A functional typology of verbal instructional tasks for advanced classroom instruction and inservice training is described and illustrated in this paper. The described typology is based upon functional definitions of elementary and conceptual behavior and incorporates the kinds of goals and objectives that surveys and research have shown to be important for experienced learners within B. F. Skinner's verbal classification system. Procedures for selecting proficiency criteria for tasks in the typology are described and problems with current schemas for classifying objectives and advantages of the present schema are discussed. The paper also reports on a series of validation studies in which ten subjects read a subsection of an instructional program to teach the typology and classified 20 tasks taken from various sources. It reports that high agreement was attained between typology designer and subjects' classification of tasks after a short training session, and that subjects were unable to list any objective that could not be classified in the typology. The paper then discusses the data in terms of subsequent improvement of the typology and program, future validation studies, standardization of instructional research and practice, implications for research on transfer of control across classes of verbal behavior, implications for research on building fluency of adult behavior, and efficiency in instructional design. (Author/FL)