Application Of Task-based Approach In College Business English Course

In recent years, with the rapid development of China’s economy, China has been the world’s secondlargest economy. The exchanges between China and the countries all around the world are increasing close.The demands for Business English compound talents are becoming bigger and bigger. Therefore, BusinessEnglish has grown up to be a very important part of foreign language teaching. However, the situation ofChina’s Business English teaching is not satisfactory. Business English teaching is still using the traditionalmethod, and too much attention has been paid to the vocabulary and grammar explanations. The classroomis teacher-centered, and the students receive knowledge passively, which causes slight success for students.In addition, most teachers are language teachers, and they all lack related business knowledge andexperience. This method cannot stimulate students’ interest and motivation to effectively, cannot improvethe ability of business, and also hinder the development of Business English teaching seriously.Task-based language teaching is built on the language acquisition theory, social constructivism andsocial interactionism. The key point of TBLT is:―student-centered and learning by doing." TBLT regardsthe performances of the tasks as the learning process. In this process, students have an obligation tocomplete the tasks through cooperation, and this can develop students’ communicative skills andproblem-solving ability. Effectiveness of TBLT has confirmed in many fields. The previous studies haveindicated that the research of the application on Business English is very limited. Therefore, the author triesto make a study of the application of TBLT on Business English. In this study, three questions are putforward in order to explore the feasibility of the application of TBLT on Business English:(1) Compared with the traditional teaching method, is Task-based Approach able to improve students’learning achievements of Business English?(2) Compared with the traditional teaching method, is Task-based Approach in Business English ableto improve students’ communicative skills, interpersonal skills, teamwork skills and problem-solvingskills?(3) What are the attitudes of students towards the Task-based Approach in Business English?In the study,62students majoring Business English in Lanzhou Commercial College were randomlyselected as the subjects. The teaching experiment lasted for one semester. The traditional PPP approach isused in the control class and the task-based approach is used in the experimental class. The TBLT approachhas three phrases: pre-task, while-task and post-task. Teachers designed tasks beforehand, and guided the students to take part in various language activities. The two classes took part in the examinations before andafter the experiment, and the experimental class had a questionnaire and an interview after the experiment.And then, the author made the quantitative analysis and qualitative analysis according to the data and drewthe conclusions:(1) Compared with the traditional method, the Task-based Approach can improve students’achievements, and can improve the quality of Business English teaching. This data also can better confirmthe feasibility and effectiveness of Task-based teaching method.(2) TBA is helpful for developing the students’ communicative skills, interpersonal skills, teamworkskills and problem-solving skills, which are badly demanded in the business field.(3) The majority of the students supported Task-based teaching method and expected the teacher couldkeep applying it in Business English class.The research gives some suggestions and pedagogical implications for our future teaching. In thefuture study, the TBA can be used in Business English class. The classroom focus should be changed fromteachers to learners. The teachers should design different tasks for different level students. Also the tasksshould be designed related to the students’real life, reflecting the needs and interests of the students.Some useful information is provided in this study where there are also some limitations. The time ofthe experiment is not long enough. The number of the subjects of the research is not large enough. The ECand the CC are taught by the same teacher.