Evaluating the Metalanguage of Pragmatics Content of Selected Listening & Speaking Textbooks

Thesis

2017

Published in: AlGhamdi, G. A. (2017). Evaluating the Metalanguage of Pragmatics Content of Se…

AlGhamdi, Ghada A. . 2017

The study investigated the quality and quantity of  pragmatic content of two ELT listening and speaking textbooks, namely, Interactions 1 and Interactions 2 in the exercises and how such aspects are presented through meta-language. The framework used to analyze the style of meta-language found in the textbooks was adopted from Vellenga (2004) in which each piece of pragmatic element found in the books was labeled as either explicit and/ or implicit meta-language. A survey was designed to elicit teachers’ perception of the textbooks’ pragmatic content and whether or not teachers supplement the textbooks with materials related to pragmatics and communication. The results showed that the quantity of pragmatic aspects in the textbooks is somewhat low, while the quality of the pragmatic exercises and meta-language was promising but could be improved.  The study also concluded that there was not enough pragmatic meta-language in the textbooks considering the number of pages analyzed. However, the analysis showed that the amount of pragmatic aspects increased from Interactions 1 to Interactions 2, and the majority of the pragmatic exercises in the textbooks are designed as pair or group work, where the students are required to communicate with each other to practice the language. Finally, teachers mainly commented that supplementing the textbooks with outside materials to cover aspects of pragmatics in the classroom is rather hard due to syllabus constraints, the number of students, the students’ language level and the type of assessment.

• Thesis Type: Master's Theses (ID 183)
• School: English Department, King Saud University