This paper examines some proposals for a favorite method in language teaching and learning: task-based learning. It gives a comprehensive review of relevant recent literature with particular consideration of the advantages and drawbacks of TBL. It first discusses the nature and communication-orientedness of task-based learning. The paper then offers the major characteristics of TBL with a special emphasis on the teacher’s and students’ role in TBL. Finally, it discusses the significant advantages and drawback of TBL.

Traditional learning environments (for example, grammar translation and audio-lingual) are those where the language is taught to a group of foreign or second language learners. In such cases, the focus is on the language itself, rather than on the information carried out by the language or the way it is processed and used. The teacher's aim is to assure that students learn the new vocabulary and grammatical rules of the new language.