Assessment of the evolution of grammar practice in ESL/EFL textbooks from 1960 until 1996
Abstract
ESL/EFL methodology has evolved from a structuralist approach to Communicative Language Teaching over the last three decades. This dissertation attempts to answer the following questions: (a) whether grammar practice in general ESL/EF; textbooks has evolved towards Communicative Language Teaching to reflect the theoretical tenets of the Communicative Approach of the mid-1990s, and (b) if so, to what extent grammar practice in general ESL/EFL textbooks nowadays is truly communicative. Synchronic and diachronic quantitative analyses of 1,200 grammar exercises in 16 general ESL/EFL textbooks were conducted, whose results provided the input for the synchronic and diachronic descriptive impressionistic analyses of the exercises that were carried out. The findings indicate that the current textbooks contain communicative as well as structural and audiolingual grammar exercises. This shows that grammar practice in ESL/EFL textbooks has not had the same extent of development as ESL/EFL theory.
Degree
Ph.D.
Advisors
Silva, Purdue University.
Subject Area
Linguistics|Language
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