2025/04/24 by Roger Gilabert · 1 voice
Arts and Humanities · Psychology · Computer Science · #EFL/ESL Teaching and Learning #Innovative Teaching and Learning Methods #Speech and dialogue systems
paper · doi:10.1075/tblt.17.02gil
openalex publication_date 2025/04/24 · openalex created_date 2025/05/09 · openalex updated_date 2026/05/21
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.