AStudyoftheApplicationofTask―basedApproachintheOralEnglishTeaching

【Abstract】Oral English is considered as one of the most important language skills for language learners.However，for a long time，English speaking teaching in senior high school has been neglected for a few reasons.The essay will reveal the present situation and its problems of oral English teaching in senior high schools.

【Key words】Task-based Approach； Oral English teaching； Senior high school

Ⅰ.Related Research on Task-based Approach

Task-based Language Teaching（referred TBLT）emerged in the 1980s.In 1983，the official language educators Prabhu proposes task-based teaching methods.The central idea of this approach is the“learning by doing”and“learning by using”.Prabhu Bangalore in southern India conducted a five-year experiment（The Project of Bangalore）.The experiment provided a variety of task types.It turned learning content into a variety of communicative tasks.Students learn in the process of completing the task.

Ⅱ.Task-based Approach

Task-based learning，which according to（H.Douglas Brown，2001）arises in the 1 980s，is one of the main approaches of CLT（Communicative Language Teaching）.In the task-based learning and teaching，a certain task or tasks which people will meet in reality will be focused.These tasks motivate learning；the process of accomplishing these tasks is actually the learning process：and how well the tasks are completed will determined the evaluation of the learning and teaching.

（1）Student-centeredness. Students’mastery of how to use a language should always be aware by the teachers while they plan a lesson.The teacher should also encourage student to involve in the task activities.

（2）Meaning―focused instead of form―focused.A certain task is accomplished only when students use certain language forms to communicate meaningfully with others.The students don’t need to note down the grammar rules and memorize them any more.

Ⅲ.Application of Task-Based Approach to Senior High School Oral English Teaching

A.Principles of Task-based Approach Applied to Senior High School Oral English Teaching.There are some principles that should be followed by teachers in oral English teaching.Rod Ellis（2003）proposes a set of principle task-based instruction：

Principle l：“Ensure all appropriate level of task difficulty.”Ensuring that a task is pitched at all appropriate level of difficulty is not just a matter of coupe design.Teachers can adjust the difficulty of a task methodologically（e.g.by incorporating a pre-task phase into the lesson）and teachers can also help students possess the necessary strategies to engage in task-based interaction.

Principle 2：“Develop all appropriate orientation to performing the task in the students.”Students need to be made aware of why they are being asked to perform tasks.They need to treat them seriously not just as‘fun’.

B.Skills Applications of Task-based Approach to Senior High School Oral English Teaching

a.Skills of Asking and Answering.In traditional oral English practice，asking questions is teachers who often ask questions and students are responsible for answering them，It has neglected students’ ability of asking questions.In fact，asking questions is an effective way of spoken language training because knowing how to ask can be beneficial to how to answer.

b.Skills of Conversation.The conversation is important to the training of oral English.Students should know how to converse by the means of having conversation.There are two ways of improving the ability to converse.One way is group talk.In the classroom，students should practice dialogue in groups.It is better if there are two students in a group.Before practicing the dialogue，students should read the dialogue as fluently as possible and then they can change topics.

c.Retelling.Retell is an effective way of training spoken language.Sometimes，students can recite a text fluently.However，when you ask them what the main idea of the text，they fail to answer it.The reason is that they haven’t mastered the essence and method of retelling.Before retelling a paragraph，they should first make a paraphrase of it.

Ⅳ.Conclusion

Language teaching is a complex system. It is related to society，culture，linguistics，psycho-linguistics，teaching theory and so on.This essay has only covered part of the problems in senior high school English teaching.Task-based approach has shown a direction for the teaching of English but how to effectively employ it remains a problem.

References：

[1]Breen.M，Learner Contributions to Task Design In Language Learning Tasks，Candlin，C and Morphy，D（eds），23-26.Englewood Cliffs，NJ：Prentice Hall，1987.

[2]Carless.D，Implementing Task-based Learning with young learners[J].ELT Journal，2002.

[3]Ellis，R.，Task-based language learning and teaching.New York：Oxford University Press.