An Analysis of Junior High School English Textbooks: Focusing on Task Activities

Abstract

The purpose of this study is to analyze junior high school English textbooks authorized by the Japanese Ministry of Education, focusing on task activities that help students have more opportunities to use English in classroom situations. Many researchers point out that task activities play a significant role in enhancing communicative ability by creating authentic meaningful situations. Since the Course of Study emphasizes offering opportunities for students to use English, these activities are being increasingly adopted in English textbooks. According to Matsumura (2020), there are six types of task activities: (1) jigsaw, (2) information gap, (3) problem-solving, (4) decision-making, (5) exchange of opinions, and (6) narration activities. This study classified task activities in textbooks into one of these six types. The results shows that the most used type is “exchange of opinions”, followed by “information gap”, while “jigsaw” and “narration” do not appear in any textbooks. Moreover, the features of textbooks are uniquely clarified in terms of the number and types of task activities. For instance, two textbooks use “information gap” activities even for the first graders whereas the others do not use them at all until third grade. It is important to note that various task activities would be possible even for the first graders if textbooks took a step-by-step approach in leading students to engage in task activities and to use more input-type activities