A Textbook Evaluation of Speech Acts and Language Functions in the Conversation Models of Prospect III An English Textbook for Iranian Junior High School Students

According to Nunan (1999 ), a textbook is the main component of any instructional program and it is difficult to imagine a class without it . Textbooks play an essential role in the domain of teaching and learning pragmatic aspect of the target language . The old versions of junior high school books lack the communicative and pragmatic aspects of language so recently there is a shift towards communicative textbooks ,which are based on communicative language teaching approach. Recent studies on speech act and their frequency contained in newly published Iranian English textbooks (prospect I and II ) have attempted to determine the frequencies of speech act categories based on Searle's (1979) paradigm . Considering the importance of textbook evaluation and existing few investigations on pragmatic information in new junior high school English textbooks , this study aimed at investigating the use of speech acts and their frequency in Prospect 3 (An English Textbook for Iranian Junior High School Students Grade IX , 2015 ). To this end, speech acts across conversations of Prospect 3 were analyzed based on Searle’s (1976) speech act model . The results of the study indicated that there are some differences between the frequency of speech acts used in the conversations of Prospect 3 . And the lack of declaration speech act in the conversations can be considered as a shortcoming . The findings can also act as a guide to textbook developers to achieve higher levels of learning and pedagogical objectives.

کلیدواژه ها:

Speech acts ، Prospect 3 ، text-book evaluation ، communicative language teaching