The Application Of Task-based Approach And The Development Of English Majors' Integrated Skills

The goal of English teaching is to cultivate students' practical skills to cope with the increasing communication needs in the international community.For many years in language teaching field,linguists and language teachers have been engaged in the search for a practically effective way of teaching,which can develop students' listening,speaking,reading and writing skills in a balanced way.Task-based approach is developed in the 1980's and since then has gained increasing acceptance in second language teaching field(Nunan,1989).It advocates "learning through doing" and the involvement of students in a variety of activities in which students can practice their multiple skills.In order to confirm the effectiveness of this approach,the author conducted an experiment among her students.The questions investigated in the experiment were: 1.Is task-based approach more effective in improving students' integrated skills? 2.Does task-based approach help to stimulate the students' motivation and increase their self-confidence in learning English?The steps taken in the experiment are:firstly,before the experiment,a pre-test was given to the subjects to see whether there were marked differences between the experimental group and the control group.The results showed that the two groups were at about the same level of language skills,which provided a feasible basis for the experiment.Secondly,after the one-year experiment,a post-test was conducted to compare the differences between the two groups.An oral test was also given to supplement the post-test.The results from the post-test and the oral test showed marked differences between the two groups,with the experimental group outperforming the control group in a significant way.Thirdly,a questionnaire was distributed to get the students' perception of the task-based approach,and the results showed that TBA greatly stimulated the students and increased their confidence in English learning. So we can say that task-based approach is more effective in improving students' listening,speaking,reading and writing skills and it can help to stimulate the students and increase their confidence in English learning.