This system for describing teaching events is intended to facilitate the analysis of classroom observations for purposes of comparing, documenting, or evaluating different instructional techniques. The typology is designed to describe a wide range of settings and teaching styles. The descriptors are organized into two groups that simultaneously depict two levels of events. Higher order events, such as tasks and lessons, are characterized in terms of the language content targeted for instruction, the language skill involved, and several features of language tasks. These tasks include an analysis of question types, response modes, and the role of cues. Communication events, such as turn-taking, depict the communication of an integral segment of information in classroom exchanges. The typology describes these events by their source, medium, purpose, and by a special group of descriptors for communication strategies and affective aspects of classroom interactions. The system will be useful to teacher educators, evaluators, and researchers interested in observing and analyzing language instruction. (Author/RW)