文档A Brief Introduction of Task-Based Language Teaching.doc

A Brief Introduction of Task-Based Language Teaching 中图分类号： h319 文献标识码： a 文章编号：1672-1578（2011)11-0001-02 1 introduction task-based language teaching (tblt) refers to ‘an approach based on the use of tasks as the core unit of planning and instruction in language teaching’ (richards and rodgers, 2005: 223). emerging in the 1980s, tblt has gained much popularity among a great number of teachers and learners. as quality-oriented education is advocated in china at present, tblt has been gradually supported and promoted as an ideal approach to teaching english. this essay will present some theories concerning this approach and explore some of its advantages and weaknesses. 2 what are tasks tasks, considered as ‘basic building blocks in the language curriculum’ (nunan, 1989: 5), are classroom activities that involve learners’ comprehension, manipulation, production or interaction using the target language (nunan, 1989). breen (1987) defined tasks as activities which aim at helping language learners to improve their language skills through progressing from simple tasks to more complex ones. specifically, a task is an activity requires learners to conduct meaningful negotiations and naturalistic communications. real-life language may be used in the process of completing various tasks, such as giving directions or instructions, writing a letter etc. (richards and rodgers, 2005). tasks are 憉sed as the basic unit of analysis at the levels of goals (syllabus), educational activities (methodology) and assessment?(van den branden, 2006: 12). 3 a framework of task-based syllabus jane willis (1996) has presented a framework of tblt composed of three phases: pre-task, task cycle and language focus. in a pre-task phase, the teacher gives instructions on how to fulfill the tasks and help the learners to understand the topic-related area so that their 憇chematic language?could be activated (skehan, 1998:127). during this phase, the teacher could introduce some w