Foreign Language Teacher vs. Language Norm, Usage, and Variation. A S tudy of Selected Academic Textbooks
Foreign Language Teacher vs. Language Norm, Usage, and Variation. A S tudy of Selected Academic Textbooks

Author(s): Elżbieta Pabian, Aleksandra Serwotka
Subject(s): Foreign languages learning
Published by: Wydawnictwo Uniwersytetu Śląskiego
Keywords: ESL; language norm; foreign language teaching; language use; ESL textbooks;
Summary/Abstract: With the ongoing processes of globalisation making an invaluable contribution to the development of international integration, the need for effective communication in a language other than one’s mother tongue has arisen. These changes have also influenced learning and teaching approaches, causing a shift in focus away from certain language components. The Communicative Approach gives priority to the effective use of language in interaction (achieving particular communication goals by the learner/speaker), thus questioning the nature and significance of language norms as such. Unlike in more traditional approaches, in communicationcentred methods the learner’s grammatical competence is not perceived as a key element in language education. However, the academic context seems to promote a different approach. In most cases, philology courses cover a separate grammatical module, which frequently constitutes a challenge for the teacher in terms of both content selection and evaluation. The aim of this paper is to reflect on learning/teaching English grammar in the context of higher education, taking into account the questions of norms, usage, and variation. For this purpose, selected academic textbooks shall be analysed from the point of view of the abovementioned notions.

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