Innovation in Language Learning

PETALL, an acronym for Pan-European Task-based Activities for Language Learning, is an international project co-sponsored by the European Commission which seeks to encourage the use of ICT-based tasks in the language classroom. Task-based language teaching (TBLT) is an approach that has witnessed a growing interest on the part of the teaching community over the past few years, especially thanks to the Common European Framework of Reference (CEFR) and to the national curricula across Europe, all of which acknowledge its importance in the development of the children’s language and communicative skills. Research has provided strong evidence of its benefits, but in general teachers are still reluctant to make use of it in the language classroom due to a series of practical constraints and requirements. This is even truer when the tasks involve ICT. In order to tackle this problem, the consortium members (teacher training institutions and high schools from ten different countries) have built on the products of previous projects to draw a multinational plan for ICT-based task design management. The objectives are: promote mutual understanding and awareness of linguistic and cultural diversity through ICT-based TBLT; enhance the quality of teacher education in technology-mediated TBLT; help the teachers further develop their digital competence. This paper aims to disseminate the results of the project, as well as to encourage teachers, researchers and teacher trainers to make use of its products and services.