An Analysis of Adjacency Pairs and Discourse Features in Korean Textbook Dialogues: Focusing on the Function of Inquiry

This study aims to examine how authentically Korean language textbooks reflect real-life conversational interaction, particularly in the listening and speaking dialogue sections. A total of 3,847 dialogues were analyzed from 20 volumes across five Korean language textbook series published within the last ten years. The analysis revealed that approximately 89.7% of all dialogues were structured around the “question-answer” adjacency pair, while interaction types such as “request-acceptance/refusal” and “accusation-denial/acknowledgment” accounted for less than 5%. Notably, the frequency of question-answer structures declined in listening dialogues as textbook levels progressed from beginner to intermediate, whereas a slight increase was observed in speaking dialogues, with variability across textbooks. Taking “inquiry” as the core discourse function of the question-answer pair, the study evaluated the differences between textbook dialogues and authentic discourse using criteria such as turn-taking flexibility, discourse progression, backchanneling, and content-based authenticity. Findings indicated that textbook dialogues lacked features common in natural spoken discourse, such as adaptive turn-taking, contextually appropriate listener responses, interactive structure, and pragmatic coherence. Furthermore, natural spoken phenomena like self-repair and repetition were underrepresented. These findings suggest that to enhance learners’ communicative competence, Korean language textbooks should more faithfully reflect the interactive and contextual nature of real-life spoken discourse. The study proposes principles for constructing dialogue content based on authentic conversation and offers practical guidance for more effective textbook development.