English as a foreign language (EFL) textbooks typically present a prescriptive typology of three or four
conditional types. We examine the extent to which this long-established English Language Teaching (ELT) typology is reflected in
four varieties of English by comparing the forms and functions of four samples of 620 if-conditionals from French
school EFL textbooks (TEC-Fr), French L1 Learner English (OpenCLC-Fr), Web English (EnTenTen15-S) and British English (BNC-S). The
ELT typology accounts for considerably less than half of if-sentences in the reference data. Even in the EFL
textbooks, only 57% of if-conditionals match the typology explicitly taught in their grammar sections. For many
formal and functional features, the learner data sits halfway between the distributions of the textbook and reference data. We
conclude that the ELT typology needs to be adapted to provide a more representative account of if-conditionals
that focuses on L1 and L2 usage and meaning over form.
This study applies additive Multi-Dimensional Analysis (MDA) (Biber 1988) to explore the linguistic characteristics of ‘school English’ or ‘textbook English’. It seeks to find out how text registers commonly featured in English as a Foreign Language (EFL) textbooks differ from comparable registers found outside the EFL classroom. To this end, a Textbook English Corpus (TEC) of 43 coursebooks used in European schools is mobilised. The texts from six textbook register subcorpora and three target language corpora are mapped onto Biber’s (1998) ‘Involved vs. Informational’ dimension of General English. Register accounts for 63% of the variance in these dimension scores in the TEC. Additional factors such as textbook level, series and country of publication/use only play a marginal role in mediating textbook register variation. Textbook dialogues score considerably lower than the Spoken BNC2014, whereas Textbook Fiction scores closest to its corresponding reference Youth Fiction Corpus. Pedagogical and methodological implications are discussed.
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