The effect of textbooks on elt trainees’ use of pragmalinguistic features

Globalleşmenin sonucu olarak değişen yabancı dil öğrenme amaçları günlük konuşma dilinin öğretilmesi ve öğrenilmesinin önemini artırmaktadır. Ancak, kullanılan ders kitaplarının ne ölçüde bu tür bilgileri içerdikleri belli değildir. Öğrencilerin edim bilgi ve yeterlikleri çoğunlukla ders kitaplarında verilen bilgilerle sınırlıdır. Geleceğin yabancı dil öğretmenleri olarak, öğretmen adaylarının günlük dili nasıl kullandıklarını öğrenmek, gelecekte bunları öğretmenlik yaparken kullanıp kullanamayacaklarını öngörebilmek açısından önem taşımaktadır. Böylelikle, bu çalışma dil yeterliklerinin özelliklerinden birini, ricada bulunurken kullanılan nezaket stratejilerine odaklanarak araştırmayı hedeflemektedir. İngilizce öğretmenliğinde okuyan 68 birinci sınıf öğretmen adayı nezaket stratejilerini kullanımları açısından araştırmaya katılmıştır. Bu adayların 58’inden söylem tamamlama olarak hazırlanan 12 duruma yazılı olarak ricada bulunmaları istenmiştir. Diğer 10 kişiden ise aynı şeyi karşılıklı görüşmeler sırasında sözlü olarak yapmaları istenmiştir. 12 durumun sekizi Brown ve Levinson (1987) tarafından tanımlanan Güç, Sosyal Mesafe ve Yükün Derecesi dikkate alınarak düzenlenmiştir. Diğer dört durum ise bağlamsal farklılıkların etkisini görebilecek şekilde hazırlanmıştır. Araştırma sonuçları katılımcıların çoğunluğunun dil formlarını uygun olarak kullanmalarına rağmen bunların ders kitaplarında verilen bilgilerle sınırlı olduğunu ve aynı zamanda sözlü ve yazılı olarak verilen yanıtlarda benzerlikler olduğunu göstermiştir. Buna ek olarak sonuçlar öğretmen adaylarının imge zedeleyici edimlerden haberdar olmadıklarını göstermiştir.

As the aims for learning foreign languages change in consequence of globalization, the need for teaching and learning native-like conventions of everyday speech gains importance. However, whether the textbooks used for language teaching provide such information is questionable. Learners’ pragmatic knowledge and competence is framed mostly by the information presented in the textbooks. As future foreign language teachers, trainees’ use of daily conventions is significant to foresee their tendency to use them in their future occupations. Thus, the current study aims to investigate one of the features of language competence by focusing on the politeness strategies when making requests. In the present study 68 freshmen ELT students were inquired about their politeness strategies. A questionnaire, designed as a discourse completion task, was given to 58 trainees to which they were asked to write an appropriate request to the given 12 situations. The rest of the trainees (10) completed the discourse orally on the same situations during an interview. Eight of the twelve situations were designed according to the Power (P), Social Distance (D), and Rank of Imposition (R) as described by Brown and Levinson (1987). The other four situations were designed to see the effects of contextual factors on users’ linguistic preferences. The research results indicate that although the majority of the participants use language forms, appropriately, these are very limited to the information provided in the textbooks and that there are similarities between oral and written responses. Moreover, the results indicate that the participants are not aware of the ways to reduce Face Threatening Acts.

PDF

___

Alagözlü, N.and Büyüköztürk, Ş. (2009). Aural pragmatic comprehension. Novitas-Royal, 3(2), 83-92.

Arıkan, A. (2007). Pragmatic problems in elementary level ELT coursebooks: Focus on dialogues. Proceedings from the 11th IADA Conference on ‘Dialogue Analysis and Rhetoric’. University of Münster, March 26-30, 2007.

Bardovi-Harlig, K., Hartford, B.S., Mahan-Taylor, R., Morgan M.J., & Reynolds D.W. (1991). Developing pragmatic awareness: Closing the conversations. ELT Journal, 45, 4–15.

Bardovi-Harlig (1999). Exploring the interlanguage of interlanguage pragmatics: A research agenda for acquisitional pragmatics. Language Learning, 49, 677-714.

Bardovi-Harlig, K. (2001). Evaluating the empirical evidence: Grounds for instruction in pragmatics? In K.R. Rose , G. Kasper, (Eds) Pragmatic in Language Teaching (13– 32). Cambridge University Press, Cambridge.

Berry, R. (2000). “You-ser” friendly metalanguage: What effect does it have on learners of English? International Review of Applied Linguistics in Language Teaching, 38, 195- 211.

Boxer, D., Pickering, L. (1995). Problems in the presentation of speech acts in ELT materials:The case of complaints. ELT Journal, 49, 44–58.

Brown, P. and Levinson, S. C. (1987). Politeness: Some universals in language use. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

Burns, A. (1998). Teaching speaking. Annual Review of Applied Linguistics, 18, 102-123.

Carrell, P. L. and Konneker, B. H. (1981). Politeness: Comparing native and nonnative judgments. Language Learning, 31, 17-30.

Celce-Murcia, M., Dörnyei, Z., and Thurrell, S. (1995). Communicative competence: A pedagogically motivated model with content specifications. Issues in Applied Linguistics, 6, 5-35.

Chen, R. (1993). Responding to compliments: A contrastive study of politeness strategies between American English and Chinese speakers. Journal of Pragmatics, 20, 49-75.

Cook, M. & Liddicoat, A. J. (2002). The development of comprehension in interlanguage pragmatics: The case of request strategies in English. Australian Review of Applied Linguistics,25(1), 19-40.

Ellis, R. (1994). Pragmatic aspects of learner language. In, Studies in Second Language Acquisition. Hong Kong: Oxford University Press.

Eslami-Rasekh, Z. (2005). Raising pragmatic awareness of language learners. ELT Journal, 59, 199-208.

Garcia, C. (1993). Making a request and responding to it: A case study of Peruvian Spanish speakers. Journal of Pragmatics, 19, 127-152.

Ho, D. G. E. (2009). Exponents of politeness in Brunei English. World Englishes, 28, 35-51.

Holmes, J. (1995). Women, men and politeness. London: Longman.

Karatepe, Ç. (2001). Pragmalinguistic awareness in EFL teacher training. Language Awareness, 2&3,178-188.

Karatepe, Ç. (1998). Teaching pragmalinguistics in teacher training programs. (Unpublished doctoral dissertation). University of Liverpool, Liverpool, UK.

Kasper, G. (1990). Linguistic politeness: Current research issues. Journal of Pragmatics, 14, 193-218.

Kasper, G. and Rose, K. R. (2002). Pragmatic development in a second language. Mahwah, NJ: Blackwell.

Kılıçkaya, F. (2010). The pragmatic knowledge of Turkish EFL students in using certain request strategies. Gaziantep sosyal Bilimler Dergisi, 9,185-201.

Kim, D., & Hall, J. K. (2002). The role of an interactive book reading program in the development of second language pragmatic competence. Modern Language Journal, 86, 332-348.

Le Pair, R. (1996). Spanish request strategies: A cross-cultural analysis from an intercultural perspective. Language Sciences, 18,3-4, 651-670.

Meier, A. J. (1995). Passages of politeness. Journal of Pragmatics, 24, 381-392

Pinto, D. (2005). The acquisition of requests by second language learners of Spanish. Spanish in Context, 2, 1-27.

Suh, J. S. (1999). Pragmatic perception of politeness in requests by Korean learners of English as a second language. IRAL: International Review of Applied Linguistics in Language Teaching, 37, 195-213.

Tanaka, S. and Kawade, S. (1982). Politeness strategies and second language acquisition. Studies in Second Language Acquisition, 5, 52-63.

Uso-Juan, E. (2007).The presentation and practice of the communicative act of requesting in textbooks: Focusing on modifiers. In Soler, E. A. and Jorda, M. P. S. (Eds.) Intercultural language use and language learning. Netherlands: Springer.

Vellenga, H. (2004). Learning pragmatics from ESL & EFL textbooks: How likely? TESL-EJ, 8(2). Retrieved from http://www.tesl-ej.org

White, R. (1993). Saying please: Pragmalinguistic failure in English interaction. ELT Journal,47(3), 193-202.

Yule, G. (1996). Pragmatics. Hong Kong: Oxford University Press.

Yule, G. (2004). The study of language. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.