Speaker
Description
In the globalization era, communicative competence is essential for L2 learners to interact appropriately across socio-cultural contexts. However, one of its core components, pragmatic competence, has been underemphasized in previous Vietnamese EFL textbooks, limiting students’ ability to use English effectively in real-world situations. To determine how a newly published series addresses this gap to support learners’ global readiness, this study examines pragmatic content in the 'Everyday English' sections of the 'Global Success' series for upper-secondary students. Using document analysis, it investigates three key aspects: (1) the range and distribution of speech acts, (2) contextual and metapragmatic information, and (3) the design of pragmatic tasks. Findings reveal positive developments with a wider variety of speech acts, more diverse contexts, consistent metapragmatic input, and well-structured basic tasks. However, these elements remain unevenly distributed and often lack in-depth explanation or opportunities for higher-order thinking. As a result, although the series equips students with rich linguistic resources, it does not fully prepare them for the complexity of intercultural communication. The study offers implications for textbook developers and educators seeking to improve ELT materials and enhance students’ communicative competence.
Biography
- Tran Huong Quynh is a lecturer at the Faculty of English, Hanoi National University of Education, Vietnam. She earned her PhD from Monash University, Australia. Her research focuses on second/foreign language acquisition and interaction, English teacher education, ICT in language teaching, spoken language features and conversational interaction within EFL classrooms and contexts.
- Nguyen Phuong Anh holds a Bachelor's degree in English Linguistics from Hanoi National University of Education, Vietnam. Her research interests include educational linguistics and corpus linguistics.
