The task-based language learning (TBLL) approach is used in the context of foreign language pedagogy. Since a programming language is also a language by definition, this emerges the question whether the approach can also be used for learning programming. The paper presents fundamentals of the TBLL approach and illustrates how it can be adopted for learning an object-oriented programming language. It gives suggestions for concrete specifications of a task-based programming learning (TBPL) and shows their effects on an exemplary programming task.