task based instruction in online classes: an approach to positively affect iranian high school students’ willingness to communicate, learning anxiety and attitudes

It is over three decades that task-based instruction has been the focus of the second language (l2) practitioners across the globe. with the emergence and dissemination of modern technologies leading to the development of online classes, it is essential to investigate if task-based instruction can be implemented to foster l2 learners’ achievements. given this point, the present study aims to inspect the effects of task-based instruction on iranian high school students’ willingness to communicate, learning anxiety, and attitudes. for this purpose, two grade 12 intact classes were selected at shahed high school in borujerd city, iran, and randomly assigned into an experimental group and a control group. next, the willingness to communicate questionnaire, the learning anxiety questionnaire (horwitz, 1986), and the attitudes questionnaire (gardner 2004) were administered as the pre-test. next, the two groups received interventions for 20 one-hour sessions. then, the willingness to communicate questionnaire, learning anxiety questionnaire, and attitudes questionnaire were implemented as the post-test. the results of the independent samples t-tests documented that the participants’ willingness to communicate significantly improved at the end of the interventions. furthermore, the findings revealed that the experimental group’s learning anxiety was relieved on the post-test. moreover, the results documented that the experimental group’s attitudes were positively shaped due to the effects of task-based instruction in online classes. the study ends with offering a range of implications for relevant stakeholders.