This book examines the use of tasks in second language instruction in a variety of international contexts, and addresses the need for a better understanding of how tasks are used in teaching and program-level decision-making. The chapters consider the key issues, examples, benefits and challenges that teachers, program designers and researchers face in using tasks in a diverse range of contexts around the world, and aim to understand practitioners’ concerns with the relationship between tasks and performance. They provide examples of how tasks are used with learners of different ages and different proficiency levels, in both face-to-face and online contexts. In documenting these uses of tasks, the authors of the various chapters illuminate cultural, educational and institutional factors that can make the effective use of tasks more or less difficult in their particular context.

This book offers an in-depth explanation of Task-Based Language Teaching (TBLT) and the methods necessary to implement it in the language classroom successfully. Combines a survey of theory and research in instructed second language acquisition (ISLA) with insights from language teaching and the philosophy of education Details best practice for TBLT programs, including discussion of learner needs and means analysis; syllabus design; materials writing; choice of methodological principles and pedagogic procedures; criterion-referenced, task-based performance assessment; and program evaluation Written by an esteemed scholar of second language acquisition with over 30 years of research and classroom experience Considers diffusion of innovation in education and the potential impact of TBLT on foreign and second language learning

Tasks in Second Language Learning aims to re-centre discussion of the ways in which language learning tasks can help offer a holistic approach to language learning, and to explore the research implications. It relates the broad educational and social science rationale for the use of tasks to the principles and practices of their classroom use. The authors provide a balanced review of research as a basis for exploring a broader research agenda. Throughout, the book offers telling illustration of the contributions of a range of specialists in research, teaching methodology and materials development, and of the authors' own argument.

A comprehensive account of the research and practice of task-based language teaching.

Task-based language teaching is now a well-established pedagogic approach but problematic issues remain, such as whether it is appropriate for all learners and in all instructional contexts. This book draws on the author’s experience of working with teachers, together with his knowledge of relevant research and theory, to examine the key issues. It proposes flexible ways in which tasks can be designed and implemented in the language classroom to address the problems that teachers often face with task-based language teaching. It will appeal to researchers and teachers who are interested in task-based language teaching and the practical and theoretical issues involved. It will also be of interest to students and researchers working in the areas of applied linguistics, TESOL and second language acquisition.

This book brings together research that makes use of tasks to examine oral interaction, written production, vocabulary and reading, lexical innovation and pragmatics in different formal language learning contexts and in different languages (English, French, German, Italian and Spanish). It will be of interest to professionals and students working in SLA research and language pedagogy.

The book examines how task-based language teaching (TBLT) can be carried out with young beginner learners in a foreign language context. It addresses how TBLT can be introduced and implemented in a difficult instructional context where traditional teaching approaches are entrenched. The book reports a study that examined how TBLT can be made to work in such a context. The study compares the effectiveness of TBLT and the traditional “present-practice-produce” (PPP) approach for teaching English to young beginner learners in Japan. The TBLT researched in this study is unique as it employed input-based tasks rather than oral production tasks. The study shows that such tasks constitute an ideal means of inducting beginner learners into listening and processing English. It also shows that such tasks lead naturally to the learners trying to use the L2 in communication. It provides evidence to support the claim that TBLT promotes the kind of naturalistic interaction which is beneficial for the development of both interactional and linguistic competence. The book concludes with suggestions for how to implement TBLT in Japanese school contexts.

This volume extends the Task-Based Language Teaching: Issues, Research and Practice books series by deliberately exploring the potential of task-based language teaching (TBLT) in a range of EFL contexts. It is specifically devoted to providing empirical accounts about how TBLT practice is being developed and researched in diverse educational contexts, particularly where English is not the dominant language. By including contributions from settings as varied as Japan, China, Korea, Venezuela, Turkey, Spain, and France, this collection of 13 studies provides strong indications that the research and implementation of TBLT in EFL settings is both on the rise and interestingly diverse, not least because it must respond to the distinct contexts, constraints, and possibilities of foreign language learning. The book will be of interest to SLA researchers and students in applied linguistics and TESOL. It will also be of value to course designers and language teachers who come from a broad range of formal and informal educational settings encompassing a wide range of ages and types of language learners.

This book explores the relationship between research, teaching, and tasks, and seeks to clarify the issues raised by recent work in this field. The book shows how research and task-based teaching can mutually inform each other and illuminate the areas of task-based course design, methodology, and assessment. The author brings an accessible style and broad scope to an area of contemporary importance to both SLA and language pedagogy.

In addition to the approaches and methods covered in the first edition, this edition includes new chapters, such as whole language, multiple intelligences, neurolinguistic programming, competency-based language teaching, co-operative language learning, content-based instruction, task-based language teaching, and The Post-Methods Era.