The Application Of Task-based Approach To English Reading Teaching In Junior High School

Reading plays an important role among the four Basic English skills(listening, speaking, reading and writing) and it is a comprehensive skill that reflects English learners? comprehensive English ability. So it is not only a key goal for China?s junior school English teaching to achieve but also is a target for English test. The newly issued English Curriculum Standards clearly stress that the emphasis should be put on the training of reading ability in junior school. In despite of its importance, many problems still exist in the process of teaching. His traditional way of teaching stresses language forms rather than its meaning. Besides, it is difficult to raise students? interest of reading if they passively receive the instructions from the instructors. Thus it is difficult to improve their reading ability. TBLT, a student-oriented teaching method, was introduced into China in the 1990 s.It advocates that students are the subjectivity of learning and it motivates the students to play a more active role in reading. Although lots of theoretical researches on TBLT have been done by scholars and experts and some initial attempts have given to experiments, still, many problems exist, especially how to apply TBLT into English reading teaching.Therefore, based on Krashen?s input hypothesis and Swain?s output hypothesis, taking TBLT as the teaching mode and considering the existing problems in reading teaching, the author conducted an empirical research on this issue in order to add some contribution to the application and promotion of TBLT. The research questions are: Can Task-based Teaching Approach facilitates learners’ reading ability more effectively to some extent? Can Task-based Teaching Approach arouse junior middle school students? interest in English reading? To answer these questions, the author conducted an experiment. Two parallel classes in No.4 Middle School in Xilinhot were chosen for the experiment, one is experimental class in which the author adopted TBLT and the other is control class in which the author adopted 3P teaching method.After the term-long experiment, the author gave the two classes the same tests. Moreover, the author sent questionnaires to students in both classes. By adopting both qualitative and quantitative analysis, the author found that there was significant difference between the two classes. The test scores of the experimental class were higher than that of the control class. The author?s conclusion is that compared with the traditional 3P teaching method, TBLT is more effective in improving students? reading ability. The analysis of the questionnaires shows that TBLT can raise students? interests in reading.