Analyzing Task Types Used in Four High School English Textbooks in China

In the past decade, many scholars conducted research concerning cultural content, policy changes, and other issues in the field of EFL textbook evaluation in China. However, a limited number of studies shift their attention to task types used in EFL textbooks. This study employs Nunan’s (1999) task taxonomy to investigate how task types are presented in four main government-approved English textbooks at high school level in China and use Pearson’s Chi-square test in two stages to examine whether any significant difference exists in the four textbooks. The findings reveal that at a macro level, linguistics tasks are viewed are the most important type while domestic educators show a mixed attitude toward the rest four task types. Under closer scrutiny, some sub-task types are payed more attention to than others in different versions of textbooks. This should raise concern because each task type exerts its unique effects on language learning. The aim of the study is to evaluate the quality of the four textbooks and spot potential problems in these teaching materials.