The main objective of this study was to explore the extent to which task-based language teachingrnis being implemented in Ethiopian higher institutes. To this end, two government colleges,rnCollege of Commerce, Addis Ababa University, and Kotebe College of Teacher Education werernchosen to be the target of the study. The study was conducted on 10 English language instructorsrnand 150 first year degree students of the two colleges. The sample of the study was taken byrnusing stratified random sampling method.rnIn order to gather data from the subjects of the study, questionnaires, observation and interviewrnwere used. Close-ended questionnaires were prepared for both students and instructors andrndistributed to the subjects and all of them were returned. The classes were also observed usingrnobservation checklist while tasks were being implemented. The interview questions werernprepared to get detailed information from the instructors and to cross- check the data gatheredrnby other tools.rnThe collected data showed that higher institutes are using tasks to teach English language tornsome extent, but they are not following the basic principles of task-based language teaching andrnlearning. It was also found out that instructors use the pre-task cycle better than other cycles, butrnthey do not give more attention to planning and reporting stages of task cycle. The post-taskrncycle was almost not implemented in colleges. Factors that negatively affect the implementationrnof task-based instruction in the Ethiopian context are identified. These include studentsâ€™ poorrnbackground, lack of authentic materials, shortage of time to prepare lessons and lack ofrnstudentsâ€™ interest to involve in learning process. Finally, some recommendations were forwardedrnbased on the main findings of the study.