任务型教学法在初中英语听力教学中的应用

任务型教学法在初中英语听力教学中的应用【摘要】在日常交际中，听占有十分重要的地位。Rost认为，语言习得主要通过获得大量的可理解输入来实现，而听是获得可理解语言输入的最重要的渠道。但是，目前我国的初中英语听力教学仍不尽人意，还存在着许多问题。任务型教学是以具体的任务为学习动机或动力，以完成任务的过程为学习的过程，以展示任务成果的方式来体现教学成就的一种教学方法。本研究通过课堂观察和教学进一步探讨了任务型教学应用于初中听力教学。基于Willis的任务型教学模式和Underwood的听力教学模式理论，笔者将两者结合并应用于初中听力教学中，建立了任务型听力教学模式，将任务型教学法应用于听力教学中。试图解决现阶段初中英语听力教学中存在的两个主要问题：第一，听力教材中的问题；第二，教学模式单一的问题。针对第一个问题，本研究按照任务型教学法中任务设计的原则，重新整合教材并设计多种真适实可行的学习任务，从而解决教材中部分内容过难学生不易完成、不感兴趣等问题。第二个问题的解决也就是任务型教学法的应用。本研究将任务划分为听前，听中，以及听后三个部分。每一部分按照任务设计的原则安排了多项任务，从而解决了传统听力教学模式单一的问题。通过任务型教学法在听力教学中的应用，作者希望为初中英语听力教师提供些许参考，最终对英语听力教学产生帮助，从而提高听力课堂的有效性。 【关键词】任务；任务型教学法；英语听力教学iCONTENTSAbstracti 摘要ii I. Introduction1II. Literature review12.1 The studies of listening comprehension12.2 The studies of the application of Task-Based Approach to listening2III. The current problems in English listening teaching33.1 The problems of teaching materials43.2 The problems of classroom teaching models4IV. The Application of the Task-Based Approach to the English Listening Class54.1The Principles for designing tasks in listening54.2 The steps for designing task-based teaching model in listening class6V. Conclusion10References11Acknowledgments13The Application of “Task-Based Approach” to the Listening Class in Junior High School.IntroductionThere are four abilities in the acquisition of language, which are listening, speaking, reading and writing, but listening is the most difficult one among them. Most students are not interested in it, and at the same time, most students always lose confidence in dealing with the listening comprehension questions, because they think that their English is very poor. Therefore, its necessary to review the current situation and existing problems of listening comprehension and combine the Task-Based Approach with the English Listening teaching. The Task-Based Approach as a new teaching approach of language appeared in the western world in the 1980s, and it emphasizes learning by doing. Compared with traditional teaching methods, the Task-Based Approach can not only motivate the students interest, but can also help students to improve their English listening ability in the process of learning English. And then by this approach the students learning efficiency and English application ability can be improved through cooperative learning and self-learning.II. Literature review2.1The studies of listening comprehensionListening is a cognitive activity and language skills, and plays an important role in our daily life and language learning, and at the same time, listening comprehension has increasingly become an important criterion to measure the level of learners language study (Long, 1993). But according to our longtime observation and study on the teaching practice, the traditional English listening teaching methods used in china inhibit the students listening ability to improve. Listening comprehension research includes five aspects, they are listening materials, speakers, tasks, learners and listening processes (Richards and Platt, 1992). The degree of difficulty about the listening material and listeners familiarity; the rate of speech, voice, expression of speakers ; the type of listening task; the internal and2External factors of learners; the processes of listening comprehension also can affect learners to understand the listening materials. Among them, there are some important aspects to affect listening, such as the level of language, memory, emotional factors, and background knowledge of learners. The most important thing is the study of the process of listening comprehension, which is an internal mental process, and the way learners to deal with language inputting and understanding it. The researchers of domestic and abroad reached a consensus in this area and hold that the process of language understanding is a process of language producing, and this process includes three stages, which are perception, resolution and application. At the perception stage, the input language is analysised and synthesised preliminary by the brain. At the resolving stage, the brain produces a series of proposition which is the foundation of listening comprehension. At the application stage, the new semantics proposition activates the existing propositions and knowledge in the brain which can form the updated discourse meaning and knowledge systems. The psychological factors are very important for students to understand the listening materials, and these factors are showed through the attitude of learners, such as their interest, self-confidence, the level of effort and anxiety. Learners mental states will affect their learning behavior and learning result directly. Negative mental states, such as anxiety, tension, slack, disgust, fear, and so on, will hinder their learning potential to perform normally. In order to help students overcome the negative sentiment in the listening process, cultivating their learning interest and making them in a good mental state is a good way. Therefore, teachers should analyze the reasons why students have so many negative emotions in their teaching practice, and also teacher should create a relaxed and positive atmosphere for students to learn and activate students learning interests so that they always put them in a state of excitement.2.2 The studies of the application of Task-Based Approach to listening classThe Task-Based Approach appeared in the 1980s. It aims to language teaching real and classroom socialization. The Task-Based Approach is a task or an activity for a particular purpose (Crookes, 1989). In educational curricula, it is mainly used to collect data for research. In the process of language learning, task is a communication activity, and also a kind of language practice which emphasizes “learning by doing. The core of the Task-Based Approach is the learner-centered and people-oriented, and the theoretical basis is the constructivist.The task is composed of five parts, which are the teaching aims, inputs, forms of activities, the role of teachers and students, and the environment (Nunan, 1989). The Task-Based Approach emphasizes that learners not only focus on the language, but also focus on the process of language learning, and it emphasizes the interaction and cooperation in the process of learning, and also emphasizes the process and results. Task-Based Approach use the relatively realistic tasks to make students complete the task in group discussion or role-playing and other activities, and then strengthen the interaction between teachers and students, motivate students learning interest, mobilize the students positive emotional factors, and cultivate students awareness and cognitive abilities. At the same time, Task-Based approach also inspires the students to share their individual experience since they have to complete their task in groups, and then train them to understand, operate and use language. Extensive, in-depth, and complex language using has been fully reflected through the process of completing a task. Therefore, the Task-Based Approach has its own unique merits from its teaching aims or from its teaching model, because the Task-Based Approach not only has the advantages of traditional teaching methods but also has the advantages of the communicative teaching approach. There are three stages of the Task-Based Approach, which are pre-task, task-cycle and post-task (Willis, 1996). The pre-task is the preparation stage; the task-cycle is the implementation stage, and post-task is the acceptance and improvement stage. And these three stages influence with each other. .The current problems in English listening teachingFor the current application of Task-Based Approach, the first task is to find the problems of the listening teaching, which are two major problems in the teaching of learning comprehension. One is in the materials, the other is in the teaching models.3.1 The problems in teaching materialsIn the listening teaching of English in junior high school, the most important problem that troubles teachers lies in the listening materials. And there are two main problems in the listening materials. Firstly, the listening materials usually used by teachers are written language rather than spoken English, so it is difficult for English learners to understand. Certainly, one can not deny that there is a lot of spontaneous teacher-talk during class, but it is not enough to improve learners English listening ability. Secondly, the contents of the materials often do not match the real life. Many listening comprehension books usually include many long passages rather than dialogue and most of them beyond the learners ability. After listening, they have to do some comprehension exercises, usually multiple-choice. This teaching approach provides a certain type of practice, but it is not related to our real life. So the course of the listening comprehension is so boring to students. There is no doubt that the English leaner can not improve their listening ability. 3.2 The Problems of Classroom Teaching ModelIn junior high school, most teachers usually prepare listening materials before starting listening class. They usually use a similar way to teach, they often play the tape several times, if students can not understand or memory the main idea of the listening materials, teachers often repeat the materials again and again. And teachers help students by explaining the difficult sentences. Finally, teachers usually check and correct the answers students have done, this is not a class of listening but a class of testing students memory, so most of the students are very tired after class. These methods of teaching not only fail to improve students listening ability but also make them lose confidence and interest of listening. This kind of class ignores students motivation to learn, and never be able to arouse students interest, also depresses the atmosphere and the fillings of students. The most important problem is that students do not have any chance to communicate in natural languages, let alone knowing about the characteristics about real-life communication. From the method of teaching their teacher using, students dont get any comments from their teacher, as a result this teaching method is not satisfied by many English learners. The Application of the Task-Based Approach to the English Listening ClassThere are many problems about English listening teaching, especially in rural areas. To solve these problems the Task-Based Approach should be applied to the English listening class. This teaching approach is very important and useful to arouse English teachers awareness in order to change these old methods and improve the level of teaching. Task-Based Approach claims that effective learning is not in instruction, but experiential. Task-Based Language Teaching is characterized as collaboration, authenticity, focusing on process and students participation, and learning by using it, which is just a sign of modern education (Wang Yanghong, 2004:33-50).4.1 The principles for designing tasks in listeningIf the teachers want to use the Task-Based Approach in English teaching, they must solve the problem about the teaching materials, and this thesis will introduce three principles for designing of listening tasks.4.1.1 The task should be funOne of the advantages of Task-Based Approach is using the interesting communicative activities to stimulate students learning enthusiasm. Therefore, in order to improve the students English listening ability, teachers usually design a lot of fun tasks for them, which can arouse students motivation of learning. Usually, these interesting games are easy to design. For example, many teacher use pictures and let students describe them before listening, also some teacher permit students to communicate freely in class. These activities are very useful for teacher to help students improve their English learning ability.4.1.2 The difficulty level of tasks should be appropriateThe difficulty level of tasks should be appropriate. If the difficulty level of the task is beyond the students ability, it will lead to the entire classroom teaching fail, and then dampen the learners enthusiasm. Therefore, when teachers design the listening tasks, the difficulty level is very important. There is a lot of factors that can affect the listening difficulty level, but they often fall into three types:（1）The type of language used. The contents of the listening materials should match the real life. Therefore teacher should use the spoken language rather than written language in class. (2) The purpose for listening. Teachers should prepare some questions for students before listening, and ask students to finish them after listening. (3) The context of listening. Many students cant understand the listening material because of without background knowledge. So teachers should provide enough background information to students. 4.1.3 Learning by DoingActually, learning by doing is gaining knowledge from practice, which emphasizes to take students as a center. Teachers should guide the students to learn the language by performing a specific task. Whats more, student can achieve and enrich the learning experiences and strategies through designing some special-purpose language activities and completing some specific communicative tasks. Therefore, they can enjoy the joy of success. Students have to master the language used in the classroom communication, although they still have to learn grammar and memorizing vocabulary. If one wants to master the knowledge of the language, he/she should depend on himself, rather than teachers. Long(1933) believe that “ a Task-Based Approach sees the language process as one of learning through doingit is primarily engaging in meaning that the students system is encouraged to develop”. 4.2 The steps for designing task-based teaching model in listening classThe traditional model of teaching has affected the validity of the listening class. The nature of the Task-Based Learning is the process of learning by doing, and the students are engaged in natural language learning through experience and expectation. In the process of listening, what teacher needs to do first is to provide opportunities and designing process. And teachers have to make the process of leaning more effective, in different stages, students can master certain skills of learning by with a specific purpose and working in different sub-tasks. According to the listening teaching model of Underwoods and Willis model of the task-based instruction, the author tries to establish a task-based listening teaching model. Taking “Unit 8, anything else?” as an example (Chinese Ministry of Education, 2002)4.2.1 Pre-listening stageThe principal function of tasks and exercises at this stage is to provide orientation to the input topic and to activate learners own knowledge and frames of reference ( Keith and Helen, 2002:321-328). This target can be achieved through a variety of ways: using pictures, open discussion, reading a text on the same subject, prediction of the content, or doing some language practice, such as identifying related words or a group of pre-listening problems. In addition, teachers may also need to introduce a number of important topics related words and phrases which the leaner dont know before. The first and foremost, teacher have to come up with an interesting topic which is related to the task. The teachers should know that all the students understand what the task involves and what its goal is.At this stage, Wang (2002) provides students with the following activities to finish.(1) Prediction Studies show that good learners usually have good prediction. In order to help students become good listeners, the teachers try to help the learners become better predictors. This teaching method can help the students to improve their ability of listening. In order to improve the students listening ability, teachers often give students some topics to discuss before start listening, and teachers usually use different activities to encourage students predicting what they will listen to. Many times, the listening materials contain some pictures. Students can usually predict about what they will listen to according to them .(2) Set the Scene Another type of pre-reading activities for students is to set the scene. It is more difficult to leaner to listen to in class than in real life. Because in our daily life, we know clearly what we talk and why we talk when we communicate with each other. However, in the classroom, we just passively listen to a lot of listening material and it does not match to real life, so it is difficult for us to understand. Therefore, teacher should provide enough background information to the English learners to activate the schema of the learners, so the students will prepare to understand what they will listen to. For example, teacher provides a picture to students, and asks them to look at it. By doing so, the schema of related scene can be activated, and thus will make the listening task easier.4.2.2 while-listening stage Crookes argues that the while-listening stage is the most difficult for the teacher to control. Because at this stage students can came across many difficulties, for example, they dont understand what they have listened to, so some student may give up going on listening. However, if the teacher provides students with some background information, students will not lose confidence while listening. Another important thing is that if the teacher provides students with a goal or task it can help the learners to focus on the listening materials. Teacher should design different kinds of tasks for students while they are listening to a passage. A few e