Turn-Taking in Task Instructions of the Grade 7 English for Nusantara Textbook

Neli Kusmawati; Iwan Jazadi

Authors

Neli Kusmawati Study Program of English Education, STKIP Paracendekia NW Sumbawa, Indonesia
Iwan Jazadi Study Program of English Education, STKIP Paracendekia NW Sumbawa, Indonesia

Keywords:

Turn-Taking; Task Instructions; Textbook Analysis; Classroom Interaction; Task Analysis

Abstract

This study analyzes the types and characteristics of turn-taking embedded in the task instructions of the English for Nusantara Grade 7 textbook used under Indonesia’s Merdeka Curriculum. Turn-taking, the way speakers alternate roles in interaction, is an important yet underexplored dimension of textbook task design in Indonesian EFL classrooms. Using a qualitative content analysis approach, this study examines 301 task instructions drawn from Chapters 1 to 5 of the textbook. Each instruction was coded with Littlejohn’s (2011) Task Analysis framework to determine whether it positions learners as initiators, responders, or passive participants. The findings show that Scripted Respond tasks dominate the dataset (65.8%), followed by Not Required tasks (18.3%) and Initiate tasks (15.9%). This distribution indicates that learners are predominantly positioned as reactive participants rather than active initiators of classroom talk. Initiate tasks are characterized by open-ended verbs such as discuss, ask, and create, while Scripted Respond tasks rely on controlled verbs such as answer, complete, and write. The chapter-level analysis shows that this pattern is consistent across all five chapters, with no clear progression toward more learner-centered interaction. The study concludes that the textbook’s task instructions tend to maintain a structured, teacher-centered interactional pattern that offers limited opportunities for learners to initiate meaningful communication. These findings suggest that teachers, textbook writers, and curriculum developers need to give greater attention to designing task instructions that promote active learner participation and communicative competence.

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