With the globalization of the world, TBLT is gaining popularity in China。In July of 2001, an English language curriculum( named “the National English Language Curriculum Standards) for secondary schools was issued and was carried out。 Tremendous changes have been made and innovative ideas have been added to the new curriculum regarding educational concepts,curricular aims and objectives, teaching methods, teaching content,implementation and assessment。 According to the new curriculum ,teacher’s roles will be quite different from the past。 Teachers are no longer merely considered to be informants and sources  f  knowledge。  Particularly,an innovative teaching approach-the task-based approach to English language teaching-was recommended and great couraged in the curriculum(Curriculum Standard,2001,p。1-5)。The new curriculum standard lists six principles for the teachers to conform。 These principles are consistent with the basic features of TBA(Task-based Approach)。They point out that tasks should be related to students’ real life and should link to students’ needs。 They emphasize that the goal for TBA is to develop students’ ability to use the language for communication。From that on, the TBA and TBLT are spread widely in China。

British linguist Jane Willis  （1996： 38） proposed three stages of TBLT： pre-task，来自优Q尔W论E文R网wWw.YouERw.com 加QQ75201.8766

task-cycle and language focus。 Skehan （ 1996 ） called them “ pre-task ， during task and post-task”。 Typically， TBLT is put into practice in these three stages：

The pre-task is usually the shortest stage in the framework。 It could vary between two and twenty minutes， depending on the learners’ degree of familiarity with the topic and the type of the tasks （Willis， 1996： 42）。 The teacher should call attention， introduce the task， create interest and explain related words， phrases and sentences that will be used in the task。

The task cycle consists of task， planning and report。 During the task phase， students work in groups and use whatever language resources they have to achieve the goals of the task， while the teacher just monitors from a distance， gives help when there need it most and stops the task when most groups have finished。The language focus includes analysis and practice phase， in which the students give feedback after the reports and tasks ， during which the errors are

corrected by the teacher or by students themselves， and then the teacher conducts the practice of language items。

So what is a task? Ellis(203) is an example of a bare essentials approach to task definition。Based on a detailed study of a number of previous definitions(including among others), Ellis’ definition is framed in terms of a set of essential,criterial properties。

Ellis’s definition of ‘task’

1。  A task is a workplan。

2。 A task involves a primary focus on meaning。

3。 A task involves real-world processes of language use。

4。 A task can involve any of the four language skills。

5。 A task engages congnitive process。

6。 A task has a clearly defined communicative outcome。

(Ellis,2003:9-10)

But Samuda and Bygate have a little different opinions。 Rather than defining tasks as ‘ workplan ’ , they propose that they can be more usefully defined as a holistic type of pedagogical activity, a term which can encompass both the plan itself(the task on paper)and how论文网

that plan is subsequently interpreted and enacted by  learners and teachers。After their discussion, they give the five aspects of tasks。

All in all, these can be expressed in a single sentence: A task is a holistic activity which engages language use in order to achieve some non-linguistic outcome while meeting a linguistic challenge,with the overall aim of promoting language learning, through process or product or both。