發(fā)布時(shí)間：2017-04-17 15:49

Chapter One In troduction

As a language tool, English plays a crucial role in international economic andcultural exchanges and the grasp of new technologies. Its importance has beenextensively concerned in the community, and it is also a necessary course in varioustypes of schools at all levels of education. Since vocational school students are mostlyin poor foundation of English, coupled with the absence of academic pressure, and thetraditional “spoon-fed” teaching method, many teachers are just to complete theteaching task while many students are simply to complete the credits with reluct antparticipation in English class. According to the author’s teaching experience and thecolleges’ reflection, the author found out the following main problems are existing insecondary vocational English class: 1) the students are reluctant to participate in classactivities; 2) the students tend to keep silent when the teacher asking questions; 3)some of the students are doing other things that have nothing to do with English class.The author has been applying the traditional teaching approach before the actionesearch, and the teaching effect is not so good. Because the class hours are very short,it’s hard to achieve a better teaching effect by traditional teaching approach. Facedwith this situation, to explore an easy and effective teaching mode has become themost urgent need.The thesis consists of five parts: Chapter one briefly introduces the background,purpose and significance of the study. In chapter two, the literature review andtheoretic foundations are stated. The author states the connotation, features, principles,and mode of task-driven teaching approach. Then, the definition, features and the keysteps of action research are illustrated. After that, some theories related to task-driventeachingare stated. At last, studies of task-based teaching both at home and abroad arelisted. Chapter three is about the design of the action research. It includes the researchquestions, research subject, the instruments, the action plan, and the implementationof the action plan. Then it moves on to chapter four, in which data collection andreflection are included; In the last chapter, the author makes a brief conclusion. Themain contents are: major findings, implications for further teaching, and limitations ofthe research.
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Chapter Two Literature Review

2.1 Statement of the Core Concepts

Task-driven teaching advocates the teacher assigns tasks of a class first, and thenthe knowledge and skills is got by students’ completion of the tasks. That is,knowledge is included in specific tasks. Under the driving of tasks, Students decompose, analyze and discuss them, so as to determine the main tasks related to thepoint and the type of knowledge and what needs to solve. After the tasks are assigned ,the students begin to collect, access and process the corresponding materials, and findways tosolve problems and get things done through independent learning orcollaborative learning, in order to gain knowledge, so that their ability getstrengthened. In the process of completing the tasks, the teacher plays a major role ofguiding the students’ independent learning. Combining the students’ independent learning with the teacher's guide r, so as to train students’ ability to analyze and solveproblems and through which the “teacher is talking, the students are passivelistening.” teaching mode is totally broken.Compared to traditional teaching methods, the roleof students under task-drivenprocess has also changed a lot, and they become the principal part of learning. Thetasks assigned by teachers should be able to stimulate students’ interest in learning,and let students play the main role in the teaching process. Thus, the students need to determine the direction of the study master the learning progress, and make a seriousanalysis and solutions encountered all the problems based on their own characteristics.And then continue to constantly improve self-learning ability and creative ability.Task itself can probably be divided into two types, one is that the students can solvendependently, which is relatively simple; the other is that the students need tocomplete this task by group collaboration, which is a bit more complicated. Duringthe process of completing the task, the members of the group continue to deepentheir understanding with each other, enhance their friendship, and enhance the abilityof cooperation.

2.2 Theoretical Foundation

Constructionist learning theory points out: “Learning is to construct internalmental representation of the process, and it is not to move knowledge from externalmemory, but on the basis of the existing experience, to construct new understanding sby interacting with the outside world” (DJCunningham, 1991). In traditional“indoctrination” mode of education, teachers as knowledge transmitters, in spite ofteachers’ detailed interpretation of knowledge specifically in the classroom, in can notstimulate students’ interest in learning. Students are still passive recipients and thedominant position of the students has not been reflected, without their own thinking,students’ interest can not be stimulated very well. In learning activities,constructionist learning theory particularly emphasizes on learning context. Learner’sknowledge input is an experience of the real situation. It is necessary to use certainlearning resources to complete the construction of knowledge effectively. Teachersshould create a close-to-reality “context” for the learners. Under the guidance of theconstructionist the students will have enough time to communicate with each other to practice the target language. English learning should be student-centered, to constructknowledge by students own achievements. Teachers also need to stimulate students’interest in learning English, to help them form correct learning motivation, and acreation kind of learning environment corresponding to the teaching contents must be
created for the students.

Chapter Three Research Design.......15
3.1 Research Questions......... 15
3.2 Research Subjects ..... 15
3.3 Research Instruments ........ 16

3.4 Research Plan........ 16

3.5The Implentation of the Action Plan ........ 20

Chapter Four DataAnalysis and Discussion............25

4.1 Data Analysis .............. 25
4.1.1 Questionnaire ............... 25
4.1.2 Classroom Observation...... 29
4.1.3 Interview ....... 29
4.2 Reflection......... 31
Chapter Five Conclusion............34
5.1 Major Findings .............. 34
5.2 Implications for Further Teaching....... 34
5.3 Limitations of the Research ....... 35

Chapter Four Data Analysis and Discussion

4.1 Data Analysis

In the last week of the action research, the author conducts a survey byquestionnaire to the 58 students, and an interview to several of the students representdifferent levels in the last week, for the sake of knowing how the students changedtheir attitude in learning English and also how they thought of the relevant policiesacted in the past 10weeks. According to the data collected in this research, the authorwill analyze and discuss the two research questions one by one.The questionnaire is conducted from three main aspects: the students’ groupcooperation, and the students’ capacity of task completion and the students’ attitudetoward question answering. 58 copies are sent out and all of them are recovered. Theresults can be seen in table 3, table 4 table and table 5.As it shown in the above table, from the first aspect (the students’ capacity oftask completion), 72.5% of the students investigated believe that the tasks assigned bythe teacher are correspondent with their actual situation; and most of the students areeager to get help from the teacher; although there are some students still can not finishthe class tasks well, the proportion is relatively small. 67.3% of the students maintainthat after applying task-driven teaching approach, they gain more vocabulary in thepre-task round, which helps them to finish the tasks more smoothly later. More than70% of the subjects think that with the help of the accumulation of the words andexpressions, useful sentences and model dialogues, they know how to expressthemselves in finishing the tasks; Most of the students are pleased to finish theearning tasks with their group members; 60.4% of the students believe that they canactively gain knowledge and skills by completing classroom tasks. The students whomaintain that English class is more interesting and task completing is just likepreviewing the job they will do in their life accounts for 67.3%.

4.2 Reflection

The results of the data collection show that task-driven teaching approachsomehow works in improving the students’ class engagement and interest in learningEnglish at vocational schools and it proves that, for secondary vocational schoolstudents, task-driven teaching approach is a more effective English teaching methodcompared to the traditional teaching approach .And the research purpose is achievedto a certainextent. The data induction of the questionnaire survey, together with theinduction summary of the interview results all provides a reliable and strong basis forthe action research.What the researcher did well are: 1) the tasks for each class are designed just forthe students’ needs. The author gives a clear ultimate goal to the students first, thendevelops a practical task, which should be consistent with the teaching objectives andteaching content by analyzing and summarizing the teaching content, after that, theauthor also has to create a suitable scenario for each task because of creating real taskscenario is more conducive for students to complete the task successfully and toarouse students’ interest; 2) the teacher always providecounseling and assistance inthe process of finishing tasks, which needs a lot of patience but helps a lot with thestudents’ group work; 3) the author tries a lot to create a more relaxing learningenvironment, for instance, the teacher will use her sense of humor to deal with theembarrassment occurred in class, which makes it easier for students to answer questions; 4) the author often gives comments on the students’ performance timely,which makes the students know their advantages and disadvantages and how toimprove next time. Thus, day by day, it enhances the students’ ability of taskcompletion and question answering.
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Chapter Five Conclusion

5.1 Major Findings

After ten weeks of implementation of task-driven teaching approach, the answersof the two research questions are not difficult to draw from the data analysis andrefection in chapter four.For the first research question (Does task-driven teaching approachimprovestudents’ class engagement in vocational English class? And in what aspects?), theanswers are: task -driven teaching approach does improve students’ engagement invocational English class in the following aspects: In the first place, the students cancomplete class tasks more smoothly; In the second place, the students’ activeness andenthusiasm of answering questions are improved to a certain extent ; In the third place,the students do much better in group work.For the second question (What do the students gain from task-driven classroomlearning?), the answers can be summarized in the following aspects: Firstly, thestudents’ communication skills are improved to a certain extent; Secondly, theinter-person relationship between students and students, the teacher and the studentshas improved a lot; Thirdly, the students learned how to cooperate with others.

5.2 Implications for Further Teaching

According to reflection of the research, the author draws some implications forfurther vocational English teaching.For teachers, they need to pay attention to the following things: 1)Whendetermining the tasks, the teacher has to take the students’ actual need and theirpractical ability and into consideration. Try to choose the tasks they are interested inand they are capable of finishing as well as they probably meet in the future work.2)Teachersshould enhance the teaching efficiency integrally as well as enhance positiveevaluation, and establish a good teacher-student relationship. 3)In addition, teachersshould design a variety of classroom activities according to the teaching content andcreate a good, relaxed, and lively classroom atmosphere to stimulate students’ interestin learning; 4) Teachers should constantly adjust action programs based on the actualteaching situation. According to student learning, constantly revision of the actionplan to deal with new problems arising in the course of the study is also necessary.For students, 1) they had better change the wrong self-awareness and evaluation,that means, they should know that their English is not so poor as they thought beforeand be willing to accept the teacher’s help. 2) They need to increase theirself-confidence and establish the correct learning motivation. They should know thatEnglish is important under internationalism of every area employment generator; atleast, oral English skill is a must. 3) Students have to learn to cooperate with theirgroup members and try to use their specialty to accomplish the tasks the teacherassigned.

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