The Application of Task-based Language Teaching in the Reading Teaching in Senior Midd.doc

毕业论文(设计)The Application of Task-based Language Teaching Method in the Reading Teaching in Senior Middle School1. Introduction12. The problems of English traditional reading teaching patterns32.1 The bottom-up approach in reading teaching32.2 The quiz reading teaching model.32.3 The dialogue reading teaching model.43. Task-based language teaching method53.1 The concept of the Task-Based Language teaching approach63.2 The concept of task73.3 The characteristics of task-based language teaching method94. The application of task-based language teaching method in the English reading teaching in senior middle school.104.1 Principles of task design104.1.1 The authenticity principle104.1.2 The form-function principle114.1.3 The task dependency principle114.1.4 Learning by doing124.2 The teaching steps in the task-based language teaching of English reading.124.2.1 The stage of pre-task.134.2.2 The stage of task-cycle.144.2.3 The stage of post-task.164.3 Task-based assessment175. Conclusion19Bibliography211. IntroductionFor a long time, reading teaching is one of the most important parts of English teaching in senior middle school; it can be seen from the whole situation of senior English teaching. Therefore, many teachers have devoted their efforts to improve English reading teaching, but there are still some problems in English reading teaching, such as: the falling behind of education conception, the lacking of teaching method, the low effect of lecture teaching and the lack of reading ability. It is important to bear in mind that reading is not an invariant skill, there are different types of reading skills which correspond to many different purposes we have for reading. Teachers should not neglect the importance of English reading in senior middle school and the proportion of it in the college entrance examination. In reading teaching, cultivating the students reading interest, enhancing the skills of acquiring, analyzing, judging and dealing with information, and improving students reading skills as a whole, are the most important things. In order to improve English reading ability, teachers have formed many models of English reading teaching. Such as: the bottom-up approach in reading teaching, the quiz reading teaching and the discussing reading teaching. However, these models still have many problems. In order to cope with these problems, many countries or districts, such as America, Canada, Singapore and Hong Kong, have advocated Task-based Language Teaching method, which is based on the development of language knowledge, language skill, emotion attitude, learning tactics and cultural awareness. Whats more, it aims at cultivating students language application ability. In China, Education Section also points out that teachers should not apply such kind of teaching method-simply teaching language knowledge, but try to adopt task-based language teaching method ( letting students carry on their study by completing these tasks and do things through using English) to cultivate students ability to utilize language synthetically. The significance of this thesis lies in the application of the task-based language teaching method in the reading teaching of senior middle school. If the task-based approach gains popularity and is implemented well and properly, the quality of English reading teaching in senior middle schools will be increased and students educational prospects will be better.2. The problems of English traditional reading teaching patterns 2.1 The bottom-up approach in reading teachingWith the bottom-up approach, reading is viewed as a process of decoding written symbols, working from individual letters to words, clauses and sentences. In other words, teachers use strategies to decode written forms in order to know the meaning.As for this method, reading is regarded as a process that human feel and identify letters, words and some larger units, and associate the information continuously. Readers have to follow this fixed order, from the recognitions of letters to words, to phrases, to sentences, and then to the meaning of the whole text. However, it puts undue stress on information which is imported by the sense of sight, and neglects the effect of context. The teaching of English reading based on this bottom-up model pays much attention to the understanding of letters, words, and sentences while neglects the textual teaching and speed training .As a result, students read ineffectively, absorb little and comprehend the entire meaning superficially2.2 The quiz reading teaching model.In order to give prominence to student-oriented thought and embody foreign languages communicational teaching thought, teachers use the form of quiz instead of simply reading teaching. The synthetic utilization of assumption, solution, help and instruction urge teaching message to change from one-side activity (namely teachers teach students) to two-side communication between teachers and students.As the main body of study, the chance for students to take part in the class activities becomes larger, and that changes the situation of just being taught.But there are still some bad effects in reading teaching, for teachers pay more attention to the quantity of questions, such as: There are too many controlling activities. Teachers raise so many questions about the text that students are just busy at answering the questions but lacking of thinking. Students can not grasp the point of view correctly and the practice on synthetic thought is not enough.If teachers use quiz teaching in the whole process of reading, maybe only a few of them can take part in these activities, whatsoever, most of them will be in a passive way when doing reading. In this way, teachers cannot provide a good language environment for most of students.2.3 The dialogue reading teaching model.In the dialogue reading teaching model, teachers pay too much attention to the design of teaching scene and the attendance of students. The teacher can make a dialogue with students by nature and design teaching scene from students point. Such as: the lead-in of reading passage, the transition of teaching link and the study of language point. The alternative operations of vigorous presentation, assumption, conduction, enlightenment, conversation and communication make students have enough time to understand the content and language of the passage. Sometimes, the raise of some questions can induce students creativity.However, through more than one years practice, the writer found that there are still some questions to be noticed, such as: teachers think highly of form but despise the content, and they lay stress on the design of scene exceedingly; whats worse, the scene designed even has no relevance with the teaching content; Teachers ask questions instead of doing interactive activities, for they just expect more students to take part in the teaching activity; and the development of reading logic is seldom taken into consideration.Teachers lay too much stress on creating communication language teaching scene, so they neglect the theme and the link of the scene and the relationship between teachers expression and students understanding. The dialogue reading teaching model just stay at the surface and it is hard to solve the problem of reading logic.All of above methods have their demerits in reading teaching; so many linguists advocate a new method-Task-based language teaching to improve reading teaching. The writer tries to illustrate it from several aspects.3. Task-based language teaching method It is reported that the theory research of Task-based language teaching method has been on for more than ten years, many application language researchers in abroad, such as: JYalden, Divunan, Pskehan, Mcanale, have carried on research deeply. British language researcher-Jarw. Wivis has made a distinction between traditional teaching method and Task-based teaching method and pointed out that Task-based teaching method is centered on students, so it can urge students to probe language initiatively. Task-based language teaching is raised from the existence of communicating thought. Whats more, there are many theoretical background of Task-based Language Teaching, such as: Language Acquisition Research and Social Constructivist Model. Language Acquisition is the learning and development of a persons language, while in the Social Constructivist Model of teaching-learning process, learners learn what is meaningful to them. Both Language Acquisition and Social Constructivist Model have some relationship with communicating thought. It transforms the language utilizations basic idea into the practical significance classroom of Task-based method; students are always in a positive and initiative study psychology. The exchange in the participation of task is an interactional process. Here, the writer exemplifies the foundation of Task-based Language Teaching in three points: the concept of Task-based Language Teaching, the concept of task and the characteristics of Task-based Language Teaching Method.3.1 The concept of the Task-Based Language teaching approachTask-based language teaching is widely promoted in English language teaching nowadays. Many teachers are asking：“What is Task-Based Language Teaching? How is Task-based language teaching different from Communicative Language Teaching?”Long and Crooks said in 1993 that a task-based approach saw the language process as one of learning through doing- it was primarily engaging in meaning that the learners system was encouraged to develop. “Task-Based Language Teaching focuses on the construction, sequencing, and evaluation of particular goal-related action complexes that learners carry out either by themselves or jointly”（Candlin & Murphy, 1987, Nunan, 1989).Task-Based Language Teaching is, in fact, a further development of Communicative Language Teaching. It shares the same beliefs, as language should be learned as closed as possible to how it is used in real life. However, it has stressed the importance to combine form-focused teaching with communication-focused teaching.The task-based approach aims at providing opportunities for the learners to experience with and explore both spoken and written language through learning activities which are designed to engage learners in the authentic, practical and functional use of language for meaningful purposes. Whats more, it can be used in the authentic, practical and functional use of reading teaching.Task-based language teaching is a good method to develop students synthetic abilities. Whats more, teachers can see some advantages from it. For example, the tasks will engage students, challenge them, and allow for contingent interaction; they have concrete goals and manageable rules; they make it possible to adjust opportunities for action to our capacities; they provide clear information about how well we are doing; and they screen out distractions and make concentration possible. How tasks to be designed must be thought.3.2 The concept of task“A task is a piece of work undertaken for oneself or for others, freely or for some reward. Thus, examples of tasks include painting a fence, dressing a child, filling out a form, buying a pair of shoes, making an airline reservation, borrowing a library book, taking a driving test, typing a letter, weighing a patient, sorting letters, taking a hotel reservation, writing a cheque, finding a street destination and helping someone across a road. In other words, by task is meant the hundred and one things people do in everyday life, at work, at play, and in between” (Long, 1985: 89).“A task is any structured language learning endeavor which has a particular objective, appropriate content, a specified working procedure, and a range of outcomes for those who undertake the task. “Task” is therefore assumed to refer to a range of work plans which have the overall purpose of facilitating language learningfrom the simple and brief exercise type, to more complex and lengthy activities such as group problemsolving or simulations and decision making” (Breen, 1987: 23)“A task is a piece of classroom work which involves learners in comprehending manipulating, producing or interacting in the target language while their attention is principally focused on the meaning rather on the form. The task should have a sense of completeness, whats more, being also to stand alone as a communicative act in its own right” (Nunan, 1989: 8).From the above definitions we can see that a task can hold different meanings for different people. The definitions we have looked at share one thing in common: they all imply that tasks involve communicative language use in which the users attention is focused on meaning rather than linguistic structure. They differ from ordinary exercises in that they focus on using language to communicate messages. From this point of view, filling in the gaps, transformation exercises and pronunciation practices cannot be treated as tasks. In other words, tasks do not include activities which involve language used for practice or display, such as “Describe the picture using the words and phrases from the list below” or “Ask your partner if he likes the food listed here, using the forms: Do you like.? Yes, I do No, I dont. ” where there is no outcome or purpose other than practice of pre-specified language.As we explore the development of tasks, we shall see that it is not always easy to draw a hard and fast distinction between “communicative” and “non-communicative” tasks. There are several reasons for this. We use different grammatical forms to signal differences of meaning. In fact, good oral grammar exercises can and should be both meaningful and communicative. When students are carrying out a task, they are focusing on the complete act of communication. It is known to all that reading teaching is a way of task-making, which include deciding pre-reading activities, while-reading activities and post-reading activities.3.3 The characteristics of task-based language teaching method In the Task-based approach, the tasks are controlled to learning activity. Students start with a task. When they have completed it, the teacher draws attention to the language usage, and make corrections and adjustments to the students performance. Task-based language teaching method emphasizes on learning to communicate through interaction in the target language; it introduces the authentic texts into the learning situation. In order to introduce authentic texts into the learning situation, teachers should pay more attention to the characteristics of tasks and notice that: Tasks are activities in which students work purposefully towards an objective; the objective may be one that they have set for themselves or one which has been set by the teacher; The objective may be language focuse, e.g. To discover a rule of grammar or complete an exercise, or content-focused, e.g. to carry out a project or reach a decision through discussion; Task may be carried out individually or ( more often) in groups; Task may be carried out in competition with others or ( more often ) in collaboration; The outcome may be something concrete (e.g. a report or presentation ) or something intangible ( e.g. an agreement or the solution to a problem). It provides opportunities for learners to focus, not only on language but also on the learning process itself. It also enhances the learners own personal experiences as important contributing elements to classroom learning and attempt to link classroom language learning with language activation outside the classroom.These characteristics of the above show that task-based language teaching has its own practical use in detail; we can use it in any areas. In this paper, the writer tries to illustrate the use of Task-based language method in the English reading teaching of senior middle school.4. The application of task-based language teaching method in the English reading teaching in senior middle school.4.1 Principles of task design In order to design a task effectively, the principles of task design should be followed: the authenticity principle, the form-function principle, the task dependency principle and learning by doing. 4.1.1 The authenticity principleThe linguistic data that learners work with are authentic and the relationship between linguistic form and communicative function are clear to the learner. The use of authentic materials in the reading teaching is instructive to the learning process; real tasks can help bridge the gap between the reading materials and the real world. If tasks lack authenticity, they do not motivate students. In order to motivate students, teacher should advocate authentic learning, that is, to ask students to do things people know in reality. The writer takes the reading teaching of New Senior English For China (NSEFC) SB2 Unit 2-“The Olympic Games” for example, it must be clear that when talking about the sports items, through requiring, collecting, classifying and analyzing information, senior students combine what they have learnt with real situations, they can do actions by themselves.4.1.2 The form-function principleTeaching language in a way which makes forms and function relationships transparent. At the same time of making learners to master language form, it also aims at cultivating their own ability of mastering language function. The design of task in each stage has some guidance. Students can reason and conduct after a series of training of task; moreover, they can understand the function of language and can use it in real communicational environment.In the reading teaching of the Senior English (NSEFC) SB2 Unit 2-The Olympic Games, we ask many questio