The Application Of Task - Based Approach In English Writing Teaching In Higher Vocational Colleges

Writing is an important productive skill of language. Therefore, English teachers attach great importance to writing teaching. At present, teachers usually use traditional approaches such as the product writing approach and the process writing approach more in China. However, both of these two teaching approaches have some disadvantages. The product writing approach only focuses on the writing product, while the process writing approach only focuses on the writing process. With the development of second language acquisition research, psychological linguistics and social constructivist theory, the task-based approach in writing has drawn the most attention. Because it focuses on not only the writing product but also the writing process and it achieves the balance of forms and meaning of language. However, the empirical studies of its application in the field of high vocational school English teaching writing are insufficient. This thesis attempts to provide empirical evidence that the task-based writing approach in high vocational schools in China is feasible and efficient.On the basis of some relevant theories, including the "Interactive Hypothesis", "Social Constructivist Theory" and "Affective Filter Hypothesis", this empirical study was carried out in two classes from a high vocational school in Zhenjiang. The one was chosen as the experiment class,46 students; the other was chosen as the control class,46 students too. The experiment lasted for one term. The experiment class was taught by the task-based writing approach while the control class was taught by the traditional product writing approach. The empirical study mainly tries to answer three research questions as follows:Compared with the traditional product writing approach, can the task-based writing approach promote the students’ writing proficiency more? If yes, what writing proficiency can be promoted? Compared with the traditional product writing approach, can the task-based writing approach promote the students’ writing interest more? Compared with the traditional product writing approach, can the task-based writing approach help the students develop some effective writing strategies and writing habits more? Before the experiment, the statistics on the students’ writing proficiency were collected from the pre-test and the statistics on the students’ writing interest、writing strategies and writing habits were collected from the pre-questionnaire. After the experiment, the statistics on the students’ writing proficiency were collected from the post-test and the statistics on the students’ writing interest、writing strategies and writing habits were collected from the post-questionnaire. With the help of the software, SPSS, the author has used qualitative and quantitative methods to analyze the statistics before and after the experiment. Finally, the conclusion has been reached that the task-based writing approach can promote the students’writing proficiency more than the traditional product writing approach, including the writing proficiency in writing content and the use of language; the task-based writing approach can promote the students’ writing interest more than the traditional product writing approach; the task-based writing approach can help the students develop some effective writing strategies and writing habits more than the traditional product writing approach. It is expected that this study will shed light on the implementing of the task-based writing approach for high vocational English writing teaching in China.