A Study On The Effectiveness Of Task-based Language Teaching In Listening Comprehension

Task-based language teaching (TBLT) has proved to be effective in helping students to communicate with language. Since 1980s, along with the occurrence of task-based teaching syllabus and its teaching materials, task-based language teaching has developed gradually. "College English Curriculum Requirements (for trial implementation)" advocates "task-based teaching mode", it suggests students - with the guidance of teacher-complete the tasks by means of perception, experience, practice, participation and cooperation with others. To put it simply, the task, which is goal - oriented and learner-centered, is a classroom activity in which students use real-life language to achieve a specific outcome. With the introduction of authentic materials, the focus of TBLT is on learners completing the task successfully by means of communicating through interaction and cooperation in the target language. The author presumes that TBLT systematically can help students to improve their listening proficiency. Following this, the author conducted an experiment, attempting to investigate whether the above assumption is right.In the present study, the author first stated the purpose of the study, its significance and historical studies both in China and abroad.The experiment was conducted among 66 students in Beijing University of Posts and Telecommunications. These students came from two second year classes, Class 9 and Class 27 from School of Information Engineering and School of Telecommunications Engineering respectively. Before the experiment, there was a pre-test and pre-questionnaire, which was to examine the actual listening proficiency and listening difficulties among these participants. The test and questionnaire were the instruments as variable measurement. After analyzing the statistics by SPSS, the author finds that there is no difference between these two groups and they are on the same starting line.Then the author carried out an experiment which lasted for one semester. One of the two classes, Class 9 was randomly selected as the experimental group, while class 27, the control group. During the one semester's training, the experimental group received TBLT and the control group received the more traditional Present, Practice, Produce (PPP) approach. After the experiment, the two groups were given another test, after which, the author compared and analyzed the two groups' scores in these two tests.Post-test is to examine the correlation between the TBLT and listening proficiency. Questionnaires and interviews were used as measurements. After the analysis by SPSS, the author found that, after the training, the experimental group made great progress in listening comprehension; while the control group, though scored a little higher than that of the pre-test, did not make a significant progress. The interview followed the post-test, showed their opinions on TBLT, and this in turn could provide some valuable information on further studies.In the conclusion chapter, the author discussed major findings of the experiment, the implications, limitations and suggestions for further research.