One of the ultimate goals of task-based language teaching and learning (TBLT) is to conduct empirical research that has the potential for meaningful and positive impact in L2 classrooms and larger communities. For this impact to occur, however, stakeholders beyond the researcher must be included at all stages of a task-based project. In this talk I detail an ongoing task-based collaborative project that has intentionally incorporated stakeholders including local teachers, administrators, parents, and target L2 learner participants, and is resulting in both community and empirical impact. Specifically, I discuss the needs analysis, subsequent design, implementation, and ongoing evaluation in a task-based Spanish L2 elementary-level exposure-track program that we created for a local school district and that is currently in its first semester of use in a diverse rural elementary school where more than 30% of the community speaks Spanish at home. I will also demonstrate that exposure-track students can develop an L2 (Spanish) when tasks are well designed and contextualized within a specific community. Finally, I will stress the necessity of collaboration and support for elementary-level public school teachers in the US.

Laura Gurzynski-Weiss  is Associate Professor and Director of Undergraduate Studies in the Department of Spanish and Portuguese at Indiana University, where she teaches courses in second language acquisition, Task-Based Language Teaching, research and teaching methods, individual differences, and Hispanic Linguistics. Recent research projects include task-based needs analysis and curriculum design for exposure-track Spanish at the elementary level, as well as for a domestic Spanish immersion camp at the high school level. She directs the Task-Based Language Learning Task Bank, is the Secretary General for the International Association of Applied Linguistics (AILA), is the co-founder and co-director of AILA Ibero-America, and serves on the executive board of the International Association for Task-Based Language Teaching.