The Implementation Of Task-Based Language Teaching In Senior Middle School English Classroom

Before the 1970S, the influence of behaviorism in psychology and the structural linguitics was so widespread and dominant that L2 learning was almost exclusively teacher-centred. The task of the second language learner was to acquire the linguistic forms and structures by repeated practice and reinforcement. In order to learn the linguistic structures effectively, it was the language teachers' task to explain what was to be learned clearly and precisely to learners before it could be fully understood and assimilated. The L2 learner was considered very passive. Since the early 1970S, it has been more and more realized that the L2 learner himself actually plays an important role. Both L2 teaching and learning have shifted the focus from the teacher to the learner, from the language form to the language meaning. To be able to operate effectively in the real world, learners need plenty of opportunities to practise language in situations which encourage them to communicate their needs, ideas and opinions. Thus arises the communicative language teaching and task-based language teaching can be regarded as one particular development within the broader " communicative language teaching."In task-based language teaching, the basic and initial point of organization is the task: classroom work is organized as a sequence of tasks, and it is tasks that generate the language to be used. In task-based language teaching, what teachers ask students is that they carry out a series of tasks. The main focus is on the tasks to be done and language is seen as the instrument necessary to carry these tasks out.It is generally accepted that tasks play a very important role in task-based language teaching. In the process of the implementation of task-based language teaching in senior middle school English classroom, teachers should have a complete understanding of the features of tasks. So in Chapters 2 & 3 of this thesis, we mainly discuss tasks, including the definitions and typologies of tasks, task design and task gradation. In task-based language teaching, the roles of learners and teachers have changed a lot. Learners are no longer a passive recipient, but an interactor, a negotiator or a performer, while teachers are viewed as a facilitator, a researcher, a manager, an...