Book Review: Speech acts in English: From research to instruction and textbook development. Cambridge University Press.

Authors

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.54475/jlt.2025.008

Keywords:

speech acts, English materials, textbook development

Abstract

Developing the pragmatic competence of English as a Foreign Language (EFL) learners is one of the most challenging areas in second/foreign language (L2) acquisition (Ellis, 2013). One crucial reason is that the language input EFL learners receive is mostly from teaching materials (Andrews, 2007), which have, unfortunately, been found to be problematic in the treatment of pragmatic knowledge. As such, relevant research has found numerous problems concerning the distribution of pragmatic information in EFL textbooks, especially the unbalanced and unsystematic representation of different speech acts, and this strand of research continues. Few existing studies, however, provide practical solutions to the problems from the perspective of EFL instruction and materials development. Pérez-Hernández’s monograph puts forward a new cognitive pedagogical grammar approach and offers innovative activities and practice materials for teaching directive speech acts, with a focus on advanced Spanish EFL learners.             

Author Biography

  • Yu Hui, Xi'an International Studies University

    Yu Hui is an associate professor at Xi’an International Studies University (XISU), China. He received his Doctorate in Applied Linguistics from XISU. His research interests include English as a Foreign Language (EFL) materials, Cognitive Discourse Analysis (CODA), and EFL teaching and learning. He has published on EFL materials use, evaluation, and analysis.
    Email: harryhui-xisu@hotmail.com; y.hui@xisu.edu.cn

References

Andrews, S. (2007). Teacher language awareness. Cambridge University Press. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/CBO9780511497643

Ellis, R. (2013). The study of second language acquisition (2nd ed.). Shanghai Foreign Language Education Press.

Garton, S., & Graves, K. (2014). Identifying a research agenda for language teaching materials. The Modern Language Journal, 98(2), 654–657. https://doi.org/10.1111/modl.12094 DOI: https://doi.org/10.1111/modl.12094

House, J. (2010). The Pragmatics of English as a lingua franca. In A. Trosborg (Eds.), Pragmatics across Languages and Cultures (pp. 363-390). De Gruyter Mouton. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1515/9783110214444.2.363

Jenkins, J. 2012. English as a Lingua Franca from the classroom to the classroom. ELT Journal, 66(4), 486–494. https://doi.org/10.1093/elt/ccs040 DOI: https://doi.org/10.1093/elt/ccs040

Levinson, S. C. (1983). Pragmatics. Cambridge University Press. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/CBO9780511813313

McGrath, I. (2021). Teaching Materials and the Roles of EFL/ESL Teachers: Practice and Theory. Foreign Language Teaching and Research Press.

Hui (2025)

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Published

2025-07-07

Issue

Section

Book Review

How to Cite

Hui, Y. (2025). Book Review: Speech acts in English: From research to instruction and textbook development. Cambridge University Press. Journal of Language Teaching, 5(3), 1-3. https://doi.org/10.54475/jlt.2025.008

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