A Task-Based Approach To Oral Hotel English Teaching In Vocational Schools

Task-based language teaching (TBLT) emerged in vocational schools in Western countries in the 1950s. However, the systematic theory of TBLT did not appear until in the mid 1980s. Being students-centered, TBLT focuses on meaning expression and provides students with chances to learn by doing. Students improve their language and develop their ability by exchanging ideas and expressing thoughts in classroom activities.With its rapid development, the hotel industry is in great need of hotel service and management graduates with good spoken English and excellent communicative skills. In vocational schools, hotel English teaching can not focus on knowledge imparting alone but should on language skill training as well. In this research, the author applies the TBLT to the teaching of listening, reading and writing to improve students'spoken English. The research indicates that the experimental class that adopts the TBLT makes bigger progress in spoken English and has more students pass the Level B examination, compared with the contrastive class. Therefore, the TBLT is feasible in hotel spoken English teaching and helps students to meet the language requirements the hotel industry sets.This paper consists of six chapters. The first chapter discusses the methods, aims and significance of the research and points out the gap between students'language ability and the requirements of the hotel industry. Therefore, teachers of English are required to seek an effective teaching approach to fill this gap. The second chapter introduces the definition of task and the TBLT and also discusses the theoretical bases and current researches on the TBLT both at home and abroad. The third chapter presents the principles and evaluation of task design in the TBLT with relevant examples. The fourth chapter shows the teaching mode of the TBLT and the current situation and problems in hotel spoken English teaching in vocational schools and the ways to apply the TBLT to the teaching of listening, reading and writing classes with a viewing to improving the students'spoken English. Chapter five is a case study, in which the author introduces the time and procedure of the experiment and the results of data analysis. The last chapter is the conclusion, listing the major findings of this research, putting forward some suggestions to improve the application of the TBLT in vocational school English teaching, and pointing out the limitations of the current research and giving suggestions for further research in this area.