Task-Based Syllabus

A syllabus organised around pedagogic tasks (purposeful activities with non-linguistic outcomes) as the units of selection, sequencing, and evaluation. Linguistic content is not pre-specified; it arises from the language demands of the tasks learners are expected to perform.

Origin

Two lineages converge on the modern task-based syllabus. N.S. Prabhu's Procedural Syllabus from the Bangalore Communicational Teaching Project (1979–1984), reported in Second Language Pedagogy (1987), supplied the proof-of-concept that a syllabus could consist of nothing but tasks. Michael Long's "A role for instruction in second language acquisition: task-based language teaching" (in Hyltenstam and Pienemann, eds., Modelling and Assessing Second Language Acquisition, Multilingual Matters, 1985, pp. 77–99) supplied the SLA rationale and a more rigorous specification, refined over three decades and consolidated in Second Language Acquisition and Task-Based Language Teaching (Wiley-Blackwell, 2015).

Task vs Exercise

Long (2015) distinguishes the target task — what people do in the world outside the classroom (renting an apartment, reading a lab report, lodging a complaint) — from the pedagogic task derived from it for classroom use. Both differ from an exercise, which manipulates linguistic forms without a non-linguistic outcome. Skehan (1998) sets four criteria for a task: meaning is primary, there is a goal, success is judged by outcome, the task relates to real-world activity. A drill that requires the learner to transform ten sentences into the past perfect fails all four; a role-play with a clear outcome and meaning-driven choices passes.

Design Features

Needs Analysis identifies the target tasks the cohort must perform, in domains specified by occupational, academic, or social demand. Target tasks are grouped into task types and pedagogic versions are graded by complexity, with Robinson's Cognition Hypothesis and Skehan's complexity-accuracy-fluency framework supplying the main grading metrics. Sequencing moves from simpler to more complex versions of the same task type, with focus-on-form interventions targeting linguistic problems learners reveal under pressure.

Long's strong version excludes pre-selected linguistic syllabus entries; Ellis and others advance weaker versions that combine task sequences with a parallel structural or lexical strand, shading toward Multi-Syllabus design.

Relation to Other Syllabus Types

Task-based syllabuses are analytic in Wilkins's (1976) sense: language is encountered whole and analysed in use. They contrast with synthetic designs that present language piece by piece. CLT is the broader pedagogic family within which TBLT sits; PPP and structural-functional sequencing remain the dominant alternatives in commercial coursebooks.

References

• Long, M. H. (1985). A role for instruction in second language acquisition: task-based language teaching. In K. Hyltenstam and M. Pienemann (eds.), Modelling and Assessing Second Language Acquisition (pp. 77–99). Multilingual Matters.
• Long, M. H. (2015). Second Language Acquisition and Task-Based Language Teaching. Wiley-Blackwell.
• Nunan, D. (2004). Task-Based Language Teaching. Cambridge University Press.
• Skehan, P. (1998). A Cognitive Approach to Language Learning. Oxford University Press.
• Ellis, R. (2003). Task-Based Language Learning and Teaching. Oxford University Press.