Second Language Acquisition and Task-Based Language Teaching

This book offers an in-depth explanation of Task-Based Language Teaching (TBLT) and the methods necessary to implement it in the language classroom successfully.

• Combines a survey of theory and research in instructed second language acquisition (ISLA) with insights from language teaching and the philosophy of education
• Details best practice for TBLT programs, including discussion of learner needs and means analysis; syllabus design; materials writing; choice of methodological principles and pedagogic procedures; criterion-referenced, task-based performance assessment; and program evaluation
• Written by an esteemed scholar of second language acquisition with over 30 years of research and classroom experience
• Considers diffusion of innovation in education and the potential impact of TBLT on foreign and second language learning

Mike Long is Professor of SLA at the University of Maryland, College Park, USA, where he teaches in the Advanced Graduate Certificate, M.A. and Ph.D. in SLA programs. His recent publications include Sensitive periods, language aptitude, and ultimate L2 attainment (2013), The Handbook of Language Teaching (Wiley-Blackwell, 2009), Problems in SLA (2007), Second Language Needs Analysis (2005), and The Handbook of Second Language Acquisition (Blackwell, 2003).