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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. 22–40

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Chapter 2
Task design

A history of resilience and a space for innovation

 | The University of Barcelona
Published online: 24 April 2025
DOI logo with link
https://doi.org/10.1075/tblt.17.02gil
Abstract
Task design is serious business for teachers and syllabus designers around the world. Despite the proliferation of TBLT programmes, concerns have been raised about a disconnect existing between research findings and decision-making by teachers. This chapter firstly presents an exploration of top-down sources for teachers wanting to engage in task design, such as the vast task-based research literature, in order to provide historical context for issues with task design. Secondly, the chapter explores needs analysis as a practice that may offer a partial solution to the emergent issues, drawing on the author’s own direct experiences. Thirdly, it is suggested that task and syllabus design need to open up to principles outside TBLT that provide considerable room for bottom-up design by incorporating teachers and teacher communities into the design process. An inspection of other fields that may inform task-based design, such as human-machine interaction design or learning design, is followed by a reflection on how principles and practices from neighbouring fields may generate innovation and new avenues for task-based design as we move further into the 21st century.
Article outline
  • Introduction
  • An overview of task and syllabus design
    • Setting up a fully task-based language programme
      • Developments in the TBLT literature
      • From needs analysis to task design
      • Task and syllabus design beyond needs analysis
  • Task and syllabus design in the 21st century
    • Task design in the 21st century
    • Natural Language Processing (NLP)
    • Human-machine interaction
    • Learning designer software
  • Conclusion
  • Acknowledgements
  • Note
  • References
References (39)
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