Three steps in teaching--pre-task,main task and subsequent evaluation--are followed in teaching to arouse students’ interest in studying English,increase their motivation in learning,so that learner autonomy is achieved.

Based upon a research into task-based input in English writing teaching by means of a survey on college students,the author discusses the importance of pre-tasks,and puts forward some suggestions in designing the pre-activities in task-based English writing teaching.

The enlightenment it gives us is that we can design appropriate pre-reading tasks to help students build up absent schemata or activate schemata that they have already possessed.