An Experimental Study On Task-based Language Teaching In Senior High School English Reading Teaching

Reading is an important way for people to get information and improve English level. Reading plays an important role in four language skills like speaking, listening, reading and writing. Reading is a comprehensive skill which can reflect students’ comprehensive ability of language use. So the cultivation of students’ reading ability is not only an important teaching objective of senior high school but also a focus of test in senior high school. However, there are some problems in the actual reading teaching. The traditional teaching method focuses on language form while neglects language meaning. In the traditional reading teaching, the teacher dominates the whole class while students become passive learners, which is not conductive to cultivating students’ reading ability and stimulating their reading interest. Therefore, one of the most important goals for many teachers and researchers is how to help students read effectively.In the 1980 s, language teaching experts put forward an important and influential teaching approach-Task-based Language Teaching based on lots of research and practice. In this approach, specific tasks are regarded as the power and motivation for study, the process of completing tasks is regarded as the learning process and the results of the task are regarded as the teaching achievements. Task-based Language Teaching promotes “learning by doing” in which students are learning subjects who actively participate in the learning process. Besides, Task-based Language Teaching advocates that students achieve the goal of the task and experience a sense of achievement through experience, practice, participation, communication and cooperation.However, at present, in China Task-based Language Teaching approach is still a new model. Although at present many experts and researchers have done lots of research on the theory of Task-based Language Teaching and some teachers have also made some attempts to apply it to their teaching practice, there are still some problems to deal with on how to apply this approach effectively into English reading teaching in senior high school. Hence, it is urgent to conduct an empirical research on the implementation of the Task-based Language Teaching in English reading teaching of senior high school.Based on the situation above, the author conducted an experiment which lasted about 5 months in Quzhou No.1 Senior High School on how to apply Task-based Language Teaching in reading teaching in senior high school effectively. The subjects of the experiment were students in Class 3 and Class 4 taught by the author in which there are 50 students respectively. The author designated Class 4 as control class while Class 3 was designated as experiment class randomly. Task-based Language Teaching was used in the experiment class while the traditional teaching method was applied in the control class. After experiment, the author found out that students in the experiment class performed better in terms of their reading ability. Students’ reading ability in referring, guessing the meanings of words, summarizing and getting detailed information improved more greatly in the experiment class than that in the control class. What’s more, students in experiment class had more interest in reading.Through tests, questionnaires and interview, the author made conclusions that Task-based Language Teaching could be used in reading class effectively and it could not only improve students’ reading comprehension ability especially their inferring ability, but also arouse students’ reading interest.