A Research of Task—based Language Teaching Applied to the College Oral English Teaching

王景琦+祝菁

Abstract： Task-based Language Teaching has been greatly applied to college English teaching after the traditional “PPP” teaching approach. The key links in TBLT are assignment， development and inspection of tasks. With the main method， interactive communication， “students-centered ” is stressed， and students subjective dynamics is fully exerted. Class time can be effectively used and students communicative ability is cultivated with the improvement of oral expression ability.

Key words： TBLT； oral English； application

【中圖分类号】H319

I Introduction

With the increasing attention payed to college students oral English， students oral expression ability have been improved obviously， and their pronunciation and intonation is becoming more standard. However， comparing to reading and writing students oral English ability still has a lot room to improve. The traditional oral English teaching approaches are relatively dull， lacking rich content and are not suitable for students to master the language. Therefore， it is urgent to employ a new approach to the oral English teaching. Task-based Language Teaching is an effective teaching approach with advanced teaching principle and philosophy， which is very suitable for oral English teaching.

II Introduction of TBLT

Many researchers and teachers of the second/foreign language have been interested in task-based language teaching （TBLT） since the mid-1980s as a result of the widespread interest in the functional view and communicative language teaching.

For years， the traditional teaching approach PPP （present， practice and product） has been the mainstream in English teaching in China. After at least six years English learning， many college students are still less capable of listening and speaking though good at reading and writing under the PPP teaching style. Since the 1960s and 1970s， the communicative approach rises have drawn many researchers attention. Supporters of the communicative approach began to question if it was the traditional approach that made the foreign language learners deaf and dumb speakers. Whether we should maintain the traditional approach or turn to communicative approach was still a controversial issue. The traditional approach had many problems， while the communicative approach which was based on functional view was not perfect in language teaching either. It was also doubtful whether the learners accuracy in language could be improved under the lack of form-focused practices of communicative approach. Therefore， an approach that could make up for the weaknesses of the two methods was in need. TBLT was a development of communicative approach， while it distinguished itself by the optimal combination of grammar instruction and meaningful interaction.

In TBLT， the role of the teacher is to help the students to incorporate all activities together， and as for students， the process of finishing a task is the process of acquiring knowledge. Students play a major role in the classroom， and the teacher is an organizer or promoter who helps students to fulfill designated activities. Students become more independent and creative through chances they get to think and communicate. Free， easy and harmonious environment can increase students interest in acquiring and practicing what they are learning. Students are asked to use what they have learned to exchange opinions creatively and work with others cooperatively. Through communicative activities， students can learn more about appropriate language usage and can cultivate culture awareness. At the same time， cooperation can improve students communicative skills which will benefit them in the future.

III Nunans framework of TBLT

Some scholars （Skehan 34； Willis 96； Tomlinson 132； Nunan 19， etc.） bring forward their own frameworks for carrying out TBLT， among which the most prominent one is presented by Nunan， consisting of six steps. In this research， considering the actual implementation of TBLT， the teacher carried out four steps of Nunans framework.

Step 1： Schema building

According to Nunan， before introducing the topic， a number of schema-building exercises need to be developed in order to set the communicative context for the task.There is a lot work in this step， learning the key vocabulary and expressions students will meet when completing the task is an example. As in the case of food ordering， they may be given a number of food vocabularies for the task of ordering food in a restaurant in this step.

Step 2： Controlled practice

Doing controlled practice is the second step. In this step， the students are asked to use the vocabularies， structures， and functions in the target language to finish some controlled exercises. The typical way of doing this is to present a sample dialogue between two people consisting of the vocabularies， structures and functions they have learned in step one. The ways to implement this step include listening to the sample conversation， reading the dialogue and practicing in pairs. By this means， they get to see， hear and practice the target language in a communicative context early in the instructional cycle. Based on the sample dialogue， they are asked to make dialogues by using the words and structures in step one. In the end， they will be able to cover up the sample dialogue and do conversations without following the dialogue word for word. The target language within a communicative context has been introduced to the learners. In the final part of this step， they begin to develop a grade of communicative flexibility.

Step 3： Authentic listening practice

The students will do intensive listening practice in this step. There are various options for the listening materials， such as native speakers ordering food in a restaurant in a movie， a secretary taking messages for the boss. And their task would be to match what they have heard with the structures in step one. In this step， they could extend the target language from the sample dialogue in step two.

Step 4： Focus on linguistic elements

After getting used to the communicative context， the students begin to take part in a series of exercises， and the focus of this step is linguistic elements. A set of related target language linguistic points are presented in this stage. For example， the teacher presents the ways of talking about the menu with friends when one wants to order food. In a more traditional language teaching method like Presentation Practice Production approach， focus on linguistic elements usually occurs in step one， while in TBLT it is presented in the forth step. The reason for this change is that students have seen， heard and spoken the target language in a communicative context in the previous three steps， which will make it easier for them to understand the relationships between language form and meaning. It is better for students to master the linguistic knowledge in a communicative way rather than learning the language elements out of the communicative context.

Step 5： Provide freer practice

By now， the students have been working within the constrains of the language models offered by the teacher and the materials. They are encouraged to be as imaginative as possible to fulfill tasks. The students should be encouraged to complete the task without any preparation， using whatever language elements they have learnt. The teacher sets a communicative background for the students， and asks two or more students to finish the task instantaneously. When working with the task， some students may “stick to the script”， while others may seize the opportunity to make innovations. Those who innovate will produce what is known as “pushed out” because the learners are “pushed” to the edge of their linguistic competence. This will help them draw closer to the real conversation. In this process， they will create their own meanings and， at times， their own language. “To begin with， this will result in idiosyncratic interlanguage， but over time it will approximate more and more closely to native speaker norms as learners ‘grow into the language”.

Step 6： Introduce the pedagogical task

The final step in Nunans TBLT framework is the introduction of the pedagogical task itself.

IV An application of TBLT applying to oral English teaching

This was a unit of work based on Nunans six-step procedures presented in Chapter two. Because of the limitation of class time， step 3 （authentic listening practice） and step 6 （introduction of the pedagogical task） were omitted in class. Students were required to listen to the tape attached in the textbook after class.

Topic of this unit： ordering dishes in a restaurant

Step 1： Schema building

Before actually practicing ordering food， the teacher led the whole class to learn the key words of this unit. Pronunciation and explanation of the key words and phrases were included in this period. While learning the words， the teacher also introduced culture background of food ordering. Most of the words in this unit were related to food， which were hard to remember， so the students were asked to memorize the new words before class.

Step 2： Controlled practice

After the work in step 1， students were required to read a sample conversation about ordering food. Volunteers were needed to present the dialogue in front of the whole class. Next， the teacher picked up the key words， phrases and sentence structures for this topic， emphasizing the correct pronunciations and intonations. Then students were required to practice in pairs using the new words and sentence structures they have just learnd in step 1.

Step 3： Focus on linguistic elements

After step 1 and 2， the students have already got used to the authentic corpus of ordering food in communicative contexts. It would be easier for them to acquire the linguistic knowledge after getting used to the communicative environment. In step 3， the students should do a series of exercises to practice the linguistic elements. For example， in the text book New Person To Person， there are three language elements followed by the sample conversation， including 1） discussing the menu； 2） ordering； and 3） specifying wants. They were asked to do some controlled dialogue practices based on the linguistic elements in this step.

Step 4： Provide freer practice

So far， the students have worked with series of authentic corpus of ordering food from the sample dialogue and other materials， and have learned the linguistic knowledge of the topic in this unit. It was time to give them opportunities to do freer practice on what they have learned. The students were required to make a short performance under a general background offered by the teacher. For example， in this lesson， the teacher set a scene of a restaurant and gave the students some real menus. Some students acted as waiters or waitresses， and others as customers. They were going to give a performance about ordering food in a restaurant. In one group performance， while discussing the menu with each other， the customers asked the waiter more information about the dishes and ordered some food. The students tried to be more creative and make their performance interesting by using the knowledge they had learned.

V Conclusion

Comparing to traditional teaching approaches， TBLT stresses “students-centered”， and balances improvement of language manipulation and communicative ability. TBLT fits the purpose of quality-oriented education and the target of cultivating communicative talents with practical language ability. With convenience of computer-assisted language learning， TBLT has obvious advantage in college language teaching. Any teaching method is not omnipotent and perfect including TBLT， which requires researchers rethinking and redeveloping in practice.

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