Adapting the task-based methodology for learners with intellectual disabilities: Five key facets for consideration

Abstract

Conceived within an input–output metaphor of language processing, many traditional assumptions regarding the task-based language teaching (TBLT) approach are finding the teaching of English to learners with special education needs (SENs) difficult. In this concept-based article, I retrace the process of conceiving a “task-supported ecology” for a group of learners with intellectual disabilities by balancing viewpoints of TBLT theorists, ecological psychologists, specialists, and policy-makers. The resulting framework emphasizes ecology to be a capacious concept and also the importance of goal-oriented navigation. I also note how these characteristics resonate with a classic TBLT definition, which contains traces of ecological ideas. The paper presents an evaluation of the TBLT framework, concluding that the less restrictive environment of special schools may offer better-than-expected prospects for implementing this pedagogy.