1、Analysis of the English Textbooks Go for it! in JuniorMiddle School-from the dimension of pragmaticsAbstractThis thesis studies the composition of English textbooks for junior middle school based on the pragmatics and the students' pragmatic competence. It indicates that the cultivation of pragm

2、atic competence is as important as the teaching of linguistic knowledge, to give a guide on EFL teaching in junior middle schools in China, to better foster students' pragmatics awareness and strengthen their pragmatic competence, and to modify the textbooks composition.Key words : Go for it!; p

3、ragmatic ; speech acts1. IntroductionTextbooks, especially the textbooks in its narrow sense, are the main tools and important resourcesfor students learning and one fothe key factors influenced the teaching quality. Textbooks play an important role in English teaching in China, especially in the ba

4、sic education, since there is no available natural second language environment, and the textbooks evaluation is also essential. Ten aspects from which English textbooks for junior middle schools in China shall be evaluated are recommended according to China's actual conditions and with Macro-bac

5、kground of china in English textbooks evaluation. One of the ten aspects is that textbooks shall reflect the advanced linguistic, teaching and learning theories. Researches in the past focus on difficulties of teaching, style of writing and teaching approaches rather than pragmatics teaching, and to

6、tally overlook the evaluation of pragmatics in textbooks.Qian Xuming (2006) discovers that students have unsatisfied command of pragmatic knowledge and the pragmatic failure in examinations account for 37.7%, while Hu Meixin (2007) finds out that both teachers and students expect some improvements a

7、nd adjustments to the cultivation of pragmatics awareness in speech acts in textbooks. Searle divides all the possible speech acts of human languages into five categories: representatives, directives, commissives, expressive and declarations.His research gives important theoretical guidelines to the

8、 foreign language teaching, in addition to helping students understand speeches literally. It also enables students to grasp the purposes of the speakers' utterances or communication.This paper will discuss two questions: what is the distribution characteristic of speech acts in junior English t

9、extbooks Go for it! (Published by People's Education Press)? The influence of frequency of speech acts in English textbooks on the acquisition .The object is Junior English textbooks Go for it! (Published by People's Education Press) for students from grade 7 to grade 9;2. Procedure2.1 Data

10、CollectionWe needed to collect the data of English textbooks were collected. The whole set of junior English textbooks Go for it! (Published by People's Education Press) was selected, and the sentences of speech act in each teaching unit were listed and were classified according to Searle's

11、speech act theory.2.2 Distribution Characteristics of Speech ActsIn the 36 kinds of set speech acts, 16 kinds are involved in the five volumes of the English textbooks, while speech acts such as giving compliments, extending congratulation, and making complaints are hardly mentioned. The English tex

12、tbooks involves Searle's category of five types of speech acts. According to him, making introduction belongs to representatives, making requests and asking for information fall into directives, refusing invitation is commissives, greeting belongs to expressive, and making wishes belongs to decl

13、arations. The proportion of speech acts in the five volumes of textbooks is dealt with differently. 8 kinds of speech acts appearin the first volume for grade 7, 9 kinds appear in the second volume for grade 7, with proportion of 22.2% and 25% respectively. In textbooks for Grade 8, 11 kinds appear

14、in the first volume, and 8 kinds appear in the second volume, with proportion of 30.6% and 22.2% respectively. In textbooks for students in Grade 9, 7 kinds appear which take up 19.4%. Among them, most types appear in the first volume for Grade 8, while least types are in the second volume for Grade

15、 8. Comparison on the basis of pages, there are 10 types of speech acts whose proportions exceed 1%, for example, 31.1% of asking for information, 8.7% of making introduction, 5.6% of making requests, 5% of giving advice, 3.3% of greeting, 1.9% of asking for advice, 1.7% of giving direction, 1.7% of

16、 expressing gratitude, 1.2% of asking for direction, 1% of inviting, and the proportions of other speech acts are less than 1%.The five volumes all contain speech acts of making introduction, asking for information, making requests and giving advice. The four kinds of speech acts of inviting, asking

17、 for direction, giving direction, and expressing gratitude share similarity in their distribution in the textbook, that is, between 1% and 1.7%. Speech acts of accepting invitation, asking for help, apologizing, refusing requests, refusing invitation, and making wishes also share similarity in their

18、 distribution in the textbook, that is, between 0.2% and 0.6%. The distribution of speech acts in each volume is in the following tables.Table 4.1 Distribution of Speech Acts in the First Tlume for Grade 7:Making introductionAsking for informationGreetingsAsking fordirectionGivingdirectionMaking req

19、uestGivingadviceExpressing gratitudepages1632834634Proportion(100Ps)16%32%8%3%4%6%3%4%Table 4.2 Distribution of Speech Acts in the Second Vume for Grade 7:Making introductionAsking for informationGreetingsAsking fordirectionGivingdirectionMaking requestGivingadviceExpressing gratitudepages1037433522

20、Proportion(87Ps)11.5% 442.5%4.6%3.4%3.4%5.7%2.3%2.3%Table 4.3 Distribution of Speech Acts in the First Tlume for Grade 8:Making introductionAsking for informationGreetingsInvitingGivingdirectionMakingrequestGivingadviceExpressing gratitudepages632351742Proportion(84Ps)7.1%38.1%3.6%6%3.4%8.3%4.8%2.4%

21、Table 4.4 Distribution of Speech Acts in the Second Vume for Grade 8:Making introductionAsking for informationGreetingsApolog izingAsking for adviceMaking requestGivingadviceAsking for helppages2171415191Proportion(85Ps)11.5% 442.5%4.6%1.2%5.9%5.7%10.6%1.2%Table 4.5 Distribution of Speech Acts in Gr

22、ade 9:Making introductionAsking for informationGivingdirectionAsking for adviceMaking requestAsking for adviceAsking for helppages83114541Proportion(127Ps)6.3% 425.2%0.8%3.1%3.9%3.1%0.8%3. DiscussionAfter presenting the results of this research, the following part will discuss the results related to

23、 the two research questions.3.1 Uneven Distribution of Speech ActsBased on the Searle's speech act theory and the detailed distribution of speech acts in the English textbooks, the following discussion will be made from two aspects. 3.1.1 Uneven and Incomprehensive General DistributionAs the tex

24、tbooks involve five categories of Searle's speech acts, it can help cultivate students in their general recognitions of speech acts with the use of the textbooks. However, the textbooks just involve 16 kinds of speech acts, so it can not teach the students other knowledge of speech acts. Especia

25、lly, it does not involve the common used daily speech acts, such as giving compliments, extending congratulation, and making complaints, which may makes the students unable to deal with these speech acts in their daily lives. For instance, when students need to express dissatisfaction towards someth

26、ing in English, they may only be indignant in heart but do not know how to speak it out properly, or how to respond to others' discontent. The English textbooks are not involved with giving compliments or replying to others' compliments, which causes the students' answers not so ideal in

27、 the questionnaire survey. The students' answers are not quite ideal.For the speech acts which are not involved in the textbooks, students are weak in their knowledge of them. When they communicate in English with others, especially with English natives, they will feel short of preparations, thu

28、s getting more and more unconfident of themselves during communication. With the existing daily life experiences and knowledge of junior school students, they have already developed some wishes and potential in speech acts communication, so the textbooks should fit the needs of students and fit the

29、practical situation of students and the teaching. At present, under the influence of the senior high school entrance examination, students usually study hard and remember a large amount of grammatical knowledge during the years of their learning English. They can get high marks in exams and be good

30、students, but not successful communicators. That is because they lose their confidence in practice and become unnatural or even fidgeted and out of their wits. The main purpose of our learning language is to put it into practice, and the way of learning should also be in using them. Only in practice

31、 can the language be fresh and alive and reliable.3.1.2 Different Proportions of Speech Acts in Different VolumesThe distribution of speech acts in the textbooks is not regular and of different proportions. 17 types are involved in textbooks for grade 7, 18 types are in textbooks for grade 8, wherea

32、s only 7 types are in textbooks for grade 9. The proportion varies from 30.6% in the first volume for grade 8, which is the largest proportion, to 19.4% in both the second volume for grade 8 and textbooks for grade 9, the smallest. This being the case, it is difficult for the students to form a rela

33、tively stable and deep experience on speech acts. So they can not use language proficiently to communicate moderately in practical speech communications. The author does not mean to emphasize equal division here, because equal division is not surely scientific. It is just that the distribution of sp

34、eech acts should be based on related studies, such as research on the theory of intermediary language. However, there are some intensification handlings on speech acts in the textbooks. For instance, the shared appearanceof speech acts are making introduction, asking for information and making reque

35、sts. Cohen (1996)says that the teaching of speech acts seems general and are not in accordance with the guiding principle of “ whatshould be used at what time" to arrange teaching, so the result is that the learners get different ways of realizing the same speech act but do not know to choose w

36、hich way of expression in concrete contexts (Hu Meixin, 2007). This also gives explanations to the results of this research. On the whole, the students do not master pragmatic knowledge very well.Therefore, the handling of speech acts in textbooks should be valued. Only when it be intensified from d

37、ifferent angles can students understand and grasp it completely.3.2 Pragmatic Perspectives of Textbooks CompilationWe have already pragmatically evaluated the set of English textbooks from both from microcosmic and macroscopic levels. The author suggeststhe composition of textbooks should be carried

38、 out from the perspective of pragmatics:At first, the proportion and repetition frequency of pragmatic knowledge should be increased in English textbooks for junior school students. In English teaching in junior middle schools, to teach linguistic knowledge and skills are basic, but it is more impor

39、tant to make English a real tool of flexible use for students. The thinking level of junior school students has developed to some extent, and they will meet different speech acts in their daily lives, therefore, it is quite necessaryto let them master pragmatic knowledge in various aspects, includin

40、g pragmatic linguistic knowledge, social pragmatic knowledge, and cross-cultural pragmatic knowledge, etc. Chen Jie(2008) holds that in the process of English teaching, it is necessary to guide in pragmatic aspects. During which the teachers should provide correct and various foreign language contex

41、t inputs for student, as well as abundant opportunities of knowledge input and feedbacks. Therefore, when compiling the textbooks, the comprehensiveness of speech acts should be considered. 36 kinds or more speech acts should be touched upon. Of course, there are hundreds of thousands speech acts, w

42、hich are impossible to be contained, but those speech acts that will often be faced with in daily lives of students or can be mastered by students through teaching should be shown in textbooks. This is in accordance with the theory of "Zone of Proximal Development" from Vygotsky.Second, en

43、hance the training part of pragmatic competence in English textbooks. Yu Ting(2008) points out that an effective way of pragmatic training is to design textbooks well.unfortunately, many English textbooks in china lack of pragmatic training. For instance, different expressions can be used to show di

44、fferent speech acts, the same expression can also be adopted to express different speech acts according to different contexts. We can design training activities such as team division or cooperation in English textbooks, to design different contexts, to make the simple narrative sentence "It'

45、;s cold here" express meanings to narrate the fact (to show objectively that the temperature here is low), to express request(it is cold and please close the window and door), to put forward suggestions(it is cold here so we can change a place), to express complaint (the temperature here is unp

46、leasing), to give a warning(it is cold so be careful of catching a cold), etc. This kind of training can help students understand that the function of a sentenceis much more than its literal meaning, and increase their confidence of language learning, improving their abilities to express subtle mean

47、ings by using simple and plain language. Another example, we often choose relatively fixed sentence structure to express for a certain speech act, but we can also adopt different forms of language to express the same speech act according to different circumstances. We can design training activities

48、such as team division or cooperation in textbooks, to design different contexts, and use different sentencesto express "orders": (l)You have not finished your homework. (2) Youshould not be late next time. (3) Do you want to come in now? (4)Why do not you come over? (5) You might close the

49、 door. This training can help students change their incorrect view that orders should all be given by imperative sentences.The last, improve the pragmatic awareness of both the textbooks compiler and English teachers. Ye Shaoning and Teng Qiaoyun (2003) hold that the cultivation of pragmatic compete

50、nce beginning with the improvement of pragmatic awareness. At first, the pragmatic awareness of textbooks compiler and English teachers should be improved. If the compiler is of strong pragmatic awareness, it will be natural for him or her to introduce pragmatic ability to teaching content, not text

51、books which only focus on linguistic forms. Compared with textbooks compilers, English teachers are burdened with the task of class teaching, so their pragmatic awareness directly affects the cultivation of students' pragmatic competence. Therefore, it is of great importance to improve the pragm

52、atic awareness of teachers themselves. However, as the Chinese culture is rooted in our English teachers, and they are teaching Chinese students in a Chinese environment, it is natural for them to teach from Chinese to Chinese in actual communications, which should be matched communicative ways in E

53、nglish culture. The problem appears that between Chinese and English culture, which should cling to which. Compared with the culture in Britain or American teachers' teaching Chinese students, Chinese teachers are in serious conflicts. It is these conflicts that make it urgent for English teache

54、rs to improve their own pragmatic awareness and knowledge, and then can they have enough abilities to cultivate students' pragmatic abilities. We advocate that English teachers learn pragmatic theories, and use them to guide their teaching. Only in this way can teachers examine their English teaching from pragmatic perspective by themselves, and correct the deviations in their teaching content and forms, and finally actually cultivate the pragmatic ability in practice.4. ConclusionCombining the uneven distribution of speech acts