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In:Broadening the Horizon of TBLT: Plenary addresses from the second decade of the International Conference on Task-Based Language Teaching
Edited by Martin East
[Task-Based Language Teaching 17] 2025
► pp. 2–19

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Chapter 1
Broadening the horizon of task-based language teaching

Where has the most recent decade brought us?

 | The University of Auckland
Published online: 24 April 2025
DOI logo with link
https://doi.org/10.1075/tblt.17.01eas
Abstract
Since 2005 the biennial International Conferences on Task-based Language Teaching (TBLT) have provided an important catalyst for theorists, researchers, and practitioners to discuss the latest research findings and developments and to consider the vital interface between research and practice. A first volume of plenaries (Bygate, 2015) included addresses delivered at the TBLT conferences between 2005 and 2013. This chapter introduces the second volume which presents a range of plenaries given between 2015 and 2023. It is divided into two parts. Part I presents a historically-situated summary of some of the wider trends that have influenced the emergence and development of TBLT, ending with a brief exploration of several themes that have further broadened the horizon of TBLT, in particular in the most recent decade. Part II interweaves an overview of the past two decades of conferences with my own unfolding story as a TBLT-oriented researcher and teacher educator to illustrate how the conference series has been a significant part of my own journey, culminating in my role as editor of this second collection. I thereby give an account of how my experiences fit together with the broadening TBLT endeavour. I conclude by presenting the themes explored by the range of plenarists whose presentations have been included in this volume.
Article outline
  • Introduction
  • Part I.The impetus for the emergence and development of TBLT
    • 1960s and 1970s
    • The 1980s and beyond
    • The 1990s to 2010s: Decades of growth and expansion
    • The most recent decade: Further broadening the horizon of TBLT
  • Part II.The TBLT conferences
    • The first decade of conferences
    • The second decade of conferences
  • The plenary addresses in this volume
    • Practical issues for task-based courses and curricula
    • Task implementation in distinct instructional contexts
    • Task-based language assessment
    • Theorising and researching TBLT
    • Ethnographic studies into TBLT as researched pedagogy
  • Conclusion
  • Acknowledgements
  • Notes
  • References
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