Thoughts On The Task-based Language Teaching In The Middle School Classroom

The teaching aim of middle school is to help students acquire certain basic knowledge and skills of language, cultivate their feel for language and obtain the ability of using English properly. To achieve the aim, we teachers should follow the objective law of English teaching, and choose the scientific and suitable teaching approach. However, at present, English teaching hi our middle school is mainly carried out in the traditional way (Cheng Shu, Tang & Wei Nai ,Xing, 1996:17-23). In the classroom teaching, lots of teachers still fill students with much more language knowledge, including vocabulary, and grammatical rules, but neglect obtaining the four basic skills. Although students master lots of vocabulary and can answer the grammatical questions, yet in real-life communication, they can't hear and speak. This teacher-centered approach cannot improve the students communicative ability. So the teaching aim can't be achieved in the traditional way. Accordingly, we have to select a teaching approach which is fit to students. With the development of English teaching at home and abroad, the task-based approach is proposed. It emphasizes the classroom teaching should be student-centered. Its advantages are that students play an important part in teaching. This approach pays much attention to the training of ability in analyzing and solving problems. By finishing the tasks, teaching purpose can be obtained. Lots of works and experiments on the task-based approach show that this kind of teaching approach is an advanced and efficient one which puts the students in the first place and which reflects the language value. As a result,the task-based language teaching approach is well worth researching and trying out in the middle school classroom.