Introduction

In some respects, the advocacy of task-based language teaching (TBLT) has the characteristics of a movement and, is the case with such movements, it has aroused resistance from advocates of traditional, object-oriented teaching (Bruton, 2002; Sheen, 1994; Swan, 2005a). The critiques that have been levelled at TBLT are based on ‘misunderstandings’ about TBLT and concern ‘non-issues’ have already been addressed (see Chapter 8; Long, 2016). There are, however, a number of issues in need of discussion not least because advocates of TBLT do not always agree on what the ‘real issues’ are, and, if they do agree, they differ in how they can be best addressed. In this chapter, then, I want to build on the previous one by staking out my own position on these issues, pointing out where I differ from other advocates of TBLT and suggest a way of addressing fundamental disagreement about the merits of task-supported and task-based language teaching.

Real Issues

Table 9.1 lists the issues that I see as very ‘real’ for the design and implementation of TBLT programmes. In many cases, these issues concern different positions among advocates of TBLT, suggesting the need to debate them and, if possible, arrive at some consensus. Long (2016), in an issue of the Annual Review of Applied Linguistics devoted to TBLT, produced his own list of ‘real issues’ (only #3, 9 and 10 in Table 9.1) based on his particular view of what constitutes TBLT. My list is longer, reflecting my view that alternative versions of TBLT are possible and indeed are necessary to accommodate different instructional contexts.

Issue 1: What is a ‘Task’?

The key question here is whether ‘task’ should be defined narrowly in terms of real-world activities or more generically in terms of activities that Table 9.1 Some real issues in the design and implementation of TBLT courses