Language teaching based on communicative tasks: evolution of the approach and its prospects

Abstract

The article explores one of the most popular approaches to language education in western applied linguistics – task-based language teaching (TBLT). In this context, a task is understood as a pragmatic assignment the accomplishment of which requires communicative efforts of the students. The article traces the history and development of the TBLT approach. The existing TBLT models and the main types of tasks are presented. The study highlights the key differences between TBLT and conventional language teaching. A large section of the work is devoted to the technology-mediated TBLT for online and blended environments. Issues related to its practical implementation as well as those requiring further research are discussed.

Keywords

• foreign language
• english
• communicative language teaching
• language instruction
• task
• task-based language teaching and learning
• language acquisition
• digital technologies
• blended learning
• online classroom