The Application Of Task-based Language Teaching To College English Intensive Reading Class

With the constant deepening of English teaching reforms, more and moreEnglish teaching professionals devote themselves to the exploration of the modelwhich best fits Chinese English teaching, in an aim to promote students’comprehensive ability in English use. Through years of hard work, English teachingin China has obtained remarkable achievements. However, the problem still exists thatthe majority of students even at college level can neither convey their meaningfluently nor appropriately. How can we expect, in such a circumstance, the nurture ofstudents’ linguistic competence and communicative competence? This research holdsthat Task-based Language Teaching (TBLT), as an outcome of communicativeapproach, can strike a balance between meaning and form, thus improving students’language capacity for communication in study and work.By its teaching concept of “learning by doing”, TBLT has given rise towidespread attention in the field of language teaching. In the1980s, the Englisheducator Prabhu first tried task-based instruction. Subsequently, Long, Willis andNunan et al. developed this method and made it become the mainstream teachingapproach. In the late1990s, TBLT was introduced into China. With teachers’ furtherstudy and understanding of the methodology, a large scale of task-based teachingpractice has been carried out in the Middle and Primary Schools. However, theempirical study of it at Independent College which is considered as a newschool-running mode is few in number. Therefore, the implementation of TBLT in thecollege English intensive reading class is of practical significance and value inprobing into how it affects Independent College students’ English learning.The empirical research is conducted by means of instruments such as tests,questionnaires and interviews. The author has singled out two classes majoring inaccounting in Grade2012at Guanghua College of Changchun University as researchsubjects and launched a sixteen-week teaching experiment. Class12415is chosen asthe experimental class where TBLT is employed while Class12416is viewed as thecontrol class where the traditional Presentation-Practice-Production (P-P-P) teaching method is deployed. Via comparison and analysis of test scores and questionnairesbefore and after the experiment combining with interviews, the author arrives at a fewconclusions.This study mainly concerns the following two questions:1) How do studentsevaluate college English intensive reading class of TBLT implementation?2) Whateffects does TBLT have on students’ English learning?Based on the data and results of this empirical study, the author draws someconclusions as follows: Through developing students’ linguistic and communicativecompetence, optimizing their learning style as well as fostering their autonomouslearning, TBLT has a positive effect on students’ English learning at IndependentCollege, especially a more remarkable effect on those whose English level isrelatively high.