The Application Of Task-Based Language Teaching In Junior English Teaching

The purpose of this thesis is to test and verify if Task-based Language Teaching (TBLT) can enhance the junior high students' enthusiasm of learning English, and help to change the teacher-centered class into the learner-centered class. The thesis focuses on designing tasks for the students in Grade Eight of No. 32 Middle School in Handan city. The tasks are designed on the basis of the principles of Task-based Language Teaching and the main contents of junior students' textbook published by Hebei Educational Press. The experiment centers on the tasks and adopts the teaching way of project approach.There are five parts in this thesis.The first part is introduction. The traditional teacher-dominated classroom mostly focuses on reading, questioning, explanation and grammar exercises. As a result, the students feel it is boring to learn English in class. Many teachers think they are the authority in class; they often ignore the students' needs and interest. However, TBLT requires teachers to focus on students. The meaningful tasks can arouse their enthusiasm of learning English.The second part is literature review. The author first presents the development of Communicative Language Teaching (CLT) and Task-based Language Teaching (TBLT). Then the definitions and types of task, the framework and principles of TBLT are clarified. The features and the advantages of TBLT are also presented.In the third part, the action research project is presented. First, the teaching materials and research subjects are described. Also, the researcher presents the two research questions. Then the implementation of the action research is reported. The researcher and the co-operator introduce TBLT to the students, design one task for each unit and collect the data from questionnaires, interview with the teacher and students, class observation and the teacher's log. The fourth part is the result and analysis of the action research. The results and analysis of the action research is presented. The analysis of the interview between the teacher and the students can also be found in this part.The last part is the conclusion. After the five-month action research, the author finds the answers to the research questions: TBLT can enhance the junior high students' enthusiasm of learning English, and can help to change the traditional teacher-centered class into the learner-centered class. Finally, the researcher suggests the teacher should pay more attention to the students who are unwilling to learn English and help them get confidence in learning English. The teacher should pay attention to the training of the students' comprehensive competence. The thesis didn't deal with the exam scores of the students. In further research, these problems should be taken into consideration.