The Action Research On The Application Of Task-based Language Teaching Approach To English Reading Teaching In Rural Junior Middle School

Reading is significant among the four essential English learning skills (listening, speaking, reading and writing) and gains wide attention in the research area. However, the English reading teaching is still a weak link in the real teaching. The traditional teaching methods still occupy a dominant position which don’t concern the needs of real communication but only focus on the delivery of language knowledge. It leads to the unsatisfactory teaching effects and the gradual decrease of students’learning interest. The English teaching in rural schools is typical due to the deficiency of teaching device, teaching atmosphere and faculty, and the outdated teaching concept. The majority of teachers and students still put the passing rate of examination as the teaching aim.This study applies the Task-based Language Teaching Approach to English reading teaching in rural junior middle school and employs the action research method to explore the effectiveness of TBLT in increasing the reading interest of students and promoting the English reading competence. The participants involved in the current study are 72 students of Grade 9 chosen from two parallel classes at Banqiao Junior Middle School in Jixi County, Anhui Province. The action research lasts for one whole semester. The current study attempts to answer the following three research questions through the questionnaires, interviews, the reflection journals of teacher, reading tests and teaching experiment.1. What benefits can be brought to English reading course in rural junior middle school by involving in TBLT mode?2. What improvements can students make to their reading habits by applying TBLT mode?3. By involving in TBLT mode, what kind of new understanding of his or her role in English reading class can teacher obtain?In terms of certain qualitative and quantitative analysis, the answers of above research questions are figured out. The results indicate that the English reading competence and reading interest of students and the classroom performance have increased and the self-role cognition of teacher has greatly promoted by involving TBLT mode for a whole semester.