Scrutinising Form and Function of English Textbook Tasks

Abstract

This Master´s thesis is written in the field of English didactics. It presents an analysis of four 10th-grade English as a foreign language (EFL) textbooks, specifically examining the formal and functional task design of textbook tasks made before and after the curriculum reform of 2020. The study also explores the textbook tasks alignment with task-based language teaching (TBLT). Four textbooks from two prominent publishers were chosen for this study. These were old and revised editions of the same textbooks, two written before and two written after the curriculum reform of 2020. The chosen textbooks were Aschehoug’s Stages 10 (Areklett et al., 2015), Stages 10 (Pettersen & Røkaas, 2021) and Cappelen Damm´s Connect 10 (Haegi et al., 2018) and Engelsk 10 (Haegi et al., 2021). A total of 7142 task-activating speech acts is analysed with a linguistic analysis of the formal makeup of the textbook tasks and a quantitative and qualitative content analysis that investigates how the tasks are designed functionally using the set of codes developed by Bakken and Andersson-Bakken (2021). The results show slight changes from one edition to another and that the two textbook series offer some differences in their task design. These findings support Bakken and Andersson-Bakken’s (2021) hypothesis that culturally specific genre norms constrain task formulation. The content analysis identifies that the updated editions of both textbook series contain sections at the end of each chapter that possibly are integrated due to the emphasis on deep learning and assessment in the 2020 curriculum. The qualitative analysis also reveals that many tasks from both publishers align with the principles of TBLT, and the emphasis on collaboration and communication is strong. Ultimately, the teachers decide the teaching methods and the types of tasks utilised in the classroom. Because of this, discussions on textbook tasks and their design must continue, and teachers should make conscious decisions on what types of tasks pupils are given.