Core Definitions
A task is an activity in which learners use the target language to achieve a real communicative outcome, with a focus on meaning rather than form.
It requires learners to understand, convey, and negotiate meaning to accomplish a specific goal — such as solving a problem, giving directions, or planning an event.
FOCUSED TASKS: those that target specific language points.
UNFOCUSED TASKS: those more open-ended and authentic.
Because TBT begins with learners’ real-life communicative needs and designs tasks that reflect those authentic purposes, not just grammar goals.
By assigning tasks, teachers can observe and evaluate how well students use language in practical contexts.
CLASSROOM TASKS (or PEDAGOGICAL TASKS): activities designed within a learning environment to simulate or practice real-life communication / used to help students develop their language skills in context
REAL WORLD TASKS: those that learners might encounter outside the classroom, such as interviews or checking into a hotel / used to simulate authentic language use in practical situations.
PPP focuses on grammar (Presentation, Practice, Production)
TBT starts with tasks, and language development emerges from task performance.
TRUE.
This aligns with Ellis (2003) and Long (2015): the task itself creates a need to communicate, which triggers NOTICING THE GAP, INTERACTION, and FOCUS ON FORM — key mechanisms for acquisition.
By identifying areas where students struggle during tasks, allowing teachers to focus on those specific aspects.
TBT uses tasks as the core of the course — learning happens mainly through completing tasks.
TST uses tasks only after explicit teaching — tasks come after presentation and practice to apply what was taught (the ‘production’ phase)
The traditional grammar-based approach / grammar paradigm used in PPP lessons.
TRUE.
During the task (Reactive FoF) → Teacher or students briefly notice and correct language while communicating.
After the task (Planned FoF) → Teacher revisits useful or problematic forms through enabling tasks (not drills!).
BOTH.
In the post-task stage, learners reflect on how well they completed the task (task performance) and how effectively they used language (language performance).
This allows the teacher to highlight successful communication strategies and raise sts awareness to correct language forms.
Tasks:
(1) involve a primary focus on meaning,
(2) have some kind of ‘gap’;
(3) have a clearly defined communicative outcome;
(4) allow participants to choose the linguistic (and non-linguistic) resources needed to complete them.
FALSE
Communicative success is the required or core outcome in TBT; accuracy may be addressed later but is not the main goal.
FALSE.
The focus on form is typically reactive or emergent, not pre-planned.
Teachers observe learners during the task and later draw attention to language forms that arose naturally from communication, rather than pre-teaching them to ensure accuracy.
It puts significant responsibility on teachers, and studets' performance can be unpredictable depending on their proficiency.