TBLT is used in its original meaning
to refer to genuine Task-Based LT (language teaching),
in which ‘task’ is the unit of analysis at every stage
in the design, delivery and evaluation of a language
course. Such tasks can include visiting a doctor, conducting an interview, or calling customer service for help. This makes TBLT especially popular for developing target language fluency and student confidence.
The difference between the two is that while task-based teaching/learning refers to a teaching approach based on meaning-focused tasks, with little attention given to grammar, in task-supported language teaching "tasks are seen not as a means by which learners acquire new knowledge or restructure their inter-languages, but simply as a means by which learners can activate their existing knowledge of the L2 by developing fluency" (Ellis, 2003: 30). A significant advantage of genuine TBLT is that
appropriate structures, vocabulary and collocations
are retained in the input provided by pedagogic tasks
(positive evidence), since that input is elaborated
to achieve comprehensibility, not simplified, as in
traditional grammar-based course books, with the loss
of genuine usage that is entailed. For
example, the same task will usually be more or less
difficult for learners with or without background
content knowledge or of lower or higher L2 proficiency.
Task-supported LT simply means use of
miscellaneous pedagogic tasks unrelated to learners’
real world needs to practice items in a synthetic
linguistic syllabus of some kind, usually a traditional
grammatical, lexical or notional-functional syllabus. TST offers learners a more meaningful
engagement and a more negotiated syllabus than CLT and TBI when
conducted in three phases: planning, acting and reflection.
Task-supported LT suffers, therefore, from most of the
well-known problems (irrelevance to student needs,
psycholinguistic implausibility, boring lessons, etc.)
characteristic of skill-building approaches that