The Activity Design Typology: A Practitioner-Centered Approach to Understanding Task Structure

Abstract

As the central construct in task-based language teaching (TBLT), “task” has been defined in a myriad of ways. Though popular criterion-based definitions offer a tantalizingly straightforward description of the construct, they have, at times, proved difficult to apply in practitioner contexts. With over 17 definitions identified in the literature, prominent scholars have advocated for efforts that offer a more unified understanding of “task” that may be better able to support task-based language teaching in implementation initiatives. This exploratory, qualitative study examines how two cohorts of K–16 U.S.-based world language teachers ( n = 35) approached task design in a task-based teacher education program from a materials development perspective. An analysis of the 114 activities teachers created revealed that although submissions had task characteristics, the intricacies of their designs were not adequately captured by traditional task criterion. Subsequent analysis following a directed content approach identified five distinct categories of activity design. Advancing previous interest in expanding the binary distinction of “task” versus “non-task,” we drew on these categories to develop the Activity Design Typology. The typology serves as a resource for understanding, explaining, and evaluating instructional tools for their pedagogic and empirical value. Use cases for the task typology are discussed in relation to initiatives aimed to further instructed second language acquisition research agendas and support TBLT implementation efforts.