A Pragmatic Evaluation Of Oxford English Textbook (Shenzhen Edition) For Junior High Schools

Pragmatic competence,as an important part of communicative competence,is essential in oral communication.However,pragmatic competence is often neglected in second language teaching,people tend wo attention to the cultivation of grammatical or phonological abilities.University graduates who have nearly 10 years of English learning experience still generally find it difficult to communicate in English.It is the absence of pragmatic knowledge in English textbooks that make it difficult for learners to express themselves in English appropriately and freely.The English Curriculum Standard for Compulsory Education(2011)emphasizes that cultivating students' pragmatic competence is also the focus of English teaching.In the foreign language learning environment in our country,textbooks are the main source of language output and play an important role in teaching.Therefore,the coverage of verbal knowledge in teaching materials plays an essential role in the cultivation of students' pragmatic competence.Based on the theoretical basis of textbook evaluation and pragmatics,the main purpose of this study is tantamount to explore the quantity and quality of speech acts in the junior high school English textbook which is widely used in Guangdong Province,Oxford English(Shenzhen edition).The author wants to find the answers to the following research questions through this study:1)What types of speech acts are described in Oxford English textbooks;2)How does these speech acts presented and designed;3)What are the views of users'(both teachers and students)on the teaching of speech acts through Oxford English textbooks?Questionnaire and Speech Act Scale will be used in this study.From the results of the study,the quantity and quality of speech acts in Oxford English(Shenzhen edition)are satisfactory,but the proportion of speech acts is not well-balanced,which will affect the actual use efficiency of students.Through the questionnaire survey of teachers and students,it can be seen that both teachers and students recognize the importance of cultivating pragmatic competence,but they also have doubts about the presentation and quantity of speech acts on the set of textbooks.Combined with the research results,this thesis attempts to put forward some constructive opinions on the teaching of pragmatic knowledge and the design of speech act in English textbooks.