The inclusion of self-regulated learning (SRL) strategies within communicative competence is theoretically grounded in the shift from competence as a static, knowledge-based construct to a dynamic, performance-oriented one. Modern models of communicative competence—particularly those extending Canale and Swain’s (1980) framework and Celce-Murcia’s (2007) elaboration—emphasize strategic competence not merely as repair or negotiation of meaning, but as the ability to plan, monitor, and evaluate communication. SRL strategies (e.g., goal-setting, self-observation, and adaptive metacognition) directly operationalize this strategic dimension in task-based contexts. This study examined the washback effects of an algorithm-mediated digital task-based language assessment (TBLA) on two key sub-components of communicative competence—pragmatic fluency and self-regulated learning strategies—among intermediate Iranian EFL learners in a grammar-centric testing context. Sixty participants were randomly assigned to a treatment group (TBLA) or a control group (traditional non-task assessment) across 20 communicative instructional sessions. The researcher-developed Pragmatic Fluency and Strategy Use Test (PFST) was administered in a pretest-posttest design. Quantitative analyses revealed that the TBLA group demonstrated significantly greater improvement in both pragmatic fluency and self-regulated strategy use compared to the control group. Positive washback was evident in the participants’ heightened involvement in authentic classroom communication activities and metacognitive thinking. These results imply that technology-based TBLA has a positive effect on particular aspects of communicative competence. However, the application of this technology is dependent on the proper training of the teaching staff. These findings suggest that digital TBLA can generate positive washback in low-stakes classroom assessment contexts, offering preliminary insights that may inform the future design of technology-enhanced, performance-based assessments even in traditionally grammar-oriented EFL settings.