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COURSE DEVELOPMENT PROCESSES 185listening, reading, and \vriting in class. However, because hecoming proficicnt in each ofthese skills cntails mastery of a set of subskills and processes, many teachers choose toemphasize certain skills or find ways to integrate them. For example, to become proficicntin writing, a student must learn ho\v to structurc paragraphs, holv to use cohesi\e &\ices,the rhetorical styles ofwritten English, editing techniques antl so on. Thus bvc can add thcfolhving categories to our syllabus grid:Listening skills Speaking skills Reading skillsI Writing skillsFunctionsNotions and topicsCommunicative situationsI Grammar I Pronunciation I Vocal>ular!IThe emphasis on communicative competence as based on antl brought almut byinteraction has prompted a vielv of language as not just something one lcarns hut somethingone tlocs.Thus teachers may conceive oftheir s);llal)us in terms of what thc students will doin the classroom as activities or tasks.Tasks ha\e been \ariously defined. Prabhu (1 987: 24)defines a task as an activity that requires learners “to arri\e at an outcome from givcninformation through some process of thought,” such as deciding on an itinerary based ontrain timctablrs or composing a telegram to send to soincone. Tasks have also been definedas projccts in which learners Lvo1-k together to ~-)roducc. something, such as a putting togethera ncLvspapcr or conducting a survey (Hutchinson 1984). Nunan (1989) proposes a taskcontinuum, lvith real-izorld tasks at one end and pedagogic tasks at the othcr. Real-worldtasks ask students to use languagc in ways that they might outside thc classroom, such aslistening to thc radio, reading the ncn.spapcr, or using a train schedule. Pedagogic tasks arcones that \vould not occur outside ofthc classroom hut help stutlcnts tl lop skills necessaryto function in that world, such as information gap actiyitics.Thc competency-bascd approach to syllabus design was dc lopcd in the Unitctl Statesin response to thc influx 01’ immigrants in the 1970s antl 1980s. It is a comlination of thecommunicative and task-lmctl approaches antl has bccn used in courses for teachingimmigrants, who have immediate ncctls with respect to functioning in English in thccommunity and in the workplacc. Competencies are “task-oriented goals written in termsof behavioral objecti\ es that inclutlc langu Ixhavior” (Center for Applied 1,inguistics 1983:9).Thcy arc the language antl Ixhavior nc x-y to function in situations related to living inthe community antl lintling and maintaining a job. Competencies related to living in thccommunity haw also been called ljfi-skilf.7. Those related to jobs have been called rmmioncdskills. (See, for example, the California ESL Model Stantlards for adult cducation 1993.)However one dcfincs them, tasks can 1)c gcarcd to one’s spccific group of learners. Forliusiness personnel, tasks might include giving a business presentation or lvriting a report;for university students, tasks might include \vriting a rcscarch paper or preparing a reportfrom notes takrn at a lecture. We can add t\vo othcr categories to our spllahus grid:Tasks and activiticsCompctcnciesI Listening skills I Speaking skills I Reading skills I Writing skills II 1,unctions I Notions and topics I Communicative situations 1GrammarPronunciationVocabu 1 ai.)