ENGLISH ABSTRACT: The purpose of this study is to investigate complexity in isiXhosa task-based second language (L2) learning and teaching in the Eastern Cape and South African primary school intermediate phase context in order to identify the specific learning needs of young beginner second language learners in the school instructional context. The study explores the use of communicative tasks for young beginner second language teaching. It aims at providing a sound theoretical foundation of language learning principles supporting task-based teaching for young learners. Cognitive and social perspectives on language learning within second language acquisition and related disciplinary fields presenting distinct approaches and foci in investigating second language learning and teaching are regarded, integrated and consolidated, informing a more comprehensive view of the dynamic processes and varying factors involved. Second language learning is assumed to be a non-linear, cumulative, ever-developing process relying on learner engagement with quantity and quality input, authentic meaning-orientated output and feedback on language production facilitating language development. Supporting task-based language teaching where tasks form the units of analysis for lesson design and syllabus design, the study identifies core complexity features in task design, task-based interaction, task-based assessment and task sequencing, allowing teachers and syllabus designers to adjust pedagogic task complexity on a cline matching young beginner L2 learners’ learning needs. Robinson’s Cognition Hypothesis provides a rationale for categorizing, grading and sequencing pedagogic tasks for second language acquisition. Young beginner L2 learners’ age and existing language knowledge are considered critical factors in determining learning needs contributing to task difficulty. Additionally, the study examines linguistic complexity and linguistic difficulty, analysing example target tasks for young beginner isiXhosa L2 learners in primary school intermediate phase, motivating task-based focus on form methodology representing various degrees of explicitness facilitating noticing and learner L2 development. In order to identify the specific learning needs of young beginner isiXhosa L2 learners in primary school intermediate phase context, an affordances theory in an interdisciplinary investigation, analysing theoretical perspectives on the instructional task, individual learner factors, the context of learning and components of language development, is presented. It is argued that task-based L2 teaching contextualizes the task process in terms of local learning needs affording learner awareness and engagement with the target language needed for language development. It is further argued that a primary concern in task-based second language teaching is task design, allowing for learner participation through motivating task contents and graded task complexity relating to learner readiness in terms of individual learner factors, affording the development of implicit and explicit language knowledge.