A Study Of The Speech Acts In English Textbooks For Junior Middle Schools

Pragmatic competence plays the critical part in the successful language communication.As the textbook is the main source of language input in a foreign language teaching context,the coverage of pragmatic knowledge of the textbooks is an important concern.There have been more researches on English textbooks from the pragmatic perspective abroad than at home.Most researches at home are mainly about college English textbooks but a few about secondary school textbooks.Besides,the previous studies have shown that the textbooks fail to offer adequate pragmatic information.Junior education is also the key period for language learning.The present work is an attempt to investigate speech acts contained in English textbooks for junior middle school and makes a case study of Ren'ai Project English.The research can be conducive to knowing and utilizing textbooks to teach pragmatic knowledge and improve students' pragmatic competence.Ren'ai Project English textbooks,approved by the Ministry of Education in 2003,are widely used in many provinces such as Fujian,Guangdong and Henan.Based on Searle's Speech act theory,the research is aimed to explore the following research questions:1)How are speech acts presented in Ren'ai Project English textbooks?What pragmatic information is incorporated into their presentation?2)How is the request speech act realized in the textbooks?What influence does its presentation in textbooks have on students' acquisition of requests?The study first examines and analyzes the types and frequency of speech acts in the conversations of textbooks and the pragmatic information accompanying them.Then a closer inspection is carried specifically on the request speech acts.A questionnaire on request speech acts was distributed among 135 new Senior One students who have learned all set of textbooks.Pearson correlation analysis was made with the data gotten from the textbooks and the types of request strategies the subjects use to study their relationship.Major findings are as follows.Firstly,the textbooks involve five types of speech acts classified by Searle and cover a total number of 35 sub-types,meeting the requirement of The Standards.However,the distribution is uneven.Attention has been largely paid to the speech acts of asking for and stating information which account for 56.5%and 64.3%.Some common speech acts such as making a promise and apologizing account for 1.2%and 1.8%.Most of the conversations are matched with simple pictures and one or two sentences to introduce the situation.There are only two places presenting meta-pragmatic information.Secondly,request speech acts in the textbooks are realized by three types of request strategies to perform requests,namely indirect strategies,conventionally indirect strategies and direct strategies,among which conventionally indirect strategies(hearer-oriented)are the major forms so as to over 92%of the subjects use this strategy.The correlation coefficient between the types in the textbooks and those the subjects used is high to 0.894.The research shows the textbooks' preference for the several request strategies and the relative lack of meta-pragmatic information have great influence on students' use and the choice of request speech acts.The students are unable to choose appropriate strategies flexibly according to the context.The little pragmatic information perhaps is in consideration of implicit teaching and the idea of cultivation of students' interests in English.But pragmatic information can attract students' attention and acquaint them with the proper way to perform speech acts.Therefore,explicit and adequate pragmatic information in the textbooks may facilitate students' learning of these speech acts.For the restrictions of realistic conditions,the study doesn't have interviews with the chief editor and teachers or apply classroom observations which will help get the whole picture of the treatment of speech acts in the textbooks.However,it's still hoped that the findings offer some reference points to employ the textbooks to cultivate students'pragmatic awareness and competence.