An analysis of lexicogrammatical development in English textbooks in Turkey: A usage-based construction grammar approach

Abstract

This article measures the syntactic development indices in grade 5-12 English textbooks in Turkey. Through a usage-based construction grammar approach, it argues that the textbooks show an inconsistent development in verb-argument constructions (VAC) and other usage-based indices. The study employs an automatic software tool that detects variations in these indices and runs a statistical analysis on a corpus compiled by the author. Statistically significant results demonstrate that textbooks lack lexicogrammatical variation. As such, learners who use these textbooks are likely to experience a limited array of VACs that are limited in lemma-construction combinations. Findings also indicate that learners may not be exposed to the conventional usage patterns and frequencies of VACs when compared against a reference corpus. These findings may have an influence on the learners’ generalization process, their low-proficiency level in English, and poor idiomatic uses of the language.

Input optimization: Verb-argument constructions in English textbooks in Türkiye

“…This analysis not only revealed a lack of lexicogrammatical diversity across grades, but also provided a finer insight into the findings of Gedik and Kolsal (2022). Gedik (2022) suggests that the textbooks misrepresent constructions in English and that learners may not be exposed to the conventional usage patterns and frequencies of VACs when compared against a reference corpus. These findings may have an influence on the learners' generalization process, their low-proficiency level in English, and poor idiomatic uses of the language.…”

“…Considering textbooks in a classroom are one of the major ways of exposing students to the target language, it is possible to analyze the input readily available in them using a set of sophisticated software tools. While there are not many studies that have followed an input optimization analysis to textbooks in other contexts (however see Alsaif & Milton, 2012;Aziez & Aziez, 2018;Tang, 2009), to the researcher's knowledge there are no studies that analyze English textbooks in Türkiye from this perspective (see however Gedik and Kolsal (2022) and Gedik (2022) for a discussion on the lexicogrammatical diversity of the English textbooks in Türkiye). As such, the current study uses a readily available corpus of such textbooks in Türkiye to longitudinally trace the development of four VACs across high school textbooks.…”