The Research On The Application Of The Task-based-teaching Approach On English Writing In High Schools

English writing is regarded as the weakest part of the teaching ofEnglish in senior high schools in China. Great efforts made by mostEnglish teachers have produced very little effect. The students’ writingcompetence is far rfom being satisfactory. These problems show thedisadvantages and ineiffciency of current product-oriented teachingapproach，which still plays a dominating role in the teaching of Englishwriting in most senior high schools. On the other hand, process approachfocuses more on the various classroom activities which are believed to behelpful for using English language. However, the process itself istime-consuming and inflexible. And more controversially, attention togrammar is less paid, In the past thirty years, many researchers andEnglish teachers come to realize that both approaches above have somedrawbacks. Therefore, a new teaching approach must be found toovercome the shortcomings of the former approaches and to efficientlyimprove the teaching of English writing.In recent years，with the requirements of composition in NewStandard for English Curriculum being issued, More and more Englishteachers in senior high schools in China have realized the importance ofteaching of English writing. The New Standard advocates anexperiencing, practicing, participating, cooperating and communicatingmode of learning and a task-based approach of teaching aiming atdeveloping students’ comprehensive competence in using Englishlanguage. It adopts a graded objective system and designs therequirements for each grade in the form of “doing things". According tothe New Standard, English teachers are required to use the task-basedapproach in teaching of English instead of the one merely passing knowledge to the students. Under the circumstances, the task-basedteaching approach has been paid more attention to in China’s senior highschools. After over20years’ of English teaching, I have accumulatedsome experience and opinions about the cultivation of writing ability. Atpresent the new curriculum standard has set up new requirements aboutthe English course in senior middle schools. To realize the goal of qualityeducation t I introduce the concept of “Task—Based Learning” into theteaching of English writing with regard to the requirements of the newcurriculum standard and my teaching experiences It can convert thosebasic knowledge in the use of language into the ways of English teachingand promote the information flow among students and participation inlearning by their cooperation and competition in the process of finishingthe task. As English writing has regarded as the weakness of the teachingof English by many English teachers in senior high schools, thisdissertation, based on the theories of the task-based teaching approach, intends by means of the experimental research to seek an effective Englishwriting mode and strategy which the New Standard advocates. In thisway，the situation that the product is too much emphasized while theability of using English is neglected in the traditional English writing issupposed to change. In order to attract and organize students toparticipate in class activities, teachers should strive to design tasks closet’o student’s real life according to students interest, life experience,cognizing level curriculum objective as well as teaching content. Throughthe learning modes，such as thinking investigating， discussing,cooperating arid communicating, students learn to use English, completethe tasks of English writing and finally, improve their English writingcompetence. Thus, in the process of implementing the New Standard，theauthor hopes to present a comparatively scientific and reasonable solutionto the teaching of English writing.This thesis consists of ifve chapters. Chapter one gives a briefintroduction of the purpose、significance and necessity of the study. It also talks about significance of writing. Chapter two is the literature review.The author elaborates the task-based teaching in detail, which includestheoretical foundation, task deifnition, task components，task designingprinciples and designing steps. Chapter three is the descirption of theexperimental study. The author integrates theory with practice to researchinto the way of carrying out the task-based approach in the teaching ofEnglish writing in senior high schools. Chapter four is the findings of theexperiment. It collected the data of the experiment and analyzed it, andtherefore, gets the experimental results. Chapter ifve draws a conclusionto the whole thesis and discusses some pedagogical implications andlimitations of this research.Firstly the implementation of the task-based approach in the teachingof writing is eiffcient in cultivating students’ interest and motivation.Secondly, the application of the task-based approach to the teaching ofwriting is more eiffcient than that traditional product-oirented approach inimproving students ’writing proifciency. Thirdly, the limitations of theresearch are provided and some suggestions are given for further study ofthe task-based approach in the teaching of English writing.