VietTESOL International Convention 2026

The aim of this study is to analyze the pragmatic function and interactional authenticity of dialogues contained in the “Every Day English” section of Global Success textbooks for Vietnamese highschool students (grades 10-12). A mixed methods approach has been adopted in this study. A quantitative study was carried out based on 336 utterances using two frameworks: Searle's (1976) Speech Act Theory and Wong & Waring's (2021) Conversation Analysis Framework. The results of the quantitative part of the study indicated an asymmetrical representation of speech act types: Representative (32.1%), Expressive (36.9%), Directive (25%), Commissive (6%), and Declaration (0.0%). Qualitative results indicate that 45% of dialogues were interactionally truncated by the omission of the critical opening and closing sequences. Researchers also demonstrated that although the dialogues represent numerous speech acts, they typically do not include enough interactionally complex elements to accurately model what occurs in real EFL contexts. For example, there were no instances of repair; topic-management markers rarely occurred; and students’ responses when receiving compliments lacked praise downgrades, and referent shifts. In addition, many responses to dispreferred statements did not contain sufficient reluctant markers or prefaces to indicate polite disagreement. The data obtained from this study suggests the dialogues presented in the textbooks are somewhat scripted and limit students’ opportunities to develop their interactional competence. Finally, several suggestions to help ELT practitioners develop pragmatic markers that will enable them to present more authentic dialogues and several recommendations for textbook authors to improve the interactional authenticity of their series are provided.