A Study Of Task-based English Teaching In Higher Vocational College: Problems And Countermeasures

In 2000, the National Ministry of Education issued Basic Requirements for College English Teaching in Vocational and Technical Colleges , the purpose of English teaching is to cultivate students'abilities to use language, give prominence to practicability and pertinence of teaching content. Task-based Language Teaching(TBLT), which proposes that students are the centre in English classes and values comprehensive application of language, began to be concerned by English teachers in higher vocational colleges. In 2001, the National Ministry of Education issued English Curriculum Standard,which recommends that"TBLT allows students to learn and use language by a series of interactive tasks and communicative activities under the real situation", and TBLT was accepted and used by many English teachers gradually from then on.Then how about the actual effect of implementing TBLT in higher vocational colleges, are there any problems in its practical teaching process, and if the problems exist, how to solve these problems. With the methods of questionnaire, classroom observation and interview, this thesis develops an investigation in four colleges in Hunan province, and according to the analysis of the data from investigation, the problems are summed up from three aspects which include teachers'factors, students'factors and teaching environmental factors: (1) Teachers'lack of knowledge on TBLT; (2) Unreasonable task selection and arrangement; (3) Teachers'low oral English proficiency; (4) Inaccurate understanding of teachers'role; (5) Students'weak consciousness of active learning; (6) Students'anxieties in English Class; (7) Students'different levels of English proficiency; (8) Restriction of traditional assessment instruments;(9) Adverse effect of large-size class.To solve these problems, on the basis of related theories of TBLT and the practical situation in higher vocational English teaching, the thesis proposes the following countermeasures : (1)Teachers should learn theories of Second Language Acquisition(SLA) and knowledge of TBLT through self-teaching and interactive learning; (2) Teachers should be encouraged to take part in in-service training; (3) Peer classroom observation can be organized among teachers; (4)Teachers should strengthen the interaction with students during the process of tasks; (5)Teachers should promote students'consciousness of active learning through cultivating students'meta-cognitive strategies;(6)Tasks close to students'daily life should be selected to make students active in classes ; (7) Co-operative tasks should be usually designed; (8) Teachers can design different tasks for students at different levels; (9)Comprehensive assessment system should be built up in task-based classes. In order to improve the effect of those countermeasures, the research carries out a teaching experiment in Hunan Vocational Institute of Technology, four classes and three teachers are chosen as samples, two groups of experimental classes and controlled classes are designed in this experiment, task-based approach with countermeasures are used in experimental classes, original task-based approach without any adjustment is used in controlled classes. Pre-test,mid-test and post-test are carried out in the experiment. The result of pre-test illustrates that English levels are similar between experimental class and controlled class in each group, the result of post-test illustrates that English level of experimental class is much higher than controlled class in each group. So the result of experiment can demonstrate the effect of above countermeasures.The author hopes that this research can provide some suggestions and references for English teaching in higher vocational colleges.