An Investigation Into The Presentation Of Pragmatic Knowledge In The Junior English Textbooks

Most English learners feel it is hard to use English properly and communicate freely when speaking with native speakers.One of the reasons may be related to the quality of the presentation of pragmatic knowledge in our textbooks.Speech act,as one of the most important research contents in pragmatics,is closely related to the appropriateness of language in daily communication.The coverage and presentation of speech act in teaching materials play a key role in cultivating students’ pragmatic competence.Therefore,it is of great significance to study the presentation of speech act in English textbooks.Based on speech act theory,this study is a quantitative research combined with qualitative analyses,which aims to analyze and evaluate the presentation of pragmatic knowledge in English textbooks Go for it! for Junior High School(Published by People’s Education Press)from the perspective of speech acts.Detailed analysis focused specifically on the frequency and distribution of speech acts,and the representation of meta-pragmatic information of speech acts in the selected textbooks.Moreover,the research carries out a survey on the teachers’ view on the appropriateness and effectiveness of the presentation of speech acts in the selected English textbooks.Three research questions were addressed in this study:(1)What types of speech acts are presented in Junior English textbooks Go for it!?What is the proportion of different types of speech acts?(2)To what extent is meta-pragmatic information of speech acts represented in Junior English textbooks Go for it!?(3)What are the teachers’ view on the appropriateness and effectiveness of the presentation of speech act in Junior English Textbooks Go for it!?Major findings include:(1)There are 27 kinds of speech acts in the textbook,among which the speech acts with a high proportion include advice,expressing opinions,greeting,etc.However,the distribution and frequency of speech acts presented in Textbooks Go for it! is not systematic and uniform.(2)The contextual description is too general,and the meta-pragmatic information is still under-represented in terms of quantity and quality.(3)Through the questionnaire,since the presentation of speech act in the selected textbooks can not effectively improve students’ pragmatic ability,most of teachers think the presentation way of speech act in the selected textbooks needs to be more appropriate and effective.Based on the results,the research provides some beneficial advice on the design of speech acts in future textbooks in English lessons.