ABSTRACT
English as a foreign language needs to be taught so that it is useful in practice. However, currently, in the Japanese education system the approach is often to teach only the logical grammatical structure of English. Even though the Japanese Ministry of Education recognizes that English needs to be taught as a practical skill, beyond requiring that teachers improve their students' second language proficiency, it offers very little guidance on what should be done in the classroom. In this chapter, task-based language teaching (TBLT) is introduced as a method which can be used to develop English as a second language skills beyond grammatical knowledge. Three studies which demonstrate how language learning tasks can be used to develop three dimensions of language skill (accuracy, complexity, and fluency) are offered as evidential support that this approach is effective.
