Research On Task-based Teaching Of English Majors College Extensive Reading

As one of the basic four language skills, reading plays an essential role in language learning, but extensive reading does not attract much attention in language teaching. The dull teaching approach results in students'loss of reading motivation and interest, therefore, changing students'understanding of and attitude toward extensive reading is crucial to solve problems in extensive reading classroom. Task-based approach aims at motivating learners to learn through interactive communication in target language, providing learners with the opportunity to make full use of authentic learning materials.However, the literature both at home and abroad focuses on discussing the importance of extensive reading and the practical problems in implementing it; and there are few experimental researches on extensive reading in China. In this study, the author adopts task-based approach in her extensive reading classroom in order to investigate its effect on to improve students'ability of extensive reading.The participants in this study include 60 students majoring in English of Xi'an Education University are Grade 2009. Class 1 is the experimental class with 30 students, in which TBLT is used. Class 2 is the control class with 30 students, in which traditional teaching method is adopted. The experiment consists of several parts:questionnaire I for 200 students and to understand the students'attitude toward extensive reading and task-bask language teaching to design the experimental teaching, pre-test, experimental teaching, post-test and questionnaireⅡfor students of the experimental class. The data were collected and analyzed. The results of the research prove that, compared with the traditional method, TBLT is a more effective way to help students improve their reading competence and enhance their interest, confidence and motivation in reading. The study provides practical implications for the implementation of task-bask language teaching in extensive reading class for English majors.