An Action Research Of Task-Based Spoken English Learning In Rural Senior Middle School

With the continual reform of language teaching and learning methods, English learning from new edition text book (Senior English for China bookA) is connected with topic activities. The text book advises English teachers to use task-based learning method to organize class teaching. On the view of teachers we should organize the classes in English and create English-learning circumstances, listening to English is the input of language learning, However, we also know speaking ability is the out- put of language learning, improving students' speaking ability is our terminal goal. And that is very difficult for teachers reaching this goal, especially in rural middle school.I choose my class as a sample of rural middle school to make research. In this article, I use action research method to deal with task-based learning, aiming to improve the students' ability of spoken English through some oral practice. According to the procedure of task-based learning: Pre-task, Task, Planning, Report, Analysis, and Practice, I designed ten kinds of activities to improve the students' spoken English. During the ten week teaching practice, I conducted an action research project with a class of senior high school students. By completion of the first cycle, I found that we should identify a number of objectives and formed initial working hypotheses about meeting them, and plan a curriculum model and devised materials and processes to support it. Before research we should make observations on our practice and evaluated its effects. And after research reflect upon the results of the evaluation, in preparation for modifying our practice for the second implementation of the module.The main advantages of TBL are that language is used for a genuine purpose meaning that real communication should take place, and that at the stage where the learners are preparing their report for the whole class, they are forced to consider language form in general rather than concentrating on a single form (as in the PPP model). Whereas the aim of the PPP model is to lead from accuracy to fluency, the aim of TBL is to integrate all four skills and to move from fluency to accuracy plus fluency.