A Conclusion Report Based on TBLT Application in College English Speaking Classes

Zhao Mingming

【Abstract】This conclusion report has identified the effects of TBLT in College English Speaking Classroom. It concludes the findings of the present research， the implications of these findings for pedagogic application， the limitations of the study and puts forward some suggestions for further research.

【Key words】TBLT; application; feasibility; limitations

【作者簡介】Zhao Mingming， School of Humanities and Social Science， Guangzhou Civil Aviation College.

1. Major Findings

The tasks applied in the present research were carefully designed and manipulated in accordance with Williss implementation model. With the previous data analysis， the researcher has identified the effects of TBLT（task-based language teaching） in College English Speaking Classroom. The major findings of the research are summarized into the following four aspects：

1.1 Feasibility of applying TBLT to the English Speaking classes

Firstly， the research proves the effectiveness of TBLT to help students in the experimental class to improve their speaking skills. It is reasonable to expect that more considerate designing of tasks， more effective organization of task-based classroom， as well as teachers higher professionalism will lead to more noticeable improvement of students English speaking proficiency. Secondly， the application of TBLT can help to meet “College English Curriculum Requirements”. As a communicative subject， the Course of College English Speaking aims at cultivating and enhancing students ability of using English flexibly in real-life communication. TBLT proves to be beneficial for students to acquire such basic skills as listening and speaking， which will stimulate students development of their overall communicative abilities. Thirdly， college students have more free time to manipulate than middle school students so they can do some readings and surfing on the Internet to make full preparations for task-based classroom. In a word， judging from the experiment made by the researcher， there is a bright prospect of conducting TBLT effectively in the Course of College English Speaking.

1.2 Improvement in English listening and speaking

With regard to listening and speaking proficiency， the experimental class， which was treated with task-based approach， outperformed the control class， which received the conventional PPP approach. The authentic materials and language activities greatly aroused students interest and eagerness of participation into the tasks. The relaxing class atmosphere， the contribution of group work， and the helpful instruction provided by the teacher resulted in students manifestation of subjective initiative and satisfactory performance of tasks.

2. Implications for Language Teaching

2.1 Major advantages of implementing TBLT

①Improvement of students listening and speaking proficiency

TBLT is positively effective in listening and speaking training in the College English Speaking Classroom. TBLT emphasizes the importance of providing students with authentic reading materials and language activities which are the reflection of peoples real life. Those authentic tasks put emphasis on the practical usage of language and the expression of real meanings so that these kinds of tasks can help students to improve the efficiency of their language acquisition. The communicative activities have proved to be very effective in motivating and cultivating students communicative competence. Whats more， group and pair work in TBLT class offers students enough opportunities to learn from each other as well as provide them with a supportive and enjoyable learning environment. In this way， TBLT has greatly aroused students interests in English learning.

②Promotion of students all-round development

The experiment proves that TBLT helps students to improve their all-round development. Some important skills and abilities can be improved through TBLT： It helps students to build up confidence; it helps students to be more creative and cooperative; it helps students to acquire positive learning method like autonomous learning.

To sum up， the advantages of TBLT lie in that it is an effective measure to highly motivate students interests， to build up confidence， to help develop their autonomous learning and enhance their learning cooperation， therefore improving their language competence eventually.

2.2 Major problems of applying TBLT

Although there are many advantages about cooperative learning in promoting students English proficiency and comprehensive quality， there are still some challenging problems in the application of the approach to the College English Speaking Classroom. The major problems are as follows：

①Difficulty of course design

The textbook used in the teaching， Leo Jones Lets Talk published by Shanghai Foreign Language Education Press， is not task-oriented and it is very difficult for teachers to find appropriate sources to employ. It is both time and energy-consuming for teachers to design appropriate tasks that can not only stimulate the learners interest but also complement the aims of the textbooks. Therefore， it is time that teachers and researchers did more work in order to meet the needs of task-based language teaching.

② Individual differences

TBLT pays more attention to the teachers quality because they play an important role for tasks design， presentation， execution and assessment. So to achieve great validity， teachers should adopt appropriate teaching strategies in language teaching. Different students have different proficiency levels， so it is important for teachers to consider their students individual differences. In teaching process， teachers should design some relatively simple tasks for students at low level to fulfill in order to reduce their anxiety， arouse their interest and enhance their confidence， which makes them also enjoy the sense of achievement and pleasure of learning.

3. Limitations of the present research

Although the experiment has got expected success， like any other empirical study， there still exist some inevitable limitations：

3.1 The research with the small sample size doesnt represent all the students in other contexts. The students chosen in the experiment are the sophomores from Guangzhou Civil Aviation College， which only represent students of intermediate level and cannot represent all the students in China. If the size is enlarged as possible， the affected factors can be controlled to the minimum and the validity will be maximized.

3.2 The time length of the experiment seems a little shorter. The whole process of the study only lasted for a semester， not long enough to cover students English proficiency in all aspects significantly.

3.3 Due to the lack of valid assessment models， the pre-test and the post-test assessing students speaking competence can only be graded by the teachers in line with their performance. Therefore， there is a room for improvement.

In conclusion， the present research has proved that TBLT is an effective and feasible teaching method in improving students speaking competence. Its new teaching notions have challenged previous traditional teaching approaches and achieved a great success. However， the implementation of TBLT in a wider scope should transform gradually because there are still some limitations such as lack of teaching materials， different students with different language proficiency， various learning environment， etc.

References：

[1]Willis，J.and D.Willis，Doing Task-based Teaching.Oxford：Oxford University Press.2007.

[2]Richards，J.C.&Rodgers，T.S.Approach and Methods in Language Teaching.Cambridge：Cambridge University Press，2001.224.

[3]魏永紅.任务型外语教学研究[M].上海：华东师范大学出版社， 2004.

[4]岳守国.任务型教学法：概要、理据及应用[J].外语教学与研究， 2002.5：364-367.