A Comparative Study Of China-UK Publishers’ English Textbook Materials In Helping To Develop Secondary School Students’ Pragmatic Competence

The development of English language learners’ pragmatic competence is one of the essential goals of teaching a second or foreign language.According to General Senior High School Curriculum Standards,pragmatic knowledge falls under linguistic competence and serves as one of the six core competences of English subject.China’s Standards of English Language Ability,issued by the Ministry of Education of China in 2018,also defines in detail the scope of pragmatic knowledge and the concept of pragmatic competence as well as provides a series of descriptive frameworks for pragmatic competence.In the context of English teaching as foreign language in China,the cultivation of pragmatic competence heavily depends on the textbooks of English.Particularly at the secondary school level,English textbooks in use are a primary source of pragmatic knowledge for English language teachers and their students.However,previous research indicates that English textbooks need to be improved in terms of the layout of pragmatic knowledge and the development of pragmatic competence.Therefore,by adopting a mixed methodology,the present study compares and analyzes the similarities and differences in the use of speech acts and the cultivation of pragmatic competence among three sets of secondary school English textbooks published in China and in the UK,i.e.,textbooks from Foreign Language Teaching and Research Press(FLTRP),textbooks from People’s Education Press(PEP),and textbooks from British Pearson Education Limited.All three sets of textbooks are the latest revisions to date.Namely,the former two sets were published in 2019 and the latter in 2017.Two working analytical frameworks in this research are respectively based on Searle’s taxonomy of speech acts and descriptive frameworks of pragmatic competence and pragmatic knowledge in the CSE.On the one hand,a shared characteristic in the use of speech acts was found that representatives,directives,and expressives are the three most frequently employed speech acts in all three sets of textbooks.However,declarations are least frequently used in these textbooks and are even absent in PEP’s textbooks.In addition,the differences among these textbooks are reflected in times of occurrence and subcategories of speech acts.British Pearson’s textbooks use most speech acts but with the least variety of sub-types among these textbooks.In contrast,the two Chinese publishers’ textbooks contain more subcategories but a smaller quantity of speech acts than Pearson’s textbooks.In terms of cultivating competence in speech acts,all three sets of textbooks apply a combination of explicit and implicit presentations of speech acts,thereby facilitating secondary school English language learners’ pragmatic ability to perform speech acts appropriately.On the other hand,findings suggested that the cultivation of pragmatic competence in the listening and reading sections of all three English textbooks requests improvement.Considering developing pragmatic ability reflected in listening materials,all three sets of textbooks should be revised to foster students’ pragmatic ability to interpret oral interaction.It is also necessary to revise FLTRP’s textbooks to groom students’ pragmatic ability to interpret oral description.British Pearson’s textbooks need to absorb new contents to cultivate two types of pragmatic abilities:interpreting oral description and interpreting oral exposition.Regarding the development of pragmatic ability reflected in reading materials,all nine pragmatic comprehension abilities are developed in PEP’s textbooks.Textbooks from FLTRP and Pearson need to be modified to facilitate the cultivation of pragmatic ability to interpret written description.FLTRP’s textbooks should be revised to foster learners’ pragmatic ability to interpret written instruction.In contrast,British Pearson’s textbooks should compensate for deficiencies in developing the pragmatic ability to understand written interaction.This study identified deficiencies and relevant areas for improvement in three sets of English textbooks published in China and in the UK in terms of developing pragmatic competence.The findings will benefit textbook editors,English language teachers and their learners and assist in textbook revision and pragmatic instruction.