Abstract Task-based instruction, also known as task-based language teaching, becomes a heated topic in both second language acquisition and classroom teaching in the past twenty years. It associates the language use with the basic ideas of teaching methods and has great effect in the real practice. This essay discusses task-based language teaching in Chinese EFL students in a middle school. The paper is to assess the effectiveness of task-based instruction in middle schools in China and it mainly makes an attempt to explore the pedagogical advantages in Grammar Teaching.55660

Key Words: task-based instruction；application；pedagogical advantages 

摘要任务型教学也称任务型语言教学, 在近二十年里成为第二语言习得和课堂教学中的一个热点课题。它把语言使用与教学方法的基本思想结合起来,并在实践中产生较大影响。本文探讨了我国中学英语中的任务型教学并评估它在教学中的有效性,主要试图探索它在语法教学中的优势。

毕业论文关键词：任务型教学；应用；教学优势

Contents

1. Introduction 1

2. Literature Review 2

2.1 Definition of TBI 2

2.2 Previous Studies on Task-based Instruction 3

3. Basic Steps and Design Principles 3

3.1 Basic Steps of Task-based Instruction 3                                                                    

3.2 Task Design Principles 4

4. Application of TBI to Grammar Teaching in Middle School 4

4.1 Application to Grammar Teaching 5

4.2 Discovery and Discussion 7

5. Pedagogical Implications 8

6. Conclusions 10

Works Cited 11

Appendix 1 12

Appendix 2 14

Appendix 3 16

1. Introduction  

As the international status being promoted, English has been widely used over these years. It also acts as a second language and a compulsory course in middle schools. English teaching has been a long-term study conducted by researchers and educators. There are the dominant language teaching methods at different times. Most of these approaches are introduced by a large number of books. The traditional grammar-translation method was used for a long time. After that different kinds of teaching methods sprung up constantly, such as content-based approach, lexical approach, situational teaching method and so on. As the educational system develops, a task-based instruction has been introduced to classroom teaching gradually. Task-Based instruction can be considered as a methodology developing from the classroom processes. 

The English curriculum standard in the part of teaching advice has explicitly pointed out that the teacher should avoid teaching language knowledge simply, but tries his/her best to use the task-based instruction. According to the general goals of curriculum and teaching content, teachers should creatively design actual teaching activities which are close to students and attract their active participation. As a result, students can learn English and accomplish tasks though thinking, investigation, discussion and cooperation. 

I was working as a trainee in two classes of a middle school in my last undergraduate year. One is made up of 42 students and the other is made of 40 students. Miss Zhu has told me that most of the students have mastered the basic knowledge of vocabulary and grammar. As one of three compulsory subjects, English has been attached great importance to by schools and teachers, as well as parents. Teachers give a lot of homework every day in order to examine whether students master what they have learned at school. They are about 13 to 14 years old and all in adolescence. So it is difficult to organize and control them. In the process of classroom teaching, English teachers usually give them free time for discussion, dialogues, role-play etc. If they were sure not to be asked to perform tasks, some of them would be talking about other things which had nothing to do with the subject rather than do the right task. Some students may even spend the time doing their homework especially while others were giving a performance. In addition, the free time was so limited that students were usually unable to make full use of it to complete these tasks. As a result, the results of the tasks were often not satisfying and below what were expected.