Chapter One Literature Review
1.1 Task
The concept of “task” is central to Task-based Language Teaching , thus the goodinterpretation of the term “task” helps know TBLT well. Moreover, the componentsand types of the task are crucial to help understand the task itself and the essence ofTBLT as well. Experts and scholars who advocate TBLT define the term “task” from differentangles. Among the various definitions, the following ones are typical.Michael Long is one of the scholars who study TBLT at an earlier time. As hepoints out, “A task is a piece of work undertaken for oneself or for others, freely or forsome 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, … In otherwords, by ‘task’ is meant the hundred and one things people do in everyday life, atwork, at play, and in between” (Long, 1985:89). According to Long’s way of defining“task”, tasks are big or small things people need to do in reality. And this kind of tasksis in the literature considered as target tasks or real-world tasks which are in contrast with pedagogical tasks that serve as the focus of classroom foreign language teaching.Concerning pedagogical tasks, Richards, Platt and Weber (1985) deem that a taskis an activity or action that students implement based on processing or interpretinglanguage, such as drawing a map while listening to the order. Generally, a taskrequires teachers to identify what is supposed to represent the successful completionof it.
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1.2 Task-based Language Teaching (TBLT)
In Longman Dictionary of Language Teaching and Applied Linguistics (3rdedition), Task-based Language Teaching refers to “a teaching approach based on theuse of communicative and interactive tasks as the central units for the planning anddelivery of instruction” (Richards, Schmidt and Kendrick et al., 2005:694).Taking into consideration the reality of English teaching in our country, GongYafu and Luo Shaoxian (2006) note that TBLT focuses on the simulation of all kindsof things that will be done by using the language in the real world as well as on theintegration of teachers’ language teaching in the classroom and learners’ language usein daily life. In addition, TBLT is considered to emphasize the procedure that students learnand acquire the target language through the classroom activities in the form ofaccepting tasks, implementing tasks and checking tasks as well as students’autonomous and cooperative learning which regards achieving tasks as the surfacepurpose and acquiring the target language as the deep purpose (Xiao Liquan, 2005).To sum up, Task-based Language Teaching is to have students acquire and uselanguage in the process of doing things.
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Chapter Two Research Methodology
2.1 Research Questions
Based on the basic elements and aspects of Task-based Language Teaching aswell as the present situation of English intensive reading class at Guanghua College ofChangchun University, this chapter offers the overall framework of how the empiricalstudy is carried out, including research questions, research subjects, researchinstruments, research procedure and data collection, in order to ascertain what effectsTBLT has exerted on students’ English learning. This research intends to explore how the application of TBLT to classroomteaching affects college students’ English learning, whether or not TBLT is effectiveand what feedback students make on this teaching approach. To put it morespecifically, the research aims to address the following questions:1. How do students evaluate college English intensive reading class of TBLTimplementation?2. What effects does TBLT have on students’ English learning?
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2.2 Research Subjects
The research subjects are comprised of two classes with the total number of 74students majoring in accounting at Guanghua College of Changchun University wherethe author has undertaken teaching practice since 2006. The two classes in Grade2012 are involved in the sixteen-week empirical research conducted by the author,among which Class 12415 consisting of 37 students is treated as the experimentalclass (EC) under the guidance of TBLT and Class 12416 consisting of 37 students isserved as the control class (CC) that follows the traditionalPresentation-Practice-Production (P-P-P) teaching model. Apart from that, the authorhas been the two classes’ teacher of English intensive reading class as well, whichprovides a good opportunity for the author to collect the first-hand materials andinformation for this study. This research aims to achieve the valid and reliable results after the experiment,present explicit explanations of the study, and draw some conclusions fromdiscussions, therefore research instruments such as tests, questionnaires andinterviews are deployed with the aid of SPSS software (version 19) for bothquantitative and qualitative analysis.
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Chapter Three Data Analyses and Discussions .........33
3.1 Analysis of Tests.........33
3.1.1 Analysis of the Pre-test........33
3.1.2 Analysis of the Post-test ......33
3.1.3 Comparison of the Pre-test and Post-test.....34
3.2 Analysis of Questionnaires ...........36
3.2.1 Analysis of Questionnaire I .......36
3.2.2 Analysis of Questionnaire II......39
3.3 Analysis of Interviews ......41
Conclusion ...........43
Major Findings............43
Pedagogical Implications........44
Limitations and Suggestions for Further Study....45
Chapter Three Data Analyses and Discussions
3.1 Analysis of Tests
After the completion of scores obtained from the pre-test and post-test, it is timeto analyze the data to examine what results the author has arrived at based on thequantitative analysis. The results are listed below in the form of tables. From the table listed above, it can be seen that the average score and standarddeviation (S.D.) of the two classes are very close. In addition, the Significance(2-tailed) value is .556 which exceeds the criterion measure 0.05. All the resultsindicate that the two classes’ English proficiency is at a similar level and there is not abig difference between them at the beginning of this experiment. As a result, it isreasonable and appropriate to single out students in these two classes as the researchsubjects, and it is feasible to carry out a sixteen-week empirical study of Task-basedLanguage Teaching in the experimental class.
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Conclusion
Based on the experimental process, explicit data analyses and thoroughdiscussions, a few major findings of this research are concluded as follows:Firstly, TBLT can develop both students’ communicative competence andlinguistic competence. In the classroom instruction of TBLT model, a balance isstruck between meaning and form for the purpose of coping with the problem that acertain number of students can neither air their meaning fluently nor appropriatelyeven at the college level, in contrast to the traditional English teaching classroomwhere teachers attach great importance to language form such as detailed grammarinstruction without paying attention to language use in real-life contexts or thecommunicative classroom where teachers lay much emphasis on expressing meaningsat the cost of neglecting language accuracy. Through the language activation of thepre-task phase and careful preparation for the task cycle, students have a much morevaried exposure to speaking the target language, which can improve their oral skills.With the analysis and exercise of the language focus, students become familiar withlanguage forms. The integral instruction of language function and language structureprovided by TBLT is beneficial to students’ overall growth in language use, which hasbeen proved by their post-test scores and oral presentation in class.
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Reference (omitted)
