“Are the English textbooks too unnatural?”: An Analysis of Speech Acts in ELT Textbooks within Three-Tier Education in Thai Non-formal Education

In the field of language teaching and learning, pragmatic competence is believed to be a key component for developing communicative competence in EFL learners. Many studies found that the content of English textbooks lack of exposure to pragmatic materials. Furthermore, while pragmatic competence in EFL textbooks has been widely explored in a variety of international contexts, there is a limited study in the Thai context. The present study aims to fill this gap by investigating the representation of speech acts, which carries the ability to enhance pragmatic competence, in the three-tier education of ELT (English Learning Textbook) textbooks in Thai non-formal education. To attain this goal, Searle's (1976) speech act theory, as the framework of data analysis, is adopted to examine the types of speech acts in dialogue activities in the three textbooks. The study also utilizes frequency analysis in regard to the frequency of emerging speech acts as well as potential indications derived from both high and low frequencies. Overall, the three chosen ELT textbooks demonstrate limited and uneven representation of the speech act, reflecting significant gaps in pragmatic content. Only three types of speech acts, such as representatives, directives, and expressives dominate the textbooks, while commissives and declarations are deficient. The indications, based on the frequency results, are that, first, it is resulted from a variety of curriculum objectives designated for each textbook in different Thai non-formal educational stages

在外语教学领域，语用能力（pragmatic competence）被认为是培养英语作为外语（English as a Foreign Language, EFL）学习者交际能力的核心组成部分。诸多研究表明，当前英语教材的内容缺乏语用相关素材的输入。此外，尽管学界已在多国语境下广泛探讨了EFL教材中的语用能力相关内容，但针对泰国语境的相关研究仍较为匮乏。本研究旨在填补这一研究空白：针对泰国非正规教育体系中的三层级英语学习（English Learning Textbook, ELT）教材，探究能够提升语用能力的言语行为（speech acts）的呈现现状。为达成这一研究目标，本研究采用塞尔（Searle）1976年提出的言语行为理论作为数据分析框架，对三本教材对话活动中的言语行为类型进行考察。本研究同时采用频次分析法，对言语行为的出现频次以及由高低频次所反映的潜在特征展开分析。整体而言，所选的三本ELT教材中言语行为的呈现不仅覆盖面有限，且分布不均，反映出其语用内容存在显著缺失。仅陈述类（representatives）、指令类（directives）与表达类（expressives）这三类言语行为在教材中占据主导地位，而承诺类（commissives）与宣告类（declarations）言语的占比则严重不足。基于频次分析结果可知，其一，该现象源于泰国不同非正规教育阶段各教材所设定的多样化课程目标。