Examining Strategies and Supportive Moves in Requestive Speech Acts: A Comparative Study of 'Top Notch' and 'Summit' English Series

This study investigated the discourse features of requestive speech acts in ۱۰ textbooks from the Top Notch and Summit series to assess their potential for developing learners' pragmatic competence. Requests were analyzed in terms of directness strategies, head acts, and supportive discourse moves, drawing on the frameworks of Blum-Kulka et al. (۱۹۸۹) and Farch and Kasper (۱۹۸۹). The findings revealed a bias towards direct request strategies in both series, likely influenced by their utilitarian discourse structure. While Top Notch provided a wider range of directness levels, Summit, designed for advanced learners, offered limited exposure to diverse request strategies. Internal supportive moves, particularly the use of questions, were more prevalent than external moves in both series. These findings suggest that while the series contribute to language learning, they may not fully equip learners with the pragmatic competence necessary for effective intercultural communication. Further research is needed to explore the impact of explicit instruction and implicit learning on the acquisition of request strategies.

کلیدواژه ها:

Textbook evaluation ، requestive speech acts ، supportive discourse moves ، Request strategies ، directness level