Task-based Approach In English Reading Class In Senior Middle School

Reading is one of the most important ways for people to get information, to obtain knowledge, to take pleasure and to communicate. Hence, reading draws more and more academic concerns of TEFL/TESL both at home and abroad for a long time and great attention is being paid to the study on the models of how to teach reading. The syllabus of middle school English requires the senior students to have the ability of communication, getting and dealing with information, and analysis problems. Therefore, English teaching in senior middle school should focus on not only understanding but also how to understanding passages. That is top say, teachers should draw their attentions to the instruction of reading ways and the practice of reading skills so as to increase the students' reading ability. However, the situation of students' reading performance and reading comprehension isn't satisfactory. Students' reading comprehension is influenced by the reading habits, background knowledge, learning styles, teaching environments and so on. Nevertheless it is true that parts of the students have difficulty in reading articles, while reading is still important in university entrance exam. Task-based teaching method has become popular since 1980s, and has been brought in our country. Many foreign study prove that task-based teaching approach plays a very important role in training the students' ability of learning and their development. However, in China, TBLT, which is in the experimental stage, has not been practiced in the classroom successfully. Although reading comprehension in China has been placed in a dominant position, yet no remarkable success has been achieved, especially in middle school. At present, English teaching in our country including senior English teaching pays more attention to increasing the students' reading skills, which is not satisfactory.The purpose of the paper is to test the hypothesis that task-based teaching method can be used in reading class effectively and it can improve students' learning interest and reading ability. The thesis tries to get the approval by means of carrying out task-based reading experiments in Yunhe High School, Tongzhou District, Beijing, with two contrast groups in Grade One in the year 2006.The results from the experiment shows that the experimental class who take task-based reading train make more progress in reading ability compared to the comparative class. This indicates that task-based teaching method can improve the efficiency in reading class. The analysis of the experimental results and discussions shows that there is some space that can be improved in the future.