The Application of Task-Based Approach in English Reading Teaching - Coursework Example

 1 The Application of Task-Based Approach in English Reading Teaching This essay critically looks at the application of Task-Based Approach in English Reading Teaching in Chinese elementary schools. The approach covered in this paper is a typical one adopted in many of China’s elementary schools. During my fact-finding trip to China between May and July 2010, I thought it imperative to investigate how Chinese children fare when reading English texts at the elementary level before advancing to the University stage. Hence, this essay describes the implementation procedures used at a typical Chinese elementary school concerning Task-Based Approach in English Reading Teaching. The processes of material design, task demonstration and evaluation are covered in this essay, while relevant teaching theories or principles are subsequently treated. The process of foreign language acquisition in China is, to some extent, still based on the traditional educational system that emphasizes on the reading and writing of a foreign language like English with the hope of translating it. The students are primarily taught to learn English through reading various texts that could broaden their knowledge of the language (Adamson, 2004; Burkett, 2009; Dzau, 1990). As a result of this, teachers are saddled with the responsibility of making English seem understandable to their students. The current demand for English in China has also increased the pressure on primary school teachers to do more in the area of improving the reading skill of their students. 2 The fundamental objective of adopting Task-Based Approach in the reading teaching at elementary level in China is to detect the reading competence of each student under the full watch of his or her Homeroom Teacher, who would provide the needed assistance to help the students become near-confident readers, if not totally-confident readers (Grellet, 1992). The students are given simple stories to read depending on their grades—the little harder reading comprehension goes to the farther end of the spectrum. The purpose of this is to improve their reading fluency, not necessarily to make them memorize their textbooks’ contents (Hiskes, 2007). Task-Based Approach lets the teachers perceive the students’ reaction to words they may have been taught before. For examples, showing the ability to identify and pronounce simple words about weather, food, fruits and colours as they appear on the textbooks used for this task. Most teachers believe that exposing children to the words they had heard before may increase their ability to identify related words on the pages of textbooks, hence improving their reading fluency (McNamara, 2007) Of special interest is the fact that most of the textbooks used in China now are written by Chinese linguists who may be university professors or private educationists/publishers. These textbooks followed almost similar pattern of teaching Chinese language with the exceptions that they do not change the English Grammar and Lexis. Take for instance, 1-2 graders use texts that have only pictures; 3rd-6th graders have texts that show pictures as 3 well as words. This design is commensurable with the age of accountability in China—that is, children that are 8 years old and above are regarded as those who could give account of their experiences in words or gestures. More so, familiar pictures seem to evoke a kind of familiarity between students and their texts. It is based on these facts or principles that the choice of textbooks for reading tasks in China are selected (Harwood, 2010). Since the aim of reading tasks in Chinese elementary schools is to encourage student’s fluency, difficult comprehensions are not usually chosen, and emphasis is laid on the familiarity of the students with the contents of the texts in order not to totally discourage them from trying in future reading lessons (Lam, 2005; Lin, 2002). These three important steps are usually followed during the application or implementation of Task-Based Approach in English reading teaching: they are pre-task, task cycle and language focus (Willis, 1996). Pre-task is the period for preparing for the appropriate lesson for the students. Sometimes this involves giving the students some helpful hints about their proposed study for the day (Willis, 1998: Nunan, 2004). In this case, the preparatory materials could be flash cards having the pictures of the different kinds of fruits and students the students would meet in their textbook, if the entire is about fruit and colours. Sometimes jigsaw puzzles are used to prepare the students’ minds for some of the words they are likely going to see in the texts for the lesson (Zhang, 2004: Wu et al., 1996; Skehan, 1996). However task cycle involves utilizing the appropriate reading tasks. Depending on the grades the English reading lesson are meant for, the contents are 4 varied and the expectations are different. Take for instance, a class of fourth graders in a typical Chinese elementary school may read a book on the different types of animals and their kinds of homes. For example, a lion lives in the den; a fish lives in the sea; a bird lives on the tree etc The task here is to identify the individual animal and its corresponding habitat. Once this objective has been achieved, it would not be difficult for the students to read their textbooks based on this idea. The observation here is that the entire lesson is designed around the students’ level of knowledge—that is, it is purely learner-centered concept, where the teacher ulterior motives are inadmissible once the reading exercise has begun (Nunan, 1988; Mok, 2003; Lin, 1999). During this period, the teacher only acts as a “facilitator” providing pieces of advice on how to pronounce a word or correct the students when they wrongly name an animal or its habitat. The students are the main players here, and they may decide to read their texts individually or as a group, depending on the initial instruction given to them by the teacher. Task-Based Approach gives the teacher unique opportunity to see how his or her students would perform unaided. Will they be able to pronounce each word correctly? Will they find it difficult to match the animals to their appropriate habitats? Will they be shy to even say a word out? How can they improve on their reading efficiency? The possible answers to the following questions would surface in the course of the task (Nunan, 1993: Chomsky, 2000). Unfortunately, primary school students cannot report the outcomes of their task activities in the classroom; in this case, their teacher could take over the reportage and ask them YES/NO questions to gauge their comprehensibility (Crookes and Rulon, 1985). This will stand as an evaluation mechanism for the teacher to actually discover how much meaning the students have read into the task, or how much understanding do they have of the entire reading activity (Ellis, 2003: Tomlinson, 2003). The language focus part of the discourse comes here: Since elementary school texts do not contain complicated grammar, syntax, lexis and structure, the teacher may be interested in knowing how well the students could spell each word and how coherent are their pronunciations in the course of the reading (Mertens and McLaughlin, 2004). The teacher could also check the speed of each student in order to determine their level of understanding—the reasoning is that when a student can quickly read through a passage, he or she must have good knowledge of each word spread across the text, especially when considering the performance of an elementary school student (Hill, 2009). Task-Based Language Approach employs four educational theories that are discussed below: behaviorist theory; innateness concept; cognitive theory; interaction approach. Relying on behaviorist theory, Chinese students are generally regarded as being good at reading signs and characters because these cryptic characters take a lot of time to be understood. This could have encouraged their interest in reading English language (Skinner, 2008). And sign-reading starts at early age in China; this could be regarded as a positive development in the issue of elementary school students in China reading English alphabet. About innateness, this theory supports the notion that everyone has the in-born ability or innateness to acquire a language at birth or during the process of childhood development 6 (Chomsky, 2000). Although, this ability may depend on a number of factors, which include but not restricted to the environment of study and the nature of instruction given to them. Some psychologists think that actions of human beings are successive and interconnected series of activities that may take a long time to actually link together—this is as explained in Piagets Theory of cognitive ability (Coon, 2009 p.114). When elementary school students learn about colours, the next time they study about fruits, they can still link their colour experience with the fruit lesson. In this way, they could easily identify apples, because they are red; blue berries because they are blue; and so on. What this means is that each lesson they studies is built into their memory like a building block. And in a matter of time, they would have had enough ideas in their heads about the things around them. The theory of interaction explains about the importance of having good relationship between teachers and their elementary students. Good communication will surely increase the students’ dependency on their teachers, and their ability to enjoy their English reading tasks (Chaudron, 1988). The process may not be perfect in as much as the two problems discussed below are not quickly eradicated: when there is shortage of adequately trained teachers, it will be impossible to get a perfect outcome from the application of Task-Based Approach in English Reading Teaching. Good teachers understand their responsibilities and would do everything in their power to make each lesson successful. When there are no good 7 textbooks, the ability to enjoy reading comprehension may be unavailable, and students would get more confused instead of being enlightened. Some of the textbooks written by Chinese scholars for elementary school students in China are reportedly too difficult for them to really understand. The idea of applying task-based pedagogy in English reading teaching is a grand one that has produced believable outcomes in Chinese schools at elementary level. The students become more confident at reading their texts, even though the contents are not too difficult for their levels. When teachers do their part in facilitating the reading activities in their classes, their students would do well. Two main problems that may affect this application of TB approach is that if there are fewer qualified teachers and inadequate good textbooks. However, learning process goes along with four major pedagogical theories, which state that behavior, innateness, and cognition would help a student to improve a lot if there is good interaction between the teachers and their students 8 References Adamson, B., 2004. China’s English: a history of English in Chinese education. Hong Kong: Hong Kong University Press. Brown, H.D., 1994. Teaching by principles. 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