III Colloquium on Semi-Immersion in CataloniaIII Encuentro sobre Semi-Inmersión en CataluñaThe goal of this paper is to discuss the role of tasks and task-based research may play in content and language integrated learning (CLIL) program development. In the last three decades, a large body of research has been conducted in all areas of task-based program development. A number of task-based approaches have looked at how task-based interaction and performance may contribute to L2 development and acquisition. Both from and interactive (i.e. looking at how learners or learners and teachers may interact) and cognitive (i.e. looking at how information is processed in the learners' mind) perspective, task-based research has triggered promising results for the balanced development of L2 production and acquisition. I suggest that such evidence can be useful for and complementary to current research into and implementation of CLIL. It is argued that content in many subjects (i.e. chemistry, geography) is often organized into tasks, and that program design in CLIL can benefit from what is known about task-based performance and its impact on learners' interlanguage development. The paper will first deal with how needs analysis may be used to identify the relationship between tasks, content, and language in CLIL. The paper will argue that a properly handled needs analysis will contribute to the identification of goals, processes, and outcomes, which in turn can inform program development. It is suggested that both content experts and language experts need to be involved in need analysis. Secondly, a series of suggestions will be made as to how tasks and content may be selected, sequenced, and graded. The paper will consider different criteria, such as difficulty or cognitive complexity which have been advanced for the sequencing of units within a program and will evaluate them critically. Thirdly, it will look at how research into task-based methodology may be applicable to a CLIL context. It will be posited that task design and pre-active, active, and post-active techniques devised for task implementation can provide useful clues to CLIL program development in this area. Finally, the paper will deal with the issue of evaluation in both task-based and CLIL approaches and will briefly tackle the issue of evaluating both content and language
