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In:Task-Based Language Learning – Insights from and for L2 Writing:
Edited by Heidi Byrnes and Rosa M. Manchón
[Task-Based Language Teaching 7] 2014
► pp. 267–299

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Task, task performance, and writing development

Advancing the constructs and the research agenda

Published online: 14 November 2014
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https://doi.org/10.1075/tblt.7.11byr
This closing chapter aims to assess the contribution of the book to TBLT theory and research and to put forward directions for advancing TBLT constructs and research agendas. We consider the volume’s overall contribution to the TBLT field to lie in linking the psycholinguistic with the textual, meaning-making nature of writing and in presenting theoretical and methodological refinements along with empirical advances that reflect that orientation. We have organized the details of that contribution as well as the suggestions for future research directions along four closely inter-related foci, namely: (a) a learner-internal perspective that explores the volume’s findings regarding the learner dimension of tasks and the learner’s agency in task execution; (b) a learning orientation that summarizes the studies’ findings and suggests new research paths that elaborate the proposed new theoretical positions, particularly in terms of their ability to specify the nature of learning and development through task-based writing; (c) a textual meaning-making orientation that expands the empirical research agenda for tasks as meaning-making environments and considers implications for assessing task performance from a psycholinguistic and a textual perspective; and (d) a curricular orientation that would illuminate what instructed learners might be able to accomplish when they have the benefit of a principled task- and text-oriented instructional framework.
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