It is widely assumed that task-based language teaching (TBLT) has been effectively
applied in EFL contexts. In Vietnam, abundant research has been implemented to
examine its effects on English proficiency as well as to identify perceptions and attitudes
of both teachers and learners towards using this approach in classroom contexts. This
paper aims to synthesize trends in research on task-based language teaching in the
context by reviewing results extracted from a corpus of 60 studies. Key aspects like
effects, challenges, teacher/learner perceptions and attitudes were selected for analysis
and synthesis. The results revealed that the research tended to focus more on production
skills than receptive skills, and that the implementation of TBLT was reported to cause
challenges for teachers, while learners tended to hold positive attitudes toward the
approach. Based on the research findings, some lessons were drawn for pedagogy and
future research. For successful TBLT implementation, it is suggested that teachers are
informed of the effects, engaged in reflections and that exams should be shifted towards
communicative competence assessment. Future research could increase sample size and
treatment duration, and especially address the challenges teachers, as the main agent,
encounter in implementation