Abstract
This chapter examines tasks, and the implications for their use, within educational environments that are increasingly shaped by the values of the market-based economy and neoliberal ideology. The chapter begins with a brief description of aspects of neoliberal educational policy and reform that impact teachers’ work and students’ learning and achievement. Attention is then focused on tasks and task-based language teaching (TBLT). Characteristics of tasks are identified and examined with a view to investigating their compatibility within the neoliberal educational environment. Examples from the Australian educational context are used to illustrate this relationship. The chapter includes a discussion of challenges and constraints, but also of the possible benefits, associated with prioritising tasks within school language learning contexts that are constrained by the forces of neoliberalism