiency. All of the students were from the nearby villages; most of them were poor in oral English. Therefore, the level of the two classes was absolutely equal. Our teaching material is Go for it! edited by People's Education Publisher & Thomson Learning which is designed in task-based syllabus. During the study, we had a pre-test and a post-test, after the experiment, we also adopted the questionnaire.The thesis is composed of five parts. The First Part is Literature Review, which gives a brief account of the background, the purpose, and the scope of the study. This part examines the multiplicity of task definitions, task design principles and framework of TBA. It also probes into relevant studies and research of TBA in China. The Second Part is the Theoretical Foundations of TBA, which addresses the related learning theories to our study such as Constructivism Learning Theory. Part Three concerns a description of the experimental procedures, an outline of lesson planning strategies, data collection and analysis. Before the experiment we had a test, after the experiment we had a similar test to compare with, the questionnaire was followed after the experiment. Part Four is the results and discussion. It includes the good result, but also the limitations. The Last part is the Conclusion. This thesis is a study of TBLT in Junior English classroom. It conducted in a small scale and with the teachers. As the point of departure, this study leaves some related issues unresolved, which still requires further exploration.The students' conversational competence is very poor in the schools of the countryside. It is a big barrier to communicate with others in English. They can get good marks, but can't use it freely. To these days, the experiment on conversational competence is really less than other aspects, so our study is worth doing. For this, our experiment is worthwhile to go on for ever. In my study, I "Prepare for the worst and hope for the best". I will not forget the saying: Where there is a will, there is a way.