A Task-based Approach To The Teaching Design Of Chinese Culture Course In Australian Primary Schools

The Task-based Teaching Method derives from communicative teaching method and it belongs to the “functional group” of the second language teaching method genre,emphasizing the cultivation of the ability to use language in communication.The Task-based Teaching Method focuses on “learning by doing”,taking tasks as carriers of teaching and the student-centered idea as its essence to give students more opportunities for independent learning,thus promoting the acquisition of the target language.Previous researches on the combination of task-based teaching method and the teaching of Chinese as a foreign language show that there were rich studies on the Task-based Teaching Method employed in the Oral Chinese Classes in China.But there are few relevant studies on the Task-based Teaching Method employed in the overseas Chinese classes held by Confucius Institute or Confucius Classroom.It is worth noticing that the variations in conditions of different countries led to changes in Chinese teaching classes.And there was room to further explore the Task-based Teaching Method employed in Chinese culture class in Australian primary schools.The author used to work as a Mandarin teacher in one of Australia Schools,where she conducted the Task-based Teaching Method in her Chinese culture classes.Therefore,a study focusing on instructional design and tasks suitable for Australian primary schools is conducted through questionnaires,comparative experiments,researches and analysis of the interview for students and teachers,etc.This paper aims to further explore the teaching mode of combining the Task-based Teaching Method with the Chinese class in Australian primary school.It analyzses the author's teaching practices which are based on previous instructional design to draw a conclusion.This thesis find that,firstly,the current situation of Chinese language classes in Australian primary school is very complicated because there is no designated textbook,and the knowledge acquired by students from different schools varies a lot.Therefore,it is necessary to conduct a research on Chinese teaching in Australia primary school,thus providing more teaching plans in the region.Through questionnaires and experiments,this thesis finds that cultural class is suitable for current Chinese classes in Australian primary school,and it also meets the demands of Chinese teaching in Australian primary school,and the details of the analysis are presented in this paper.Secondly,this thesis explores the principles in task design based on the previous conducted by domestic and foreign scholars,and it presents two principles including the principle of controlling difficulty level in tasks and the principle of ensuring task result measurable.In addition,this thesis finds that,not all the task types in Task-based Teaching Methods are applicable to the course design.Since domestic and foreign scholars have different classifications of task types from different perspectives,this thesis selectively uses the types of tasks set by previous scholars,and proposes the type of competitive tasks in this study.Competitive tasks mainly aim at the learning characteristics of primary school students,and they usually appear with other task types,but they are put in the end to detect the effects of previous tasks and to enhance students' interests in classes.Finally,this paper draws the conclusion that the Task-based Teaching Method is suitable for Chinese culture classes in Australian primary school.And the instructional design and teaching practices in this study achieve good teaching results.This thesis combines relevant theories on Task-based Teaching Method with the Chinese culture classes in Australian primary schools to produce instructional design,thus providing relevant references and suggestions for the teaching of Chinese culture course in Australian primary schools.