Speaker
KEYWORDS
speech acts
ELT coursebooks
Hong Kong
ABSTRACT
In this investigation, speech acts targeted for instruction in ELT (English Language Teaching) coursebooks commonly used in Hong Kong schools were examined using relational content analysis, as coursebooks are one way that learning autonomy can be promoted (Gurevych et al., 2022; Ying et al., 2007). Using Austin (1962) and Searle’s (1976) speech act theory, the aim was to discover which speech acts are frequently presented or not evident, so that this information could be compared to that which has been found in prior studies in other locations. To the best of the author’s knowledge, this was the first study to focus purely on all speech acts found in ELT coursebooks used in Hong Kong. It was found that there was a tendency to include certain speech acts (such as suggestions) much more frequently than others (such as enquiring), and that some (such as offering) were not included at all. Other crucial information was found to be generally lacking, such as the insufficiency of the pragmalinguistic (such as indirect speech acts) and sociopragmatic information (such as high degrees of social distance) presented. Therefore, this pragmatics study has important implications for both coursebook writers and English teachers.
| TITLE | Hong Kong English coursebook speech acts |
|---|---|
| RELEVANT SIG | Pragmatics |
| FORMAT | Research-oriented Oral Face-to-face presentation (25 minutes, including Q&A) |
