Pragmatically-oriented Input in Business English Textbooks:The Case of Speech Act Realization

As textbooks are the main source for learners’ pragmatic development in an EFL context, they should be evaluated to see if they contain adequate input for learners to successfully acquire pragmatic competence. To this end, the frequency of four ubiquitous speech acts (apology, complaint, refusal, request) across four widely used business English textbooks (Business Basics, Business Result, Business Venture, Powerbase) as well as the strategies for the realization of each speech act were analyzed. The pragmatic analysis of the four business textbooks showed that requests and complaints were respectively the most and the least frequent speech acts distributed in Business Basics (124; 3), Business Result (1068; 32), Business Venture (135; 8), and Powerbase (230; 24). Across the proficiency levels of each textbook series, the highest frequency of speech acts, with the exception of Business Basics which constituted only one volume, was found in Business Result’s Advanced; Business Venture’s Version 1; and Powerbase’s Beginner levels. The analysis also revealed the patterns of realization strategies for each speech act. Due to the insufficient and/or unbalanced distribution of speech acts and the underrepresentation of some speech act strategies across the textbooks and within the levels, it is recommended that materials developers reconsider the adequacy of pragmatic input and draw on supplementary materials to compensate for such speech act realization inadequacy.

Keywords:

textbook evaluation , business English textbooks , speech acts , frequency