The Application of Task—basedApproach in Listening Teaching

陈志媛

Abstract： In the language learning process， listening is an important means to consolidating knowledge of the language and developing language skills. However， teaching of English listening has always been the weakness.

This paper took high school students of Yinghua High School as subjects， conducted a survey about The Application of Task-based Approach in Listening Teaching. This paper is trying to explore the existing problems of English listening teaching by the questionnaires. And through the applied research of task-based approach in English Listening， verify that using task—based approach reasonably is helpful to improve students English listening level. And based on the specific implementation of the task-based approach in listening teaching， this paper made a tentative discussion.

Key words： Task， Task—Based Approach， Listening Teaching

摘 要：在语言学习过程中，听是巩固语言知识，提高语言能力的一种重要手段。然而，大学英语听力一直都是大学英语教学中的薄弱环节。

针对这些问题，本文以英华附高学生为例，进行一项关于《任务型教学法在高中英语听力课程中的应用》的调查，通过问卷，进一步探寻目前我国高中英语听力教学中存在的问题，并通过任务型教学法在高中英语听力课堂中的应用研究，证实了在高中英语听力课程中，合理地运用任务型教学法有助于提高学生的英语听力水平。最后，本文就任务型教学法在听力教学中的具体实施做了尝试性的论述。

关键词：任务；任务型教学法；听力教学

“Task—Based Language Teaching （TBLT） refers to an approach based on the use of tasks as the core unit of planning and instruction in language teaching” [1].In fact， it is an extension of Communicative Language Teaching. Precisely speaking， TBLT is a learning strategy of collection of tasks.

In my opinion， Task-based approach is not only a teaching method， but also a teaching mode. The purpose of TBLT is to stimulate students interest in learning， to improve students learning strategies and to enhance students abilities to learn languages. Task-Based approach penetrates a variety of activities into the knowledge of language， and students can learn from the activity of knowledge and skills. In listening teaching， the design of the tasks is important. Task is not equal to exercise or practice. The purpose of designing tasks is to create an environment for learning language and discussion.

The general situation of students is that both starting point and English language foundation are low， and reading and listening comprehension skills are of imbalances. Lots of teachers still use traditional methods to teach listening， which is not conductive to improving students' listening comprehension ability. The traditional teaching method is a kind of student-centered approach. It follows the process of “review the old courses-consolidate a new lesson-explain the new courses——assign homework”. This antiquated procedures， basically considered from the perspective of the classroom and embody the teaching procedure and the law of school teachers， but ignored the students' initiative to learn. For listening level difference， there are many causes. Not only students own reasons， but also external teaching conditions， and the quality of teachers and other objective reasons.

There are some learners own factors： “First， students do not develop good study habits which include that：1，some students have never done listening in high school；2.students remember the words， phrases rely on visual memory rather than auditory memory， just remember its symbol image， so students like reciting words instead of dictation； 3.students ignore the acquisition of coherent speck” [2] ；4. students spend scant time on listening. Second， they are lack of the relevant background knowledge in listening. Third， most of the students are not interested in English. Fourth， their psychological factors barriers.

There are also other reasons.1.Textbooks， teaching content can not meet the requirements of social development and practical application. 2.with monotonous teaching mode， outdated teaching methods， students are lack of communicative environment.3.The traditional teaching method does not pay attention to cultivate students' ability to use English for interactive activities， ignore the role of the context and environment on listening comprehension， also ignore the culture of listening strategies. It considers listening as a separate skill. It conducts limited training with tedious way. So that would weaken students' interest in learning English.

Based on the investigation of high school students， we try to explore the teaching English listening existing problems and investigate that the situation of TBLT application， also to further explore the task-based approach in English class implementation， thereby increasing students' interest and enhance their listening level. The subjects of the research are 200 students. They were picked out optionally.

The analysis of questionnaire was conducted in the YingHua High School. The questionnaire composed by 33 questions， which aim to survey the problems of listening teaching in high school and if the students can benefit from the TBLT and to know more about the teaching methods that the teachers are using.

From the questionnaires， we can find some problems in English listening， which are showed as follows：1.Most of the students are not interested in learning English， also they seldom practice English. 2.Poor vocabulary and grammar impose negative influence on understanding listening content. While in listening class， 60% students hold that they listen contents， 23% students thought that they listen vocabulary， 19% sentences. Among this， 69% students have great difficulties in vocabulary and comprehension. 3.Students do not work with the teacher. From the questionnaires， we can see that before the class， teachers will give some tasks to students. It is easy to see that giving tasks to students will help their learning， but the students dont cooperate. What they have done would have a great influence to class. 4.On listening class， the teachers rarely assign tasks， just keep practicing listening. The input and output of language are of imbalance. According to the research， we can draw a conclusion that most teachers rarely use task-based approach in listening teaching， actually assigning tasks reasonably will help students improve their language learning， especially speaking， listening and vocabulary.

There are three stages for the TBLT in English learning： pre-listening， while-listening， post-listening. Each stage should have different activities. This paper will take some examples as follows：

Pre-listening

The preparation before listening is of importance .According to the research， we can find that while listening， 55.3% students felt nervous .The psychological barriers would influence the quality of listening. So it is necessary to assign tasks to help students build up confidence.

Activities for pre-listening Stage

The activities should not be difficult. If too difficult， it would weaken students interests and confidence. Teachers should assign tasks such as look up the topic-related words， comprehend the background， set the frame and so on. This tasks should be assigned before class， and in the first part of the lesson， there is a part for warming up.

1.Predicting. As a teacher of listening， we have the responsibility to help students to become a good predictor. There are a lot of activities that can used to encourage students to predict the content of what they are going to listen. For example， to describe pictures， guess the topic， try to answer the question.

2.Activating Existing Knowledge. Students should be asked the question： what do you know about the topic. The teachers and students can see that what information they need in order to get from the passage. In this activity， students can open their mouths and share their opinions and experience with the teacher and classmates. At the same time， they can practice speaking.

3.Setting the scene. Listening to passages in the classroom can be more difficult than listening in real life because of the lack of context. So as a teacher， we should provide the background information to activate your learners schema and with your help， your students will be better prepared to what they going to hear[3].

At this stage， students should coordinate teacher to complete the tasks before the class， and actively cooperate with the teachers to do the warming-up tasks.

While-listening

This stage is the most important part in listening class， also is the most difficult to control. But in TBLT， it should be teacher-centered. According to the research， 73.3% students hold the opinion that classroom atmosphere would affect the interest in learning， and 22.7% hold that classroom atmosphere is not so much with their learning. So the tasks should be designed based on the learners language ability. In my opinion， firstly， choosing appropriate materials is important. Although school have given fixed textbooks， but the contents of textbooks does not meet the needs of students social communication. So， the teacher needs to select appropriate materials according to students' abilities. And setting some spoken tasks of texts-related is necessary. That not only can practice listening， but also improve speaking levels.

Activities for while-listening Stage

Through the questionnaire， we can see that 47.3% teachers would give a question to students to discuss， and make them find the solution.23.3% teachers would divide students into several groups to change information and then use the information to accomplish the tasks. The purpose of activities of this stage is to help students complete listening better， to make students process the information actively.

1.Listen and tick. It is the most commonly used method. The teachers ask the students to tick what they hear. This would make listening easier.

2.Listen and fill. Ask students to complete a chart， a map and so on after they finish their first listening.

3.Listen and take notes. This activity needs students to write down the key words while they are listening， for example， the names， the features of the person， the place， the thing， etc.

4.Listen and draw. This is an interesting activity. Students can draw according to what they hear.

The tasks should not be too difficult to finish. At the same time， teacher should arrange the time legitimately. Generally speaking， it can be 5-10 minutes. At this stage， students should cooperate with their partners or the group members to finish the tasks. No matter which form they like， what result it will be， all of students should participate positively. From the questionnaire， we can see that in the process of finishing tasks， 15.3% students like finishing them by themselves， 40% like doing it with their partners， 42% of them can either finish by themselves or with their companions together. But actually， the activities of this stage should be better done in the form of groups， because the design of activities is to make each student can participate and through the activities to acquire the knowledge and improve their language skills.

Post-listening

At this stage， teachers can check the students what they have learnt， but designing the tasks well is also important. This stage， teachers should help students to summarize what they have learnt. And from the feedback， teachers can see the shortcoming and according to these shortcomings， teachers can design some tasks to help them strengthen and consolidate their learning. Evaluating is commonly used in post-listening stage. On the one hand， students can change their learning strategies； on the other hand， teachers can know the learning circumstances of the students and do a better design of the tasks.

Activities for post-listening Stage：

1.Answer open-ended questions. This kind of Activities make students open their mind and open their mouths. Through their answers， teachers can see their ways of thinking. Small-groups discussions can be organized to work on such questions.

2.Do a role play. This is an interesting activity. Based on what the learners listen to， ask them to do a role play to consolidate both listening and speaking.

3.Write on the same theme. Based on the notes and discussion， students should write an article on the same theme [4].

To sum up， Task-based language teaching approach needs high qualities of English teachers， such as cultural qualities， language skills， teaching skills， and language teaching theories. Single knowledge structure can not meet the needs of the task-based approach. So teachers need to strengthen their quality， and improve teaching methods.

In the last part of this paper， many impressive facts are there need to be stated. At present， there are still many problems in listening of college English teaching .Students are lack of interest in English learning； Most of the teachers still use the traditional teaching methods ；The atmosphere of class is dull，etc. In order to verify these problems， this paper had done a questionnaire survey about The Application of Task-based Approach in Listening Teaching Of English， and tried to discuss the application of task-based approach in listening teaching of college English， and then tried to analyze the effectiveness of the implementation of TBLT. Furthermore， this paper attended to prove that using task-based method reasonably can help teachers increase the quality of teaching， can stimulate students' interest in learning and help students improve their abilities of listening comprehension.

Reference：

1.Jack C. Richards， Theodore S. Rodgers.语言教学的流派.外语教学出版社，剑桥大学出版社，2013.

2.王朝晖.大学英语教学研究初探.中央民族大学出版社，2010.

3.王蔷.英语教学法教程.高等教育出版社，2013：146-148.

4.王蔷.英语教学法教程.高等教育出版社，2013：71.

（作者单位：广西英华国际职业学院附属中学）