Overcoming textbooks’ pragmatic deficiencies: A teaching proposal to implement the instruction of requests in the EFL classroom

Abstract

Over the years, English has become the language of the world. As a result, there has been a rising demand for learning the language, and consequently, a significant emergence of English courses. Nevertheless, some deficiencies have been identified in these courses and their materials (i.e. textbooks). Traditionally, English teaching and learning have been almost exclusively associated with the acquisition of its grammar. As a consequence, it is still unreasonably difficult to find materials for developing the pragmatic competence (Celce-Murcia 2007), despite having been regarded as essential in the acquisition process of a language. With a view to overcoming this lack of pragmatics in English courses developed in foreign contexts, the current study is aimed at designing a teaching proposal for the instruction of pragmatics, and more specifically, of the speech act of requesting. Prospective students will be given the opportunity to explore a most widely used speech act deemed as the most controversial due to its face-threatening nature. With this aim in mind, first, significant research conducted on this particular assumption will be outlined. Then, on the basis of previous literature, and considering the pragmatic deficiencies conventionally encountered in textbooks, the aforementioned teaching proposal will be elaborated. Target learners will be Spanish first-year baccalaureate students (at B1 level). Following Martínez-Flor’s (2010) and Usó-Juan’s (2010) approaches, five main stages, accounting for input, output, and feedback will be designed. The proposal is expected to ensure real-based and appropriate acquisition of the English language in foreign contexts.