A Study Of Improving English Application Ability Of Students In Vocational School Through Task-based Language Teaching

With the globalization of economy and its rapid development in China, a lot of professional workers work abroad or in overseas companies. It is dispensable to use language to communicate while working. People expect higher and higher foreign language proficiency. English as one of the world languages in the world is an important tool for international communication. How to learn English well and improve English competence in occupational situations becomes the issue for vocational educators to think and study.English is one of the basic courses in vocational school in China. The New Syllabus for Vocational School states explicitly that the objective of English course is to help students learn basic knowledge of English further on the basis of compulsory education, to develop their four language skills, namely, listening, speaking, reading and writing, to form English application ability in occupational situations, to arouse students'interest in English and build confidence in learning.However, English teaching in vocational school is not optimistic. Many students are weak in using English and have no interest in learning English. The traditional language teaching cannot solve the problems. What is the effective teaching method to change this situation? Recently, task-based language teaching has been the focus of many researchers and teachers. It emphasizes that students learn language through communication and interaction with purpose in the process of taking part in activities and completing tasks. Students learn language and use it while doing things. Language learning and language use are properly integrated. This is in accordance with the teaching mode of"learning by doing, teaching by doing"advocated in vocational school. The researcher of the thesis tries to explore the nature of task-based language teaching and attempts to apply it in vocational school with the aim to find an effective teaching method to improve the English application ability of students and arouse students'interest in English.The researcher chose the students of Fashion-design class and Food-technology class of 2009 she taught in Dalian Light Industry School as the subjects of the study. The Food-technology class (experimental class) was taught by task-based language teaching while the Fashion-design class (control class) by traditional language teaching. The experiment lasted for a semester from September, 2009 to January, 2010. The experimental class and control class were tested before the experiment and after the experiment respectively. The scores of pre-test and post-test were collected as data and analyzed. The result of the questionnaire was also presented. The result showed that the experimental class taught by task-based language teaching made greater achievement than that of the control class. Most students in the experimental class held positive attitude towards task-based language teaching and liked to participate in class with eagerness and interest.Therefore, a conclusion can be drawn that task-based language teaching contributes to the improvement of English application ability of students in vocational school. Students show more interest in English than before.