With the globalization and the increase of the foreign-oriented affairs, the oral English teaching and learning in higher vocational colleges has got a wide attention from all walks of life, especially, the educational circle. It has become an important task to explore how to improve the oral English teaching and strengthen students’ practical and communicative ability in higher vocational colleges. Aiming to reform the educational practice and to improve the effect of oral English teaching, a ten-week task-based teaching plan has been designed and some adjustments on teaching content have been done according to the actual situation in implementation. The figures in the final analyses show that not only have the students’ interests, confidence and effect of learning been rapidly improved, but also the teacher’s self–reflection and the ability of putting theories into the practice have been clearly strengthened. The research result in this paper reveals that action research is a useful and practical way to propel the development of the oral English teaching in higher vocational education.