A Study Of Application Of Task-Based Language Teaching Approach In The Multimedia-Network Environment In High Schools

The Task-Based Language Teaching approach (TBLT) has been regarded as one of the most useful and most popular approaches in the functional views of language and communicative language teaching since the mid-1980s. And the New National Standard for English Curriculum (experimental draft) officially urges language teachers to apply the Task-Based Language Teaching approach in the teaching practice. It explicitly stipulates that "Task-Based Language Teaching" approach should be advocated to develop students’ comprehensive abilities in using a language.Task-Based Language Teaching (TBLT) is a teaching approach developed from communicative language teaching theory, which puts the fundamental ideas of language use into a practical significant classroom teaching model. It places emphasis on the development of learners’language competence, learning strategies and creative thinking.Meanwhile, the rapid development of information technology has led to the renewal of the thought of education. The integration of information technology and courses has already become the tendency of classroom instruction reform. Multimedia has been used to assist English teaching for a long period of time. The information technology not only provides abundant multimedia resources, but also can create the favorable environments for language learning.However, in fact there are still many problems, for example, teachers still act as controllers in classrooms, and tasks in classrooms are language drills or practice, there is scanty communication in classroom, and learners are still passive receivers. The Computer assisted Language Learning(CALL) is still neglected by many teachers and the deficiencies in combining computer with methodology in language teaching made schools and teachers reluctant to adopt multimedia instruction.As a comparative study, the purpose of the study is to introduce the multimedia environment into TBLT and determine the effects of the multimedia on oral and aural proficiency and effectiveness, autonomous learning and learners’ attitude and interest towards English learning, and to discover whether there would be significant difference in the above-mentioned areas between traditional English class and the multimedia environment.The research instruments adopted in this thesis were pre-test/post-test design with an experimental class and control class, two questionnaires and an interview. A pre-test was given to the two classes in Senior Grade One in Xianju High School. Then, two classes, whose English proficiency and listening, speaking, reading and writing exhibited no significant difference, were chosen as the participants, one as the experimental class and the other as the control class. The study was conducted over a six-month period, and at the end of it, a post-test was held and the observation was again made.The research suggests that the multimedia model is more effective than the traditional or conventional method in teaching high school listening and speaking course. Through the experiment and the questionnaires, we have confirmed the hypothesis. The statistical results from the experiment seem to suggest that virtually the multimedia environment has positive effects on listening and speaking learning and teaching.