Join Leo Gomez, Neil McCutcheon, and Claudia Fernandez for an 8-session, live online cohort where you’ll move from knowing about TBLT to designing and teaching task-based lessons with confidence – grounded in SLA theory and tested against real classroom decisions.
This program is not about passively watching videos. It’s about learning to make better classroom decisions with real-world constraints – i.e. time, curriculum pressure, mixed levels, and institutional expectations.
Each week focuses on a different aspect of TBLT, where you analyze it using a principled framework, build something for your own context through live facilitation, group discussion, conversation, and hands-on project work.
You’ll see how other teachers solve similar problems and build confidence by actually doing the work, not just talking about it.
Build a shared logic for why tasks drive learning and feel the difference between PPP and a task-based lesson from the inside.
Get crisp on task criteria so you can stop guessing and start designing intentionally.
Turn TBLT into a repeatable routine you can run anytime – not a one-off lesson idea.
Do the task first, then analyze the lesson like a researcher: what was planned vs what actually happened.
Build your own task-based lesson for your classroom – and test-run the setup before you teach it.
Bring back real classroom evidence, then revise your lesson using named design moves – not vibes
Build a practical, reliable routine for capturing and exploiting learner language without sliding back into PPP.
Turn lessons into a coherent mini-unit and assess progress without killing the task.
You’ve read about tasks, watched videos, or tried a few. You want a clear system and feedback so you can implement confidently.
You use tasks sometimes but your lessons still slide back into PPP. You want better task design, better scaffolding, and better Focus on Form timing.
You want a principled way to model TBLT, analyze lessons, and help other teachers build skill - not just collect activities.
Rather than following a scripted “perfect lesson,” you’ll practice making principled choices: how to set tasks up, how to monitor interaction, what to do with emergent language, and how to keep tasks coherent across a unit.
Every major concept starts with you doing the task as a learner. Then we step back and analyze what it did to interaction, attention, and language use so your design choices are grounded in lived experience, not theory alone.
We use a Lesson Study approach to “read” task-based lessons: what was planned, what actually happened, and why. You’ll learn to diagnose task conditions and make specific design moves, not just say “that went well.”
You’ll build a practical routine for Focus on Form using ICE (Identify+Capture+Exploit). That means you’ll know what to notice, how to capture it fast, and how to exploit it after the task without slipping back into PPP.
This isn’t “PD you enjoyed.” It’s work you can use. By the end, you’ll have a task sequence for your context, a Focus on Form plan, and simple outcome-based assessment criteria – ready for your next teaching cycle.
Can’t attend live? Recordings available for enrolled participants.
Want to enroll your team of teachers? Contact us for group pricing.
Leo Gomez is a teacher educator, applied linguist, and independent researcher based in Toronto. He’s been teaching for 25+ years across six countries, working in general English, academic English, ESP, and teacher education; over the last decade, he’s focused on EAP in Canadian colleges and universities. Leo’s work sits at the intersection of SLA research and real classrooms, with a focus on helping teachers build agility and expertise through principled experimentation. In TBL4T, he brings the bridge—turning theory into teachable tasks, routines, and decisions. It’s the course he wishes existed when he first tried to move from PPP to tasks.
Neil McCutcheon started out as a primary school teacher and took his CELTA in 1997. Since then, he’s worked in ELT for 25+ years across ESOL in the UK and EFL internationally. He’s a CELTA and DELTA tutor, a regular conference presenter (including IATEFL), and a published ELT author. Neil now co-directs ELTeach in Nottingham (UK). In TBL4T, he brings practical classroom craft — task ideas, setup moves, and the small tweaks that make tasks actually work.
Claudia R. Fernández is a Clinical Associate Professor at the University of Illinois Chicago, where she directs the Spanish Basic Language Program under a task-based curriculum. She teaches Spanish, linguistics, and teacher education, and her research focuses on classroom language learning, task-based teaching, materials, and processing instruction. Claudia presents widely and contributes actively to professional organizations. In TBL4T, she brings research-informed clarity — especially around Focus on Form, materials, and what strong implementation looks like in real programs.
Everything you need to know about the program.
TBL4T is for teachers who want to build real task-based teaching capability, not just learn concepts in isolation. You’ll practice designing, teaching, and revising lessons using a repeatable framework.
Yes. If you already use tasks, the value comes from strengthening your design decisions: outcomes, conditions, scaffolding, Focus on Form timing, and sequencing into a coherent unit.
That’s fine. The first three sessions build the foundations quickly, and you’ll learn through Experience → Analysis → Design.
No. The goal is principled adaptation. You’ll learn design levers and decision rules so you can make TBLT fit your context.
Plan for 50–75 minutes outside the live session: a short reading response + one design artifact that feeds your final project.
A classroom-ready mini-unit (task sequence), an ICE-based Focus on Form plan, and an assessment plan aligned to outcomes.
