diff --git a/lib/ansible/plugins/action/async.py b/lib/ansible/plugins/action/async.py
index b85f1c20f46..2002d248bd8 100644
--- a/lib/ansible/plugins/action/async.py
+++ b/lib/ansible/plugins/action/async.py
@@ -22,7 +22,7 @@ import random
 
 from ansible import constants as C
 from ansible.plugins.action import ActionBase
-
+from ansible.utils.unicode import to_unicode
 
 class ActionModule(ActionBase):
 
@@ -60,7 +60,14 @@ class ActionModule(ActionBase):
         (async_module_style, shebang, async_module_data) = self._configure_module(module_name='async_wrapper', module_args=dict(), task_vars=task_vars)
         self._transfer_data(async_module_path, async_module_data)
 
-        argsfile = self._transfer_data(self._connection._shell.join_path(tmp, 'arguments'), json.dumps(module_args))
+        argsfile = None
+        if module_style == 'non_native_want_json':
+            argsfile = self._transfer_data(self._connection._shell.join_path(tmp, 'arguments'), json.dumps(module_args))
+        elif module_style == 'old':
+            args_data = ""
+            for k, v in iteritems(module_args):
+                args_data += '%s="%s" ' % (k, pipes.quote(to_unicode(v)))
+            argsfile = self._transfer_data(self._connection._shell.join_path(tmp, 'arguments'), args_data)
 
         self._fixup_perms(tmp, remote_user, execute=True, recursive=True)
         # Only the following two files need to be executable but we'd have to
@@ -77,7 +84,10 @@ class ActionModule(ActionBase):
         async_limit = self._task.async
         async_jid   = str(random.randint(0, 999999999999))
 
-        async_cmd = " ".join([str(x) for x in [env_string, async_module_path, async_jid, async_limit, remote_module_path, argsfile]])
+        async_cmd = [env_string, async_module_path, async_jid, async_limit, remote_module_path]
+        if argsfile:
+            async_cmd.append(argsfile)
+        async_cmd = " ".join([to_unicode(x) for x in async_cmd])
         result.update(self._low_level_execute_command(cmd=async_cmd))
 
         # clean up after