Task—based,teaching,approach,and,its,application,in,oral,class,of,tourism,English,inhigh,vocational,college

Abstract：This paper provides arguments in favour of using task-based approach in the study of oral class for students major in Tourism English in high vocational college. Tourism industry develops quickly in recent decades， as a result， the need for tour guide increased dramatically. High vocational college always takes the responsibility to meet this need. However， tourists have higher standard for tour guide. Communication ability plays a crucial role for tour guide during their tour. This paper discusses how task-based teaching approach applied to students majoring in Tourism English in high vocational college.

Key words：task-based language teaching;oral class;high vocational college

中图分类号：G633.41     文献标识码：A        文章编号：1005-5312（2016）05-0267-02

This paper mainly explains the idea and the principles of the Task-Based Teaching Approach and analyzes the task-based framework in English language teaching and learning of oral class in high vocational college. It explains how the task-based approach is applied in the tourism English oral class.

一、Research background

Traditional English teaching wastes a lot of time， but does not have a good result. The disadvantage of the traditional concept is that teacher just concerns on teaching grammar rules and vocabulary， and that they do not consider to help the students to transform knowledge into ability. This kind of teaching method goes in the opposite direction to the requirement of English tour guide. Thus， high vocational colleges failed in providing high-quality tour guides to the market. Task-based teaching approach may be a way to tackle the problem.

二、Task-based teaching approach

The research of the Task-Based Teaching Approach started in 1980s. It was originally put forward by Prabhu （1987） who did a strong communicative experiment called The Bangalore Communicational Teaching Project in Bangalore， South of India and he was considered as the founder of task-based learning. Prabhu stresses learning by doing. That is to say， the way of learning language is “not English for communication， but English through communication; not learn English so that you will be able to do and say things later but do and say things now so that as a result you will learn English” （Prabhu， 1980）. It was Prabhu who provided a new point of view for us to know the teaching and learning of language.

（一）The definitions of task

When we talk about the concept of the task， the first we need to do is to decide just what we mean by the term itself in language learning and teaching. Much has been written about definitions about tasks from different perspectives and the role of the tasks in second language acquisition.

Though there are many definitions about the task， however， a classroom task is different from a task， it should consist the following aspects：

（1） Meaning-centered， designed to practice some meaningful language forms;

（2） The focus of task is to solve certain communicative problem， which must have some connections with the real world. The task must be close to students" real life， learning experiences and social reality， and could arouse students" interests and encourage students" participation in the task;

（3） The design of the task must emphasize the importance of task completion， that is， the settlement of the communicative problem.

（二）The model of the TBLA

The task-based teaching approach breaks through the traditional form which mainly focuses on the teacher and classroom form is centered with mechanical practice. Therefore， it emphasizes the main role of learners in the class， the process of finishing tasks and the combination of language form and language meanings.

Willis （1996：38） put forward the model of task-based teaching approach in her book A Framework for Task-based Learning： “pre-task， task-cycle and language focus.”

Pre-task means that at the beginning of a task， teachers introduce the task topic and teaching aims to learners， and help them understand the task and make preparation for the task. It is helpful to show related pictures， parts of film， or teacher’s personal experience. What teachers work here is to inspire the learning motivation of learners and to make sure learners know what they will do next. Teachers should encourage them to use their own experiences or known things to achieve goals. Task-cycle includes three sections： task， plan and report：

（1） After the learners have made sure of what and how they should do， they carry out the task;

（2）Plan. After learners have mastered the main information about the task， they prepare reports orally or in writing and then appoint a representative to do reports;

（3） Report. Each group does their own report and also they can exchange their writing reports to communicate with each other and compare the results. Teachers can give evaluations according to the outcome referring to fluency and accuracy and to other numbers’ behaviors of each group.

（三）The design principles of the TBLA

When teachers want to design lessons， they must follow the design principles of the Task-Based Teaching Approach. There are some international influence linguists who have put forward their own point of views on principles of the task-based teaching approach.

Nunan （1989） believes that when design the whole teaching process， we should follow these principles， which are “The authentic language and situation principle， the form-function principle， the task-dependency and the task-chain principle， learning by doing”. “The authentic language and situation principle” means that the language materials are closely related to learners’ daily life and learning life as much as possible; “The form-function principle” means it is necessary to combine the language form and function together in the task-based teaching process， because learners need language to do things and they should have language basis. Therefore， when designing tasks， teachers should pay attention to combination of language form and function in the task design. “The task-dependency and task-chain principle” means it should be from simple to complex， from easy to difficult when designing the task and there should be relation between task activities.

三、A Syllabus Based on Task-based Language Teaching

Course objectives： This course is designed to improve oral skills and communication ability of students of tourism English. It introduces students to the history of renowned tourist attractions and some communication theories because tour guide is a job involves in communicating with people from all walks of life and distinct cultures. Upon successful completion of the course， students are expected to make progress in the following aspects：

（1）they can interpret the history of Xi’an to foreigners confidently;

（2）they can apply the communication theories learned in class to their communication practice and evaluate the theoretical significance of the daily encounters， interactions， and observations;

（3） understand and get familiar with the selected historic sites and introduce these tourist attractions fluently;

（4）they can manage Chinese tourists in foreign countries， for example， help Chinese tourists check-in in an English-speaking country.

四、Implementation（an example）

（1）Show one picture of Dayan Pagoda and divide the class to 3groups. Ask each group describe the picture as much as possible.（10 minutes）.

（2）Everyone make a list of difficult words in describing Dayan Pagoda and the teacher explain some key words.（15mintues）.

（3）Play an introduction video about Dayan Pagoda.（5minutes）.

（4）Discuss the video with the students. （10 minutes）.

（5）Role-play. Select one student as a tour guide of Dayan Pagoda and the rest students as foreign tourists. These “tourists” can ask anything they want to know about this site at any time. The teacher should assist this “tour guide” in answering these questions. （30 minutes）.

（6） Divide the class into several groups and discuss the key points of Dayan Pagoda. （15minutes）.

（7）Ask 1-2 group representatives to express their discussion results.（15minutes） 8. Prepare materials for the next class.

References：

[1]Breen，M.Learner Contribution to Task Design. Language Learning Tasks，1987 （04）：23-46.

[2]Ellis， R.Task-Based Language Learning Teaching. Oxford： Oxford University Press，2003.

[3]Nunan， D. Designing Tasks for the Communicative Classroom.New York：Cambridge University Press，1989.

[4]Prabhu， N.S. Second Language Pedagogy .Oxford： Oxford University Press，1987.

[5]程晓棠.任务型语言教学[M].北京：高等教育出版社，2004.

[6]丁丽.任务型教学模式在高中英语教学中的应用.中小学外语教学，2003（05）.