Reflection of Pragmatic Knowledge in Iranian High School English Textbooks (Vision Series)

Pragmatic competence is an essential language pedagogy component represented in English textbooks. The paper attempts to examine the extent to which pragmatic knowledge was reflected in Iranian high school English textbooks (Vision series). Hence, Halliday’s (۱۹۷۳) model and Halliday, et al.’s (۱۹۶۴) model were used to investigate subcategories of functional knowledge and sociolinguistic knowledge. The data was described by descriptive statistics. The findings revealed the Iranian culture-deprived representation (e.g., traditional customs, and ceremonies such as Nowruz, Chaharshanbesori, and Yalda). Moreover, the results highlighted only a limited number of pragmatic components implicitly introduced in the Vision series, and attention was given to their representation and problematic distribution. Furthermore, the English sociocultural patterns were limited and attempts were made to reflect the Iranian culture and convection of daily communication. Thus, some pedagogical implications were offered to improve the Vision series, using authentic pragmatic content instead of proclaiming the fictitious prescription of its authors.

Keywords:

Halliday’s (۱۹۷۳) model , Iranian culture , Iranian high school English textbooks , Pragmatic Knowledge , Sociocultural knowledge , Vision Series