• a piece of work undertaken for oneself or for others, freely or for some reward. Thus, examples of tasks include painting a fence, dressing a child, filling out a form, buying a pair of shoes, making an airline reservation, borrowing a library book, taking a driving test, typing a letter, weighing a patient, sorting letters, taking a hotel reservation, writing a check, finding a street destination and helping someone across a road. In other words, by "task" is meant the hundred and one things people do in everyday life, at work, at play, and in between. Tasks are the things people will tell you they do if you ask them and they are not applied linguists (Long, 1985:89).
• a piece of work or an activity, usually with a specified objective, undertaken as part of an educational course, or at work (Crookes, 1986:1).
• an activity which require[s] learners to arrive at an outcome from given information through some process of thought, and which allow[s] teachers to control and regulate that process (Prabhu, 1987:24).
• an activity or action which is carried out as the result of processing or understanding language (i.e., as a response). For example, drawing a map while listening to an instruction and performing a command, may be referred to as tasks. Tasks may or may not involve the production of language. A task usually requires the teacher to specify what will be regarded as successful completion of the task. The use of different kinds of tasks in language teaching is said to make language teaching more communicative ... since it provides a purpose for a classroom activity which goes beyond the practice of language for its own sake (Richards et al., 1985:289).
• any classroom work which involves learners in comprehending, manipulating, producing or interacting in the target language while their attention is principally focused on meaning rather than form. The task should also have a sense of completeness, being able to stand alone as a communicative act in its own right (Nunan, 1993:59).
• any structural language learning endeavor which has a particular objective, appropriate content, a specified working procedure, and a range of outcomes for those who undertake the task. "Task" is therefore assumed to refer to a range of workplans which have the overall purpose of facilitating language learning - from the simple and brief exercise type, to more complex and lengthy activities such as group problem-solving or simulations and decision-making (Breen, 1987:23).
• one of a set of differentiated, sequenceable, problem-solving activities involving learners and teachers in some joint selection from a range of varied cognitive and communicative procedures applied to existing and new knowledge in the collective exploration and pursuance of foreseen or emergent goals within a social milieu. (Candlin, 1987:10).

These definitions are roughly arranged in terms of a continuum of "real world" to "pedagogical" perspectives on what tasks are. This distinction between the "real" world and the classroom does not imply that the classroom is not a valid social context in its own right (Breen, 1985). Nor, indeed, are real world and pedagogical tasks mutually exclusive: there is no reason why tasks cannot have both real world and pedagogical dimensions. However, as implied in the first two definitions provided by Long and by Crookes, respectively, pedagogical tasks should be derived from real world tasks, since analytical syllabuses are based in part on an analysis of learners' behavioral needs (Wilkins, 1976).

But what are pedagogical tasks? Let us look at Prabhu's definition of task: this makes no reference to real world needs. Instead, tasks are learning activities that engage learners in logical thinking. Prabhu identifies three kinds of cognitive task types: opinion-gap, information-transfer and reasoning-gap tasks (See Topic 8). An example of a reasoning gap task - the most important task type in Prabhu's scheme of things - is using railroad timetables or reading maps in order to get from A to B. Prabhu also distinguishes between pre-tasks and tasks; the main difference between these tasks is that pre-tasks are cognitively less demanding than main tasks. During the pre-task stage in the railroad timetables example just cited, the twelve hour clock is used, only two or three changes of trains are called for in order to get from A to B and the teacher takes a leading role in helping students solve the problem. But during the main task stage, students have to use the twenty four hour clock, change trains more often and solve the problem without the teacher's help. Richards et al. share Prabhu's concern with how a task is specified and also mention the teacher's role in regulating the teaching/learning process. Similarly, the definitions by Richards et al. and Nunan emphasize the communicative, meaning-oriented character of tasks. Finally, the definitions offered by Breen and Candlin respectively emphasize the participatory, negotiable character of pedagogical tasks and stress that they should promote communication-oriented, problem-solving interaction.

We may summarize the most relevant aspects of these definitions as follows:

• Pedagogical tasks are derived in part from sociolinguistic analyses of real world tasks.
• In psycholinguistic terms, pedagogical tasks require students to produce chunks of language as learners attempt to communicate by using the linguistic resources they currently possess in the target language.
• As participants talk, they modify their own and their interlocutors' speech. Learners thereby get and produce negotiated comprehensible input and output that are both beyond their current level of communicative competence.
• This modified interaction sets up the necessary (though not sufficient) pre-conditions for second language development to occur (Long, 1981; 1985; 1989; 1991; Pica, 1987; Pica et al., 1989; Swain, 1985; 1995).

	Which of the definitions of task given above do you find most useful?
	Give an example of your own that illustrates the difference between a real world task and a pedagogical task.
	Do you believe that the kinds of tasks discussed above constitute a "serious" approach to language learning or are they merely useful as short, "fun" activities to be done when students are tired and in need of a break?
	Have you ever used tasks like the ones defined above? If so, how did you set them up and how successful do you think they were in promoting language learning?
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Nunan, D. (1991). Communicative tasks and the language curriculum. TESOL Quarterly, 25(2):279-296.