Increasing Students' Oral Ability-An Action Research Project

Task-Based Language Teaching is a new teaching method, which has developed with the framework of communicative language teaching. Compared with the classical communicative language teaching method, TBLT method serves as a bridge linking theory and practice. The researcher has been an English teacher in an ordinary middle school for twenty years and has found that students have learnt English from primary school to middle school for three or six years, but they can not use English to communicate with people and even fail to speak English fluently in an English class.This thesis mainly focuses on tasks -based language teaching for Junior Three students in Number Five Middle School of Shunyi District in Beijing. The thesis first introduces the theoretical background of task-based language teaching and the relevant research findings in this field. The definition and types of task, the features and characteristics of TBLT are also presented. Based on the theory of TBLT, the researcher designed the action research, the aim of which is to solve the identified problem: students are short of communicative ability in English as a result of the traditional method in English teaching. The research question is:Can TBLT increase learners' oral communicative ability?The researcher investigated the students' preliminary conditions and worked out a twelve-week action research plan. The data have been collected through two questionnaires, teaching log, classroom observation and two interviews of students.According to the data and analysis of the action research, the students in the...