This webinar provides an overview of task-based language teaching (TBLT), which adopts meaning-based, communicative tasks, as the central unit for defining learning needs, determining curriculum goals, and assessing language competencies. The presenter will begin with a rationale for adopting TBLT as a viable pedagogical approach to teaching second/heritage languages. Participants will also get an overview of a TBLT program. Most of the webinar will be devoted to the design of task-based lessons, which include the criteria for creating a task as well as pre-task and post-task cycles to support the use of the task for instructional purposes. Examples will be provided to illustrate these three phases of task-based instruction.

Presenter: Dr. Julio Torres (UC Irvine)