Instruction of Pragmatic Markers in Finnish Upper Secondary School EFL Oral Skills Textbooks : A Diachronic View
Kortesalmi, Tuuli (2024)
2024
Englannin kielen, kirjallisuuden ja kääntämisen kandidaattiohjelma - Bachelor's Programme in English Language, Literature and Translation
Informaatioteknologian ja viestinnän tiedekunta - Faculty of Information Technology and Communication Sciences
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Hyväksymispäivämäärä
2024-05-20
Julkaisun pysyvä osoite on
https://urn.fi/URN:NBN:fi:tuni-202405145874
https://urn.fi/URN:NBN:fi:tuni-202405145874
Tiivistelmä
In recent years, there has been a shift in second language (L2) learning and teaching where the previous focus on form and grammatical accuracy has been replaced with focusing more on the communicative aspect of language. This aspect is often tightly interrelated with spoken language since a great deal of spontaneous interaction occurs in oral communication. Pragmatic markers are a characteristic of spoken language, and their fluent use is frequently regarded as a marker of high fluency in the language. This study examines how pragmatic markers are taught and how their instruction has evolved in Finnish upper secondary school English text-books during the last 26 years.
The data for the study was gathered from two Finnish A syllabus upper secondary school textbooks for courses focusing on oral skills, one from 1997 and the other from 2023. All pragmatic markers appearing in the books were included in the data which was then analyzed categorizing the markers by whether they were given by the means of explicit or implicit instruction and by what function they performed.
The results of this study show that the trend of focusing less on form is more visible in the more recent textbook. While pragmatic markers are taught explicitly and implicitly in both of the textbooks, explicit instruction seems to have given way to implicit, or in some cases, to no instruction. The results of the study suggest that the current movement towards focusing on communicative skills might prove harmful for the learning of pragmatics of the L2, and ultimately disadvantageous to improving the interactional skills of the L2 learner.
The data for the study was gathered from two Finnish A syllabus upper secondary school textbooks for courses focusing on oral skills, one from 1997 and the other from 2023. All pragmatic markers appearing in the books were included in the data which was then analyzed categorizing the markers by whether they were given by the means of explicit or implicit instruction and by what function they performed.
The results of this study show that the trend of focusing less on form is more visible in the more recent textbook. While pragmatic markers are taught explicitly and implicitly in both of the textbooks, explicit instruction seems to have given way to implicit, or in some cases, to no instruction. The results of the study suggest that the current movement towards focusing on communicative skills might prove harmful for the learning of pragmatics of the L2, and ultimately disadvantageous to improving the interactional skills of the L2 learner.
Kokoelmat
- Kandidaatintutkielmat [8430]