Abstract
This research paper focuses on an investigation of if-conditional structures in naturally-occurring American English. The corpus-based analysis has revealed several alternative grammatical constructions, all of which occurred with higher frequency than the three traditional main types, which actually accounted for less than half of the entire if-conditional occurrences in the corpus, included in most ELT textbooks, lending support to previous studies (e.g. Gabrielatos, 2006, 2013). The study, furthermore, also discovered a current trend in native English speakers’ grammar, i.e. the preponderance of was over were in the second conditional, despite the fact that pedantic, prescriptive grammarians would disallow was in this if-clause type, which accords with Novogradec (2009). It is also very interesting to find dominant features of spoken English in connection with if-conditionals, namely gonna and other contractions, false starts, ellipses, and fillers. The last section pertains to pedagogical implications, offering some useful advice for teachers to incorporate authentic corpus-informed if-patterns into their instruction.
Highlights
Traditional grammar references as well as coursebooks apparently present to English learners three classic types of conditionals, commonly known as the first, second, and third conditionals
The present study was aimed at investigating the if-conditionals existing in authentic spoken American English, i.e. the data drawn from a corpus of American English (COCA), compared with those available in standard English language teaching (ELT) coursebooks widely used in Thailand
The corpus consulted in the current research study was Corpus of Contemporary American English (COCA), which is claimed to be the largest corpus of American English, created by Mark Davies from Brigham Young University
Summary
Traditional grammar references as well as coursebooks apparently present to English learners three classic types of conditionals, commonly known as the first, second, and third conditionals. A few advanced resources sometimes mention other possibilities, i.e. alternative if-conditional patterns that do not conform to this prevailing typology. It may strike English learners, especially those with high exposure to English, as peculiar that a large number of conditionals in real English, e.g. films, news reports, everyday conversation, fiction, etc. The present study was aimed at investigating the if-conditionals existing in authentic spoken American English, i.e. the data drawn from a corpus of American English (COCA), compared with those available in standard English language teaching (ELT) coursebooks widely used in Thailand. The article ends with some implications for English teaching and the author’s suggestions for if-conditional lesson preparation
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