Task—based Approach in Chinese Students’ Oral English Teaching

Many Chinese students may successfully finish listening， reading and writing parts in English examination， but they fail to communicate with English-speaking people. Exam-oriented education which has been prevailing in China for many years may shoulder the responsibility of it. This situation also shows that teachers should adopt better teaching approach to improve students’ oral English. Having been used by Chinese English teachers for many years， a traditional teaching approach， also named PPP teaching approach due to its content of presentation， practice and production， may not meet the need of second language acquisition.

In recent years， there has been a trend of implementing Task-based Approach （TBA） in language teaching class. TBA， put forward by Prabhu in 1983， advocates that students should serve as the main body in the process of teaching and learning， emphasizing the principle of “learning by doing”. By accomplishing various kinds of tasks designed by teachers， students can achieve the goal of mastering various language skills. There are many scholars have enriched its conception. N. Prabhu conducted the Bangalore Project in southern India in 1979. J. Yalden enacted the syllabus of TBA and introduced the syllabus in Principles of Course Design for Language Teaching in 1987. C. Candlin and D. Murphy published Language Learning Tasks in 1987. D.Nunan published Designing Tasks for the Communicative Classroom in 1989.

Current Situation of Chinese Students Oral English

Traditional teaching approach can’t meet the requirement of second language acquisition in China any more. Chen Lijuan made a research in Yangzhou University to survey the t oral English situation among freshmen in universities. She gave out 300 questionnaires containing the factors impeding English learning， the main way of learning English and the teaching way methods. The conclusion shows that 85 percent of the students admit that they have low reaction speed within English conversation and more than 75 percent of the students express that they can’t communicate with foreigners in English， and it also shows that there is low efficiency in students’ oral English in China. This conclusion shows that English teaching calls for the better teaching approach to improve students’ speaking ability.

The reason why this situation exists is that exam-oriented education has been prevailing in China for many years. First， only a very small number of English examination in China include oral English test. Catering for exam-oriented education， the English teachers pay more attention to grammar and vocabulary teaching， neglecting oral English practice. Second， the Chinese student shoulder so heavy the burden of study that they don’t have many chances to use their oral English outside the school. Last， the method that many English teachers use is PPP teaching approach， and the process of PPP teaching approach contains that the teacher presents the key knowledge of the text， the students grasp this key knowledge by practicing and the students show their “production” by the examination scores. Even PPP teaching approach can impart the text knowledge， it is hard for students to use what they learn in the class to communicate with others. Baxter criticizes that the PPP teaching approach only can transfer the knowledge from teacher’s teaching plan to student’s notebook. （Baxter A.1998）

Adoption of Task-based Approach to Improve Students’ Oral English

TBA can work better in improving senior students’ oral English than PPP teaching approach. PPP teaching approach typically aims at a narrowly predetermined set of objectives and procedures for the teacher， and is usually seen and discussed from the teachers’ point of view（Willis，1996：137）. TBA， a variation of communicative language approach， aims to put communicative language teaching theory into practice. Under these tasks， students have to speak English as well as complete the class tasks by using English to communicating with other. Compared with PPP teaching approach， TBA pays more attention to the oral English teaching and learning in the class.

Nowadays， there are also many insufficiencies of its implementation. First， what the role the teachers play in the class is the designer of the task， the controller of the class and the observer of the students， not only the person who teach the knowledge. And then， TBA gives us a new perspective of oral English learning and teaching， but it does not mean that we only can use tasks to organize teaching strategies to improve students’ oral English.

Conclusion

TBA can better improve Chinese students’ oral English than PPP teaching approach. TBA brings a new mode to improve students’ oral English under the exam-oriented education in China. TBA， a kind of advanced teaching mode， will help to solve the disadvantages of current English education mode. In the task-based classroom， students are no longer the silent listeners， but organizers and participants， which encourages students’ learning enthusiasm. Students can practice their oral English and solve the problem of study by information collection， data analysis and planning approach. But we should not stop the exploration of new teaching approach. The teachers and scholars should look for more teaching approach to enrich our class and fuel the improvement of oral English teaching.

Reference：

[1] Baxter A.1998.“input+1”versus “intake+？”： product and process in TEFL today.The Journal （9） April 1998.

[2] Krashen， S.D.1982.“Second Language Acquisition Theory”.In Principles and Practice in Second Language Acquisition. London： Pergamon Press.

[3] Willis， J （1996）. A Flexible Framework for， Task-based Learning， In Willis， JWillis， D Challenge and Change in Language Teaching Macmlillan Publishers Limited， UK.

[4]陳麗娟.當代大學生英語口語現狀——以揚州大學為例[J].教師教育論壇，2012（12）.