3. Methodology 9

3.1 Research questions 9

3.2 Research content 10

3.3 Participants 10

3.4 Instruments: questionnaire 10

3.5 Data collection and analysis 11

4. Results and discussion 12

4.1 Basic information of teachers and schools 12

4.2 Teachers’ knowledge about TBLT and their attitudes towards TBLT 14

4.2.1 Teachers knowledge about TBLT 14

4.2.2 Teachers’ attitudes towards TBLT 15

4.3 The specific implementation of TBLT 16

4.4 The effects of TBLT in middle school 19

4.5 The problems and difficulties of carrying out TBLT 20

5. Conclusion and Suggestion 22

5.1 Conclusion 22

5.2 Suggestions for designing tasks 22

6. References 24

7. Appendix…....25 

1. Introduction

1.1 Background of the research

The frequent exchange among countries and the rapid development of the world make English become an international language. So it is of great significance for us Chinese to obtain a good command of English. It is obvious to see that English has been put much attention in English class. In order to satisfy students’ needs, both specialists and teachers concentrate on finding better teaching methods to achieve that goal. However, there are still exists some problems in the present situation of English education. It is commonly believed that teacher-centered education has dominated Chinese education for a long time, and Chinese students are often regarded as passive learners, and actually this understanding of Chinese education is true. As for English teachers they are accustomed to traditional methods, and sometimes may neglect training students’ practical abilities, such as speaking freely, fluently and confidently. As a consequence, TBLT, a student-centered approach is believed to be a solution in reforming EFL instruction. Influenced by traditional teaching method for so many years, our English education still has a long way to go. As far as English basic education is concerned, Li Lanqing (2003) once said:”At present, wasting more time and getting fewer achievements is a main problem in English basic education in China.” In order to better solve these kinds of problems, luckily, New English Curriculum Standard published which pays more attention to improve students’ language skills and study method. It promotes the learning methods of experience, practice, participation, communication and cooperation and emphasizes students doing things in English and experiencing the success of learning in tasks. Besides, it also emphasizes the importance of TBLT. With the development of TBLT, it has gradually become mature and been widely applied in teaching. However, there are still some problems during the implementation of TBLT. It is believed that task-based approaches are of Anglo-American origin and that this may bring them into conflict with cultural contexts outside the western world (Ellis, 2003) . So when TBLT is adopted in Chinese classrooms, it may need to involve a compromise between communication-oriented approaches and traditional methodologies, where for example, language teaching is generally seen as the delivery of knowledge rather than the development of communicative skills (Hu, 2005).