Pragmatics in Japanese EFL education: textbook and teacher insights

Abstract This study examined how the most recent government-approved English textbooks and high school English teachers in Japan address pragmatics in the context of speech acts. A page-by-page analysis of twelve textbooks coded explicitly presented general pragmatic information, along with the types and presentation formats of speech acts. Teachers’ awareness and instruction of pragmatic content were explored through an online survey of forty-six in-service high school teachers and follow-up interviews with a subset of five participants. The textbook analysis revealed limited coverage of pragmatics and little information on the contextual use of speech acts. The teacher survey suggested that although many teachers had limited knowledge of pragmatics, they compensated for textbook limitations in improvised ways rather than through systematic planning. The study concludes that while textbook designers and teachers should address pragmatics in a consistent and sufficient manner, the absence of a standardized curriculum of pragmatics may hinder this goal.