This is an excellent book, well written, thought-provoking and just with the right balance between theory and practice. It fulfills its main goal by showing that task-based instruction is feasible with young beginners, at least as effective as other methods, and conducive to natural FL classroom interactions, provided it is input-based and teacher-led. It is highly recommend to SLA researchers and practioners, including classroom teachers and teacher trainees.

- Marie Jouannaud, University of Grenoble-Alpes, on Linguist List 28.716 (2017),

This ground-breaking book offers an articulate, persuasive and empirically-based case for task-based learning (TBL) in “difficult” contexts. It is a work of true originality in at least three respects - its innovative approach to input-based tasks; its focus on TBL for beginning learners of pre-primary school age; and in the comprehensive PPP-TBLT method comparison study reported herein. This book is essential reading for researchers and students of TBLT and instructed second language acquisition.

- Jonathan Newton, Victoria University of Wellington,

Natsuko Shintani’s impressive new book combines deep understanding of the theory and research behind TBLT, practical insights from her personal teaching experience, sample materials for implementing TBLT at the classroom level, and some of the finest L2 classroom research to date on this or any other topic. Highly recommended.

- Michael H. Long, University of Maryland,