Tasks in Second Language Pedagogy

Abstract

Having traced some of the educational antecedents for the kinds of activities we are calling second language pedagogic tasks, and having considered some of the ways in which those activities have been used in human sciences research, we narrow the focus to concentrate more closely on the development of tasks as a significant force in language teaching. First, we consider the impetus communicative language teaching gave to the development of task-type activities, looking more closely at their roles within different types of communicative language teaching programme. We then turn to closer consideration of the emergence of tasks as a key element of interest.