1. Introduction 

Nowadays, with China’s entering WTO, the foreign trade and all kinds of business activities involving imports and exports are increasing by leaps and bounds. The more and more common use of English strengthens our awareness of the significance of English education, especially from junior high   schools.

New English Curriculum Standards (2003) requires that the emphasis should be put on adopting the approach of task-based teaching, promoting the students’ cultural consciousness and the ability of studying independently. It is also in the New English Curriculum Standard issued by the National Ministry of Education in the nationwide curriculum reform elementary and secondary schools that task-based language teaching is advocated.

The task-based language teaching, which has developed from the 1980s, has been proved the most effective approach to provide a helpful interactive framework and to make students active and interested in learning and to exploit their potential language ability. It can also evoke their energy to use the language creatively. This new trend is marked as developing the students’ ability of using language by teaching goal being recognized. The students need to acquire the language by finishing their own tasks. Task-based teaching approach first emerged in Hong Kong. And it has made great progress in China since 2001. It points out that the objective of the English course in secondary education is to change the traditional teaching from overemphasizing grammar and vocabulary, neglecting the training of practical language competence, to task-based language teaching, which sets its steps on the ground of students, interests, experience and cognitive level in order to develop students' complex language competence, to form learning strategies for the purpose of raising autonomous learning ability by advocating the ways of experiencing, practicing, participating and cooperating. 

Now in China, the teaching methods that the teachers mainly apply are still centered on the lectures and the catechetical method. Sometimes, many lectures can not achieve the ideal teaching effect except making students more confused and lose the main points. In our traditional teaching process, teachers are the main body of the classes, who decide the teaching contents and the outcome. On the other hand, students become very passive in learning. They just, at very most, learn some isolated grammar and expressions. They can not apply English to make real communications, let alone express their feelings and thoughts freely. Teachers and students have been accustomed the grammar translation method which has its shortcomings. It can not solve the problem of students mastering the communicative competence. In addition, Chinese typical learning style and National University Entering Test also make great difficulties for students to change their attention from language knowledge to language skills. 

In contrast, task-based language teaching can reflect that foreign language teaching has transferred from emphasizing language knowledge to emphasizing cultivation of linguistic and communicative abilities, from emphasizing teachers’ rol, e to students’ participation, and from teacher-centered to student-centered. It can make students take part in a large variety of activities, and students are required to complete a series of tasks, and they can get more opportunities to communicate with each other. Task-based Language Teaching is a kind of teaching method by taking concrete task as the motivation of study, taking the process of completing task as the process of study, presenting achievement by displaying task result.

    This essay puts its emphasis on the practical application of the task-based approach in secondary English teaching. The main point lies on how to apply the approach to junior students, which puts forward very high requirements for both teachers and students, for design and implementation of tasks and the assessment of students’ performances. There are in all five chapters in this essay. Chapter one states the research background and the significance of our promoting the task-based language teaching in junior high school English classes. Chapter two will introduce the current situation of English teachers and teaching in junior high schools. Chapter three briefly introduces the basic concepts of task-based approach and its advantages. Chapter four, which is the core unit of this essay, will present the practical application of task-based language teaching in junior high school English classes. Chapter five is a conclusion. Nowadays, the task-based approach has been widely applied in the college English eduction, and the author hopes the approach can be also successfully applied to junior students in order to change the traditional way of method in junior school as the task-based language teaching is really appropriate to make students in junior high school develop their initiatives and become active in classes and also very cooperative.

2. Current Situation of English Teaching in Junior High Schools

    The teaching in classes consists of varieties of elements such as the teachers, the students, the textbooks and the teaching methods and so on, among which the teaching methods play a big role in deciding the final effects of teaching. The core of these teaching methods serve to the accomplishment of teaching tasks and goals and to make all these teaching elements develop their respective functions in the classes in order to achieve the ideal outcome. It can be seen that teaching methods are key to success of teaching process.

Traditional English teaching in junior high schools still puts emphasis on lectures and the teachers are still the main body of classes. Students are very passive in classes. They just passively accept the words and sentence patterns that the teachers teach. They do not think. Take my internship in junior high schools for example, teachers read the new words in front of the class, and the students were required to read the words one time after another following the teacher. They did not know the meaning of the words and did not know how to apply these words in daily lives. The only thing that they knew was just to recite the words. Especially for junior students, they just get in touch with this subject and if they do not master the correct way of learning English, they will not understand what the teachers are teaching. What is worse, they do not have the courage and determination to overcome the shortcomings. With the time passing by, they will lose the desire to learn English. When I had my internship in junior schools, I noticed that especially for some boys, they could hardly concentrate their attention on the class, and they always kept their mind wandering outside the class, which was dull and boring for them. Therefore, if the teachers can not attract students’ interest in English in junior high schools, students will not take active part in the class and become interested.

The current situation in junior high schools mainly involves the following questions. The first one is that the objective of most of the students is very vague. Most of the students learn English just for the exams and some of students do not know why they should have this class. They have no goals. The second one is the teachers’ role in the class. Most of the teachers, affected by the traditional teaching mode, just give lectures in the class. They just transfer what is in the book and their focus has been laid on words reciting and language points. They have neglected the practical use of English to communicate and to apply in daily lives. The third one is that the teaching method is very dull, which can not stimulate students’ interest. For instance, when I practiced my teaching in junior schools, I found that most of the teachers would apply the same method as teaching, reading, assigning the homework and so like. Such teaching process is simple and plain with no interest. Junior students are very young, and they are very energetic. So they can not sit there quietly listening to teachers. They love games, and outdoors activities. They need a very active and creative teaching method. The forth one needs to be mentioned is that our assessment of students’ grades is too old and dull. At present, exams seem to be the only way to judge students’ learning. And also the exams in junior high schools place much emphasis on testing grammar and language points, rather than on listening and speaking, which goes the wrong way in English teaching.

3. Task-Based Approach  

3.1 Task-based approach    

Tasked-based language teaching started in the late 1970s and the early 1980s. It was David Nunan who proposed such an approach. Nunan, an eminent authority in task-based language teaching maintains that setting specific tasks for students so that they act as if they were using the language in real life – this is part of the essence of task-based teaching.

Research of task has been conducted from the thirties of the nineteenth century, and the term “task” has been defined in many different ways.  

For example, Longman dictionary illustrates: A task is a piece of work undertaken for oneself or for others, freely or for some 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, borrowing a library book, taking a driving test, typing a letter, weighing a patient, sorting letters, taking a hotel reservation, writing a check, finding a street destination and helping someone across a road. (Longman1985:89, cited in Nunan, 2001:24) 

Tasks are activities where the target language is used by the learner for communicative purpose in order to accomplish an outcome. (Jane Willis, 1996)

A task is an activity or action which is carried out as the result of processing or understanding language (i.e. as a response). (Richards, Platt and Weber, 1986:289)

From them, we can find the following features about task: it is a piece of meaning-focused work, and a piece of work involving learners and communicative language skills, and a series of interactions that are needed to meet the learners’ ends. In other words, a task is a piece of work that is done by learners in their daily life. It involves learners’ processing information and using target language, and then a final product is finished. These definitions we have looked at give one thing in common: they all mean that tasks involve communicative language use in which the user's attention is focused on meaning rather than the linguistic structure. For example, Long mentions filling out a form, making an airline reservation, and taking a driving test and so like. In these real life situations, students are required to apply English to achieve communicative tasks by using words and expressions taught in the class. In the task-based approach, the focus is on the outcome of the activity rather than on the language used to achieve that outcome. 

    There are several basic elements in application of task-based approach. The first one is the goal. The task-based approach is task-oriented, and the goal is like the beacon on the sea, giving guidance to those sailing boats. Every teaching task must have its goal and the goal must be very clear and definite. As mentioned above, the aim of language teaching is to communicate with target language in real life, which decides what kind of tasks we should design. The second one is the teaching contents. What should students do in the class? Every task must be endowed with the specific contents. The contents of the task-based approach are the exact activities and programs that students need to present in the classes. The third element is the procedure. We can simply call it “how”, which means the operating methods and ways in implementing the tasks. It includes the priority, order and time allocation and so on. The forth one is the input materials. The materials refer to the supplementary information relied on in the process of the tasks. For example, if the teachers want to assign the task about dining at restaurant, they should provide students with background information about western food and culture. These materials can be verbal, such as the news report, the brochure, product instructions, and weather reports and so on, or can be non-verbal, such as the pictures, forms, maps, train schedule, cartoons and so on. These materials are not necessarily needed in every class, but thorough preparation will make teaching smoother and easier to operate. The fifth one is roles of teachers and students. Their roles are not very certain in the tasks. They can be both. Teachers can be organizers, and also participants in the tasks. Sometimes, teachers can specify the roles in order to make students understand clearly their respective tasks. The last one is the situation. This element refers to the environment or background that the tasks are to be carried out, including the real and specific context of language communication and also the class teaching. In the task, the situation should be as close as possible to real life in order to increase students’ consciousness between language and situation.

3.2 Advantages of task-based approach

One of the most beneficial advantages of task-based approach is that it can promote all the students to take an active par in the class. All the students can be involved in class activities to develop their abilities to practice, imagine, creatively think and communicate. Take my internship for example, when students have learned “mother”, “father”, “brother”, “grandma” and so like, I required them to take their favorite pictures of their family members and make a photo show in the class. Every student would explain the picture as “This is my brother. He is playing basketball.” After students made presentations, they would finally elect the best speaker. Students were all very interested and active. They made full preparations before the class and they made wonderful performance on the class. The class, in the end, had achieved its teaching goal and students gained the chance to develop themselves.

Task-based approach is otherwise very helpful for students to master the language points and skills by learning themselves. Students will look into books, dictionaries, and other sources of information actively by themselves, which is good to cultivate their independence. What is more, the approach will promote students to take part in the activities, developing their imagination and creative thinking, making them the main body of the class. The last but not the least, students can broaden their mind as plenty of materials provide. Anyway, in this approach, students can develop their abilities of thinking, communicating and solving problems, and form very good habits of learning.

Task-based language teaching is a dynamic teaching method, aiming at making language teaching real and social. The task of language study is to make students communicate with others for some purpose. Language study is a kind of learning done in practice, and the core of task-based approach is to focus on learners, not teachers. In the task-based language teaching, teachers will design class activities according to the texts which students are very familiar with in real life in order to create real situations. In the teaching process, teachers are only instructors, and organizers, giving guidance and answers. Learners are not passive any more and they become active to think and take part in these activities, which will change the traditional dull classes, stimulate students’ interest, and develop their potentials. Students will be the real main body of English classes.

4. Application of Task-Based Approach in Junior High School English Teaching

4.1 Designing appropriate tasks in junior high school English teaching

One of the most essential problems that need to be solved in the task-based language teaching is how to design tasks and what principles should be followed. The application of task-based language teaching in junior high school English classes should also be in accordance with these principles.

    The first and the most important principle is the reality rule. This principle refers to that in the designing of tasks, the materials teachers use should originate from the real life, and the situations in which the tasks will be accomplished should be as close as possible to real happenings. For instance, in the English classes of junior high school, several units have introduced words, sentences, dialogues about life situations such as shopping, asking the way, calling a visit, dining at a restaurant and so on. In the teaching process, teachers can divide the whole class into groups and leave each group a task in which students are required to show the situations by presentations within limited times. They can use the words and expressions learned in the textbooks. Take my internship for example, student A can play the role as a restaurant waiter, and student B can play the role as a customer. The two students can make the performance about dining at a restaurant by using the words such as “menu”, “order” and “pay”, and using the expressions such as “May I take your order?”. The task not only is close to real life in which students are very familiar, but also can provoke students’ interest to apply English to communicate and improve their oral English.

    The second principle of function is based on the principle of reality, clarifying the relationship between the language forms and functions. For example, in secondary English teaching, students are required to master the words such as healthy lifestyle, junk food, sleep less, and other sentence patterns. At this time, teachers can assign the task in which students can apply these words to design a situation and organize a dialogue. After that, students are required to present the dialogue by using these words and sentences, in which students can have a good understanding that the purpose of language learning is to communicate in real life.

Thirdly, the designing of tasks should be logically fluent and coherent. For example, in the process of exercising dialogues, the final goal can be divided into several small tasks, such as searching for background information, looking for items, listing related sentence patterns, organizing the dialogue, presentation and so like. For instance, in secondary English teaching, there is a topic about western food. Teachers can ask students, at first, to search the background knowledge about western culture, such as their holidays and eating habits, and then require them to look for related words and sentences, and at last they are inclined to use these words and sentences to organize a dialogue and present it. Students will actively search the relevant information by all means in order to finish the task, such as the library, the computers, the internet and so like and they will get a further understanding of foreign cultures and also the differences between eastern and western cultures.

    Students are always active in games, which teachers should make full use of to attract their attention. Therefore, if we can instill fun into the tasks, students will show their great interest and become very active in class activities. For instance, in secondary English teaching, teachers can design some games, such as words guessing, matching, puzzles and so like to grasp students’ attention. For another example, there is some topic about exercising. Teachers can divide the class into groups and assign the task to look for related sports in the form of competitions and the teacher can also prepare some prizes, which will greatly provoke students’ initiatives.

The above principles are very general suggestions for classroom teachers about what can be done in class. Researchers suggest concentrating on content rather than linguistic items. The language that is needed to perform the task which has to be negotiated by the learners in the process of carrying out these tasks with the help of the teacher, whose job is to facilitate learning opportunities in class (Kumaravadivelu, 1993).

4.2 Implementing tasks in junior high school English classes

4.2.1 Requiring teachers to understand more

As there are many principles to the designing of tasks, there comes up many higher requirements for teachers when they design the tasks.

Take my internship for example. At first, teachers should have a very clear and correct understanding of the teaching goal. Every unit in the secondary English textbook has a teaching goal. Teachers should have a command of the teaching goal from an all-round way, specifying the main points. So teachers will design the task with high quality according to the main points. Take the secondary English teaching for example, the teaching contents involve doing sports, asking the way, complaining, shopping and so like. It is not very realistic for teachers to require students to master every language point, therefore, it demands teachers to analyze and summarize the textbook before the classes and make clear the priorities in class. They can list some language points as important, and others supplementary.

What is more, teachers should have a good understanding of the students in every class that he or she teaches. Students in every class can be divided into several levels from high to low. Some students can easily accept what the teachers have taught and others feel hard, which puts forward higher requirements for teachers, as they must know about the differences in detail before  and in the teaching, and adjust the pace and contents at any time according to the differences. Teachers must take into account all levels of students. The task should not be too hard, which will discourage those students t low levels, making them lose confidence, and the task should also not be too easy, which will make students lose their interest. For instance, in secondary English teaching, there is a topic about vocation. The teacher can assign the task and divide the task into some small tasks. The first one is that teachers can come up with some questions, such as “What do you usually do in vocation?”, “Do you like traveling in vocation?”, “Where do you want to go?”, and “Do you think traveling is good to broaden our mind?” and so on. The teacher can ask the students, at first, to look for the information on the internet and answer the questions. Such task is very appropriate to all levels of students, and at the same time, motivates the initiatives of all students. For the next step, the teacher can then divide the class into groups, and make sure every group consists of good students and students with a lower level. Then the teacher can ask each group to organize a discussion about holiday activities and require them to use the words and expressions that they previously have found on the internet. Finally, each group will make a presentation in front of class, and teacher will give the final evaluation. Thus, students must be very interested and take part in the task with great enthusiasm. Students with high levels can help with those students with low levels, making them very confident and proud. Low-level students can feel the power of teamwork and the self-value in the team.

The last but not the least, teachers should learn themselves at any time in order to come up with the trend and update themselves. They should adjust the difficulties and the contents of the task according to the features of the textbook, the pace of teaching and the scope of knowledge. For example, with the rapid development of technology, electric products have a great influence on people’s lives, so the teachers can encourage students to search information on internet, and not be confined to the textbook. Teachers themselves should also look for useful information on internet, upgrade with the recent trend, making students know more about the modern times, and broaden their minds.

4.2.2 Stimulating students’ engagement in tasks

In task-based approach, students should become the main body of the class, and they are the real participants, however, in contrast, the teachers should be the instructors, giving supplementary help and guidance. As Nunan suggested, students are inter-actors, presenting their performance in front of the class by using the language points previously learned. Students should be performers, involving every task designed which is close to real life. Students should be encouraged to take part in these activities, which make for their improvement of social communicative abilities. Especially for students who just enter the junior schools, they are curious and scary about learning English. At this time, teachers should help students clear the obstacles in their minds and encourage them to speak English loudly, even they are wrong, which can be corrected next time.

In the teaching process teachers can organize students to make performances about the text and design real situations in which students can express their feelings and thoughts. In such situations, students will associate the real life situations with the language points and skills in the textbook. At the same time, the teaching tools such as the materials, pictures and photos will ensure to attract students’ attention and their involvement. In task-based approach, there are altogether three phases. The first one is the pre-task phase, in which teachers will introduce the task. And then it comes to the task-cycle phase, in which students will be involved in task-planning and completion. In this phase, all the students will engage in the task to plan, organize, implement and finally report. The third phase is the post-task phase, in which students will analyze their shortcomings and practice the language points with the guidance of teachers.

Take my internship for example, in unit one of the textbook of Go For It for the seventh grade, the first lesson is “Where is your pen pal from?”. The teaching goal is to make students master some national names, peoples and their languages. Before the class, I required students to look for their favorite football stars and singing stars and some famous scenic spots abroad. In the class, I posted a map on the blackboard and then divided the class into groups with four to six students as one group. Then two students of each group would present their favorite stars in front of the class and then posted their pictures on the map. After the presentation, I made a summary and taught the main points to practice. In this task, students would relate the language with the real life by listening and speaking, and also they would experience the success of completing the task. Students’ engagement in tasks will arouse their interest to learn English.

4.3 Making proper assessment of tasks

4.3.1 Evaluating students by performance assessment

    National Standards for English Curriculum for junior school students demands the combination of process evaluation and achievement evaluation. It also demands the evaluation should be plural and the form of evaluation should be diversified. Teachers should pay attention to outcome and process as well. Learning by doing is one of the main principles of task-based approach. And one of the main assessments is to finish the task or not. The process of carrying out the task could be an effective method to evaluate students.

Performance assessment is referred to as a systematic attempt to measure a learner’s ability to use previously learned knowledge in solving problems or completing specific tasks. (Stiggins, 1998) Performance assessment aims to model the real learning activities that we wish students to apply oral and written communication skills, problem solving activities rather than to fragment them, as do multiple-choice test; the aim is that the assessment does not distort teaching. Performance assessment involves students in performing tasks that reflect real-life situations and challenges students to demonstrate what they have learned by presenting a performance. (Gipps, 1994)

4.3.2 Advocating different types of assessment

At present, our type of assessment for students’ abilities is very single with the test paper and final exams. Traditional kind of test paper makes the classroom activities focus on the explanation of the language knowledge and analyzing the grammar, and pays less attention to the use of the language and the development of language. Just as Brown and Hudson pointed out that suppose a teaching syllabus sets a series of the target of using communicative language, but finally tested in the way of filling in the multiple choices.

Assessment of tasks can be implemented from many aspects. At first, teachers should stick to the evaluation in many respects. When teachers give judges about the completion of students’ task, they should not only pay attention to the master of language, but also to their other abilities. For example, when students finish speeches and operas and so on, teachers should evaluate their expressions and pronunciations, and at the same time, should speak highly of their imagination and creative thinking and so on. What is more, teachers should combine self-evaluation with evaluating each other. Students will evaluate their own situations including the progress they have made and the shortcomings they need to improve in order to adjust their own study methods and goals. When students evaluate each other, they are required to judge others in an objective way and make some constructive suggestions. It will not only be helpful for students to find out the differences and make sure the next goal, but also to encourage each other and strengthens cooperation.

The last one is that the teachers and the students can evaluate each other. For example, in the textbook of junior high school, there is a unit about favorite sports. Teachers can assign the task in which students can be divided into groups talking about their respective favorite sports, its competitions, the famous super stars and so on. And then the students are required to describe their favorite sports in front of the class. The teacher can evaluate their performance through observation of their expressions and presentations. And at the same time, students can also point out the shortcomings of the task in the design and make some better suggestions. Thus teachers will have a better understanding of students’ needs and make tasks more appropriate to students.

4.3.3 Achieving ideal effects of assessment

    “Give a man a fish and he eats for a day. Teach him how to fish and he eats for a lifetime.” This is a specific reflection of the lifelong education opinions on teaching students how to study by themselves. Task-based approach offers an innovative way to language learning. The class strives for communication and fluency. Language tasks invite students to plan, report and prepare activities. Students are invited to interact and produce language naturally. The students themselves are involved in investigating structures and forms. The main intention of tasks is to help students explore language, to make them develop an awareness of aspects of grammar, vocabulary and pronunciation. Students need to assist each other in systematizing what they have observed and learned about certain features of language. They also need to cooperate with each other in order to clarify concepts and to notice new things by ordering, listing, classifying and categorizing them. Students learn by doing. Only the student-centered classroom can cater for this approach.

5. Conclusion

We can conclude that the task-based teaching approach is very beneficial to develop students’ thinking and creative abilities and cooperative spirits and to foster the learners that can’t understand the knowledge. The task-based approach is task-oriented. With tasks, students have goals, and have a definite direction and they can develop their initiatives to achieve the goals. Through application of task-based approach in the secondary English teaching, students can make clear the teaching goals, and understand all activities and all tasks serve the final goals. In the implementation of these goals, students need to finish the tasks which are from easy to hard and finally to get the aim of improving self-abilities.

After the experiment, we find that the task-based language teaching is helpful to resolve the issues on meaning and form, function and structure. For the students, it encourages students to investigate and cooperate. The students set up knowledge and develop their abilities. The task-based language teaching is helpful to combine the students’ language ability with their other qualities, such as processing information, completing tasks, social intercourse. The task-based language teaching regards the students’ personal career as the important factor of study, and combines the study in class with social activities. Task-based teaching approach pays attention to both language and learning process. It is helpful for students to cultivate an independent ability of study. The task-based approach to language learning emphasizes on learning language to communication. Learners’ independence and their positive attitude towards language learning are also essential to make learning language successful. The task-based approach provides opportunities for learners to learn and explore both spoken and written language through all kinds of activities which are designed to engage learners. The use of all kinds of activities should also give a clear and purposeful task for the teaching and learning of grammar as well as the other skills. Through teaching, the teachers should act as the guide in the task-based teaching. Teachers design a content of teaching from the opinion of learning, the students’ activity has an clear target direction.

In various activities, the students’ brains are always placed in active state, which can cause the students’ sympathetic response and interest. Thus, the whole learning processes are all active and voluntary. Not only they acquire ready-made knowledge, but also have the ability of language usage. And the students can express their own thoughts more creatively along with the improvement of the students’ language ability. Briefly, the English teachers applying task-based approach should bring the advantages of task-based language teaching into full play to improve teaching quality in junior high School. Moreover, in the implementation of task-based language teaching, the teachers should introspect their own teaching continuously, and carry on adjustment in time. 

References

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Acknowledgements

This paper has been finished, but here I have to say that without these generous assistances, I could not complete this thesis. First I would like to show my gratitude to my honorable tutor, Zhou Ping. Thanks very much for her guidance and precious suggestions from the selection of the subject to the whole outline and the detail context of the whole paper. During the whole process, I have learned many useful things from her, both on the knowledge of teaching methodology and on the rigorous attitude toward the research. My special thanks also give to all my dear teachers in our faculty, their intelligence and spirit toward study give me great motivation through the whole writing. Also, my thanks go to my classmates and my roommates who have shared their opinions and their real teaching experiences with me, all these things have provided invaluable materials for my graduation paper. Last but not least, thanks very much to my parents who have given me great encouragement and do their best to eliminate my frustration. In a word, I hope all these people can make their dreams come true in the future. Best wishes to all of them!