Learners of English as a foreign language (EFL) are exposed to a collection of materials and communicative activities in the classroom through which they learn to use the language competently and appropriately. Textbooks, in particular, are a rich source of input, offering a variety of opportunities to acquire and practice pragmatic competence in specific areas of language use. One such area concerns apologies. As a ubiquitous and routinized pragmatic speech act, apologies are important to master for learners who have violated a socio-cultural norm. This study examines how German textbooks for EFL learners provide input on apologies and what tasks as well as exercises they suggest to practice and perform this act in the classroom. Teaching apologies – like any other speech act – should be based on rich, meaningful and authentic input and tasks in order for learners to appreciate and make use of this competence in real-life communication. The analysis of textbooks for secondary schools in Germany reveals the existence of some apology input, but also a lack of variety in terms of apology expressions. In addition, a noticeable difference between (implicit) input and (explicit) tasks exists, which can have an influence on the development of learners’ apology competence. EFL teachers need to be aware of what textbooks can and cannot offer, and then they need to adapt input and tasks for their teaching.
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