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A Case Study on Task Preference of Art Students

Author: LiMeng
Tutor: LiuAiJun
School: Beijing University of Posts and Telecommunications
Course: Foreign Linguistics and Applied Linguistics
Keywords: art students task type task preference English performance
CLC: H319.3
Type: Master's thesis
Year: 2013
Downloads: 1
Quote: 0
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Abstract


Since1970s, Communicative Language Teaching (CLT) has gained a worldwide popularity and application. Task-Based Language Teaching (TBLT) is a development of GLT. It leads students to learn English by fulfilling a series of tasks. With the development of CLT and TBLT, the study of tasks has become a very important issue. For the Chinese students, English learning mainly takes place in the classroom. English class always consists of various language tasks. Nunan (1986) found stark contrasts and dramatic mismatches between the preferences of learners and teachers in relation to selected learning tasks and activities. Therefore, researches on students’ task preference are of great importance. So far, there are many studies about tasks, but few of them choose art students as subjects.In view of the increasing importance of language tasks, taking the related teaching methodology, the broad definition of task and Crooks and Chaudron’s (1991) classification of tasks as the theoretical framework, detailed explorations of8specific tasks which are grouped into three types were done in the present study. The author makes a case study on the task preference of30freshmen majored in Digital Media Art in Beijing University of Posts and Telecommunications and explores the differences of task preference between high achievers and low achievers as well as the relationship between task preference and English performance by using the instruments of questionnaire, scores of final examination and interview. The analysis indicates that1) Students prefer free tasks most and controlled tasks least. In terms of individual items, the tasks students prefer are Problem Solving, Reading/Reciting Texts and Group Discussion, while the tasks students dislike are Translation and Grammar Drill;2) High achievers and low achievers’preferences for Grammar Drill, Dictation, Translation and Information Exchange differ significantly, among which three are controlled tasks and one is a semi-controlled task;3) Significant correlations exist between students’ task preferences for Grammar Drill, Reading/Reciting Texts, Information Exchange, Group Discussion and their English performance;4) From the interview, the author finds that students like speaking tasks which related to real communication and dislike sole grammar drill. They agree that the preference for certain task can help them complete the task easily. As art students, they hope the language tasks deal more with their majors and desire diversified language tasks.At the end of the thesis, the author suggests that for the teaching of art students, English teachers should have some knowledge of their students’preferences for different language tasks, apply more free tasks in classroom teaching and pay attention to the practice of controlled tasks, especially the practice of Grammar Drill, to improve students’ basic language ability. It is should be noticed that controlled tasks are better to be implemented in communicative ways. Due to the time and condition, the thesis has its limitations and further studies are needed.

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CLC: > Language, writing > FOREIGN > English > Language teaching > Teaching method
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