A Case Study Of Heterogeneous Task-based English Reading Classes In Junior High School

Reading attracts great attention in English teaching in junior high schools. However, traditional teaching focuses on translation and grammar. Teachers are authorities and students are passive recipients. Therefore students lose interests in reading which leads to unsatisfactory results. In order to change the current situation, Task-based Language teaching comes into being. It concentrates on language meaning as well as language forms. It advocates interaction in which students learn the target language by using it and by doing tasks. As a result, classes under TBLT are student-centered.In this paper, the author introduced some theories and relevant researches about TBLT on the basis of which the author analyzed a pair of heterogeneous reading classes under Task-based Language Teaching from the aspects of task types, task components, and the principles of TBLT, the frameworks of TBLT, and the assessment of TBLT. Meanwhile the author summarized the merits and problems in the implementation of TBLT in heterogeneous reading classes. Reading classes under TBLT aim to cultivate students’ interest in learning English, develop their cooperative ability, and train their integrated language capability. But teachers may neglect some task types, components or principle in practice. At last, some suggestions were put forward based on teaching experience. Tasks in class should be well-designed and teaching steps should be arranged carefully. It is hoped that this study can provide theoretical and practical reference about reading classes under TBLT for further researches.