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In:Early Language Education in Instructed Contexts: Current issues and empirical insights into teaching and learning languages in primary school
Edited by Stefanie Frisch and Karen Glaser
[Language Learning & Language Teaching 62] 2025
► pp. 186–208

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Chapter 9
Speech acts in English language textbooks for young language learners in Croatia

 | University of Split
 | University of Zagreb
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Available under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives (CC BY-NC-ND) 4.0 license.

For any use beyond this license, please contact the publisher at rights@benjamins.nl.

Published online: 22 May 2025
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https://doi.org/10.1075/lllt.62.09jak
Abstract
The present study offers insight into speech acts in 18 local and international English language textbooks (six textbook series) used in Croatian primary schools with learners aged 7–10 (years 2–4). More specifically, the analysis is focused on 10 speech acts in Schauer’s (2019) notion of Survival English — linguistic means enabling young learners to deal with (emergency) situations tied to their own real-life contexts. The results indicate that the materials available to young (beginning) Croatian learners of English provide an unbalanced source of input when it comes to these essential speech acts, with several of the speech acts seriously underrepresented in the textbooks. The responsibility thus lies on the teachers to provide access to authentic input relevant to young language learners.
Article outline
  • 1.Introduction
  • 2.Literature review
    • 2.1Young language learners’ acquisition and production of speech acts
    • 2.2Speech acts in language learning textbooks
    • 2.3The context of the present study
  • 3.Research aims and methodology
  • 4.Results
    • 4.1Speech act instances
    • 4.2Analysis of the speech acts
  • 5.Discussion
  • 6.Conclusion
  • Notes
  • References
  • Appendix
References (39)
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