Task-Based Language Teaching for Adult Migrants and Refugees: A Critical Review of Linguistic Development, Participation and Social Inclusion

Adult migrants and refugees frequently learn the language of their receiving society while navigating employment, healthcare, housing, education and public services. Task-based language teaching (TBLT), with its emphasis on purposeful communication and meaningful language use, appears well suited to these practical and socially situated needs. Nevertheless, the relationship between completing classroom tasks and achieving wider social inclusion remains insufficiently examined. This critical integrative review explores how and under what conditions TBLT can support the linguistic development, participation and social inclusion of adult migrants and refugees. It synthesises scholarship on task-based pedagogy, adult migrant language education, learner agency and socially situated language learning. The review distinguishes three interconnected but non-equivalent outcomes: development of communicative competence, participation within learning environments, and participation in social and institutional life beyond the classroom. It argues that real-world relevance alone does not make a task inclusive. The accessibility and value of task-based provision are shaped by learners’ literacy and educational histories, migration circumstances, employment and caring responsibilities, digital access, experiences of trauma, and opportunities to use language outside formal lessons. This paper proposes a critical framework for inclusive TBLT organised around learner-defined relevance, accessible participation, supported agency, recognition and dignity, and connection with institutions and communities beyond the classroom. It concludes that TBLT can contribute meaningfully to adult migrant and refugee education when tasks are co-constructed, appropriately scaffolded and connected to genuine opportunities for participation. The review therefore shifts attention from whether TBLT is effective in general to the pedagogical and structural conditions under which it can become an inclusive practice.