Akademik Veri Yönetim Sistemi
Paper presented at the VIth International Conference on Research in Applied Linguistics (ICRAL2020), Bursa, Türkiye, 24 - 26 Ekim 2020
Textbooks are indispensable components
of language classrooms; however, recent research has documented that they
are unsatisfactory in terms of pragmatic information (Barron 2016; Crandall
& Baştürkmen, 2004; Gilmore, 2004; Ren & Han 2016). Previous
studies have documented that the features of pragmatics are teachable, and that
explicit teaching can be more effective in EFL teaching contexts where textbooks
are one of the few sources readily available for teachers and learners. the
presentation of the use of these features looks sketchy and fails to provide a
good source of language use in real contexts. Due to this limitation, teachers
are sometimes need to adapt existing textbook activities for teaching
these features, such as speech acts.
This study investigated a group of
Turkish EFL teachers' views on an adapted activity for the instruction of
pragmatics. the second aim of the study was whether there was a significant
difference between the views of EFL teachers who had taken a course on
pragmatics and the ones who had not. A dialogue activity from a textbook
which was adapted by the researchers. The adaptation was based on the findings
of the previous research (Barron, 2016; Karatepe & Yılmaz 2018; Ishihara
& Cohen 2010; Siegel 2016).
The paricipants were 77 Turkish EFL
teachers (19 male and 58 female) who were teaching different age groups. The
participants were given a questionnaire with 29 statements and asked to
evaluate the adapted activity for teaching pragmatics. The reliability of the
questionnaire was calculated by using Cronbach's ¤ and found to be
reliable ( .929). Moreover, it was examined by two experts (one of them
teaches material design to EFL teacher candidates and the other has got a PhD
in Interlanguage Pragmatics) and three Turkish EFL teachers. After
consulting their opinions, the wording of the statements and the presentation
of the terminology related to pragmatics (e.g. head act) were revised and
rewritten. In addition, some of the participants were also interviewed to
elicit further information on their specifc views on the adapted activity.
Frequency analysis and independent
samples t-test were employed to analyse the questionnaire data. The frequency
analysis revealed that teachers had positive views on the modified version of
the activity under investigation. The independent t-test results documented
that there was no significant difference betwen the views of the teachers, who
had taken a course on pragmatics during their teacher training, and the ones
who had not. These results were supported by the interview data analysis
findings. The information given by the interviewees revealed that teachers
regard material adaptation for the instruction of these features as a
must. However, they admitted that none of them had made such adaptations as
they thought they were not equipped with a satisfying level of knowledge on
pragmatics and material development to this end. Therefore, they stated
that they did not feel competent for adapting textbook activities for the
instruction of pragmatics.
The findings indicate that topics
related to teaching the features of pragmatics are not fully represented in
teacher training programmes. Since even the teachers who took a pragmatics
related course do not feel confident enough to make materials adaptation, a
specific aspect of creating / adapting materials for the pupose of teaching
pragmatics can be integrated with the existing courses in teacher training programmes.