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Task-Based Language Teaching

Task-based language teaching (TBLT) is a communicative approach to language instruction which focuses on the successful completion of “tasks” as its primary goal. Other terms, often used interchangeably, are task-based learning (TBL), task-based language learning (TBLL) and task-based instruction (TBI).

Tasks are usually defined as:

• corresponding to a real-world activity; and • having a clear non-linguistic outcome; and • allowing for an authentic, meaningful use of language.

Examples of tasks include Write a thank-you letter, Order a pizza, Listen to a lecture, Read a news article, and Make a paper airplane. Each of these corresponds to something that is done in the real world. Most also happen to include a linguistic component, but note that this component is not the outcome. For instance, having spoken English is not the point of ordering a pizza; getting pizza is the point of ordering a pizza. Finally, each of these is meaning-focused and relatively unrestricted as to which language forms can be used. For example, a thank-you letter could contain a number of grammar mistakes, and it could even avoid using the past tense entirely, and still be received as an appropriate thank-you letter.

This brings us to another crucial aspect of TBLT tasks, which is that they must be assessed primarily according to their outcome. Whether a learner can order a pizza appropriately should be measured first by whether that pizza has—or, in a classroom situation, would have—arrived, and not by whether the learner has used certain target language items such as “Could I have extra cheese?” or “That will be $20”.

To put it the other way, grammar worksheets, vocabulary tests, scripted dialogs, etc. are never tasks in a TBLT sense. They may be useful components of instruction, but they are decidedly NOT “real-world” activities, they have no intended outcome besides language practice, and they strongly favor accuracy over meaning.

In short, a task-based approach organizes lessons in such a way that learners will focus on getting something done while using the language, rather than on the explicit practice of language forms, as in more traditional methods of instruction.