An Empirical Study Of The Application Of Task-based Language Teaching In College Knglish Reading Course

Reading is not only one of the two receptive language skills, but also a directand effective way to obtain information and knowledge. An enormous amount oftime, money, and effort is spent teaching reading in schools around the world. Mostprobably, it is true that more time is spent teaching reading than any other languageskill. However, it is one of the greatest indictments that many students spend up toten years or so in school and do not become literate. This is especially true in thecontext of teaching English as a foreign language (TEFL) in China. It is not unusualthat a good number of Chinese college students, after having learned English forover nine years, can not read effectively in English. Many can not even meet thebasic requirements for reading formulated in College English CurriculumRequirements, let alone the intermediate and advanced requirements. Studentsthemselves might be held responsible for this, but for the most part it is thetraditional way of teaching reading that is problematic. The traditional3P(Presentation-Practice-Production) Teaching Model lays too much emphasis on thelanguage points and grammatical structures in the reading materials, neglecting thetraining of reading skills and strategies.The present study, with an aim to test a new way of teaching reading, is meantto make an empirical investigation of the application of task-based language teaching(TBLT) in college English reading course. An experimental way is adopted to elicitwhether the application of TBLT will lead to improved outcome. The subjects in thestudy are non-English majors from a college in Liaoning province. Both theexperimental group and the control group include37students. The researcher givesthe subjects two reading tests as well as three questionnaires to collect data beforeand after the experiment. The research questions to be answered are as follows:1. Will TBLT effectively improve students’ reading ability? If yes, to whatextent? 2. What kinds of reading skills can TBLT improve in students’ English reading?3. Can task-based reading arouse students’ interest and promote their readingmotivation?The results show that TBLT can improve students’ reading ability and developtheir reading skills and strategies effectively. Also TBLT can arouse students’ interest,promote the students’ reading motivation and build up their confidence in reading.Thus, it is workable to apply TBLT in college English reading course fornon-English majors. Finally, some implications as well as limitations of the study arediscussed. Also suggestions for further research are put forward.