Implementing Task-based Learning For Cross-cultural Communication In International Chinese Classrooms

International Chinese programs increasingly require learners to manage cross-cultural interaction in ways that are not only linguistically accurate but also pragmatically appropriate. This pilot methods article presents a classroom protocol for comparing task-based learning with Presentation-Practice-Production in university-level international Chinese classrooms. The protocol is designed to improve methodological transparency by combining matched instructional content, locked teaching and assessment materials, masked rating, reproducible fluency-accuracy-complexity extraction, and a scripted clustered analysis workflow. Intact classes are assigned at the class level to one of the two instructional conditions, and outcomes are collected at baseline, immediate post-test, and follow-up using an oral discourse completion task, a filmed role-play assessment, questionnaires assessing intercultural sensitivity and foreign language speaking anxiety, and speech-based fluency, accuracy, and complexity indices. In a single-site pilot implementation involving four intact classes and 48 adult learners at or above Chinese Proficiency Test level 3, the workflow produced analyzable classroom, rating, questionnaire, and speech data across all three assessment occasions. Descriptive pilot outputs showed larger observed post-test gains in pragmatic appropriateness, intercultural sensitivity, and words per minute in the task-based condition, together with reduced speaking anxiety. Because the protocol was piloted in a very small clustered sample and remains vulnerable to class- and teacher-level confounding, these findings are intended as feasibility-oriented representative outputs rather than robust evidence of comparative effectiveness. This protocol provides a reproducible framework for future multi-class or multi-site implementation, adaptation, and refinement in international Chinese and related second-language settings.