Task-based Language Teaching Of English Writing To Freshmen Majoring In English

Syllabus for English Majors (2000:5) points out, "The development and improvement of students' abilities are directly related to the teaching approaches used in the specialized courses. Student-centered and teacher-guided classroom teaching, which focuses on cultivating students' learning abilities and research abilities, should be a substitute for teacher-centered teaching model. To arouse students' interest in learning, stimulate students' learning motivation and encourage students to take part in learning to the full extent, teachers are suggested to adopt various Task-based teaching activities in teaching." Writing, as a difficult point of English teaching for English majors, has received lots of attention of many scholars and educators, but its teaching effect is still not satisfactory. Some teachers gradually applied Task-based Language Teaching, which is considered as a very effective approach by most foreign language educators and language experts, to English writing. However, the implementation of TBLT in English writing for freshman majoring in English is seldom, thus this study aims at investigating whether Task-based Language Teaching is more effective in promoting the students'writing competence than the rather traditional Product Approach; whether it is helpful in enhancing the students'confidence in English writing; and whether it is workable in increasing the students' interest in English writing.The paper begins with the introduction of the research background and the significance of the research, and then presents a literature review on relevant theories of Task-Based Language Teaching, the development of writing teaching, the advantages of TBLT to English writing and previous researches on TBLT. Theoretical foundations of this study are followed. According to the research aims, the author designs an experiment and puts it into practice. Pre-test, mid-test, post-test, classroom experiment, interview and questionnaire are employed in this research. With the 117 subjects participating in the research,58 students in the control group receive traditional Product Approach and 59 students in the experimental group are taught by Task-Based Language Teaching. After one-semester classroom experiment, data from pre-test, mid-test, post-test, interview and questionnaire are collected. With the assistant of statistical software SPSS that is used to calculate the data, the results show the Task-Based Language Teaching is more effective in improving the students' writing proficiency, interest and confidence in writing learning than the traditional Product Approach in Chinese context.