A Study On The Application Of Task-based Approach In English Writing Teaching In Senior High School

In English learning, writing, one of the four basic skills required by English Curriculum, is not only one important purpose but also an important means by which to output the knowledge. According to the new"Senior English Syllabus", the objective of teaching senior high school English is to consolidate and expand the students'basic knowledge and develop their listening, speaking, reading and writing skills. Of them, writing is a mirror of students'comprehensive language ability. However, the current condition of senior English writing teaching in china is far from satisfactory. Through the analysis of the annual NMET results, it is obvious that students'writing level hasn't seen clear improvement and their writing scores are not satisfying at all. Both teachers and students are more or less in the dark about writing. As the traditional writing teaching methods fail to improve students'writing ability effectively, teachers are in great need of one effective writing teaching approach. As for students, they are confused about how to express themselves properly using English in writing and how to write good compositions meeting the requirements.Here the study aims to solve the following questions: What problems do teachers in senior high schools have in writing teaching? What problems are senior high school students facing in writing? Is task-based writing teaching approach an effective teaching method? Is task-based approach better in writing than the traditional teaching approach? How can teachers properly and effectively employ task-based writing teaching approach to improve students'writing ability?The experiment was carried out in Fushun No 2. Senior High School, Liaoning Province. The subjects, divided into experimental and control groups, are from Grade three. The two groups have similar background in language learning and their writing scores are almost the same before the experiment. The experiment lasted a whole semester in which the experimental group was trained using task-based teaching approach. At the end of the semester, after the analysis of their writing scores using t-test, the experimental group was found to have made some progress.The major findings of the research are: task-based approach helps improve students'writing ability and is better than the traditional teaching approach. Therefore, senior high school teachers should adopt task-based approach in writing rather than the traditional teaching approach to help enhance students'writing level.The thesis consists of five parts. Part One is an introduction in which the significance and the main research problems of the study are presented. Part Two is literature review that states some relevant theories about task-based approach and the previous research work. Part Three describes the current situation in English writing teaching and the main problems students are faced with. Part Four is the experiment which involves the purpose, the subjects, the procedure, the results and so on. Part Five is the conclusion where the major findings and the limitations are conveyed.