The purpose of this chapter is to present a task-based approach to materials development. In the first part of the chapter, I sketch out the evolution of task based language teaching, drawing on a distinction between synthetic and analytical approaches to syllabus design first articulated by Wilkins (1976).

This book provides teachers with a practical introduction to the design and development of communicative language learning tasks. The ideas presented are relevant to teachers working in or preparing for a range of situations with a variety of learner types. First, some basic issues concerning communicative learning tasks are discussed, and the…