An analysis of continuity of communicative functions in elementary school English textbook

Abstract

The purpose of this study was to investigate the continuity of communicative functions of the auditory data that derived from the 2015 elementary school English textbook. Corpora data was compiled of 20 elementary school English textbooks (5 different textbooks from 3rd to 6th grade), wherein sentences were tagged based on classification of its communication function presented in the national curriculum. Then, the continuity of communicative functions was measured and verified by WordSmith Tools 6.0 and the Development Criteria in Language Form (Yu Myung-hee, 2001). Findings show that sub-functions of asking questions, answering, stating and reporting, confirming and explaining are the most frequent functions. The 42 sub-functions out of 121 total sub-functions including these four high frequency sub-functions obtain continuity across different textbooks of incrementing grades. The continuity of investigated sub-functions helps learners be exposed repeatedly to the sub-functional expressions and thus excel the process of storing learning content as long-term memory. Another positive finding is that the investigated sub-functions are in general sequence maintaining an appropriate level of enhanced complexity and expanded expressions. Implication drawn from this study is that low frequency sub-functions (61.2%) require more attention to appropriate continuity throughout the textbook as well as the high frequency sub-functions (38.8%) in current textbooks.