An Analysis of the Requests Presented in English Conversation Textbooks for EFL Learners

Abstract

The aim of this study is to investigate how request speech acts are presented in English conversation textbooks published for Korean high school students. For the purpose of this investigation, six textbooks were analyzed in terms of the type and the amount of request strategies, internal modification and external modification. In order to examine how accurately these requests, as presented in the textbooks, reflect the socio-cultural reality of language use, a questionnaire was administered to 20 native English speakers using 11 request scenarios taken from one textbook. The results of this study reveal that in terms of the directness level, conventionally indirect strategies are used most frequently, followed by direct strategies and lastly, non-conventionally indirect ones. In order to mitigate the impositive force of these requests, internal modification is used much more frequently than external modification. The analysis of the textbook and questionnaire data also reveal several significant issues regarding the presentation of request speech acts, including a heavy reliance on only a couple of devices, the exorbitant use of directives as deviated from the target language use, and a lack of external modifiers and the elaborate request forms used. Based on these findings, this study offers practical suggestions for presenting request speech acts more appropriately, from a pragmatic perspective.