The Linguistic Presentation of Speech Acts in Top-Notch Intermediate Textbooks

Abstract

The role of textbooks as one of the main sources of language input in addition to the teacher and other learners cannot be ignored in the process of language learning, especially in EFL contexts since learners mostly rely on textbooks for second language learning. Therefore, more attention should be paid to the evaluation of the textbooks to meet the needs of both teachers and learners.  As such, the purpose of this research is to analyze and evaluate the pragmatic information of Top-Notch Intermediate textbooks which are used in most EFL institutes in Iran.  Specifically, the article investigates the linguistic presentation of speech acts in the textbooks and the provision of sufficient contextual and meta-pragmatic information for the facilitation of learning the speech acts. The results indicated that there are three typical ways of presenting speech acts in the textbooks 1) using dialogues in conversation models, 2) using lists of expressions, and 3) using dialogues as well as the grammar section. In addition, there is inadequate contextual and meta-pragmatic information in terms of the speech acts included in the textbooks. The article also has some implications for teachers, materials writers and textbook designers in terms of the pragmatic aspect of the target language.