Reported Speech: Corpus-Based Findings vs. EFL Textbook Presentations

• Main Author: Danijela Šegedin
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Published: Znanstvena založba Filozofske fakultete Univerze v Ljubljani (Ljubljana University Press, Faculty of Arts) 2008-06-01
• Series: ELOPE
• Subjects: corpus linguistics; EFL; direct speech
• Online Access: https://revije.ff.uni-lj.si/elope/article/view/3315

Corpus linguistic research shows that EFL textbook grammar descriptions often do not reflect authentic language usage. Based on this background, this paper presents a survey of the presentation of indirect reported speech in EFL textbooks currently used in elementary and secondary schools in Croatia. Results of the corpus-based cross-register research of indirect reported speech are presented in the second part of the paper. The survey findings are then contrasted with the corpus findings to show that EFL textbooks often omit important information regarding the use of indirect reported speech in naturally occurring discourse. The results of this study support the results of Eckhardt’s study (2001) on the patterns of usage of indirect reported speech. Due to the small size of the corpus and the lack of an appropriate computer program the conclusions of the present study should be subjected to further verification and re-examination.