A Content Analysis of Writing Tasks in "English for Nusantara Textbooks": A Process-Based and Performance-Oriented Evaluation

Abstract

This article asks how the writing tasks in the English for Nusantara textbooks for Grades 7, 8, and 9 (Merdeka Curriculum) help learners move from guided toward independent writing. The three books belong to a single series, so reading them side by side shows whether support is gradually reduced over the junior high years. We applied qualitative content analysis to the complete set of 30 writing tasks in the series, all found in Unit 3 of each chapter, using Brown's (2004) taxonomy of writing performance and skills and Flower and Hayes' (1981) cognitive process model. Frequency counts served only to describe how the codes were spread; the interpretation rests on close reading of representative tasks. A task could carry more than one performance or process code, so the 30 tasks produced 38 performance codes, 30 skill codes, and 70 process codes. Responsive writing made up 63.2% of the performance codes and extensive writing never appeared, while 24 tasks (80%) combined microskills and macroskills. Planning and translating were coded in every task, whereas reviewing accounted for only 10 of the 70 process codes (14.3%), and many of those steps told students little about what to look for, which suggests that frequency can overstate how well a stage is supported. Scaffolding is therefore generous, yet outlines and templates are not clearly faded across grades, and chances for independent composition and systematic revision stay limited. Because the data are textbook pages and not classroom practice, the findings describe task design and not learning outcomes. They point to progressive fading of support and criteria-based reviewing as priorities for textbook design, and to withdrawing outlines and adding revision after feedback as ways teachers can supplement the tasks.