Speech acts, those actions carried out mainly by means of language, are used in English in a range of complex ways. However, they have rarely been covered in English as a foreign language (EFL) materials and textbooks. Bringing together current theories from pragmatics and cognitive linguistics, this book addresses this gap by providing a comprehensive model of directive speech acts and showing how to teach them to learners of English. It provides a review of the strengths and weaknesses of current theories of illocution and a critical assessment of existing EFL textbooks. Descriptions of the meaning and form of directive speech act constructions are given in the cognitive pedagogical grammar of directive speech acts (included), which offers a wealth of examples to make the information accessible to non-specialist readers. The book also provides a wide range of practical activities, showing how research on illocutionary acts can be implemented in practice.

‘The book … contributes substantially to L2 pragmatics research and teaching; and as such we highly recommend it to researchers, EFL teaching practitioners, and EFL textbook developers.’

Qiuling Ou and Hang Su Source: Journal of Pragmatics

‘The book is a must-read for instructors who are bewildered by the teaching of speech acts with textbooks, a reference book for materials developers who deal with the poor treatment of pragmatic knowledge in textbooks, and a valuable guide for materials researchers who aim to conduct a more comprehensive investigation on the representation of speech acts in textbooks.’

Yu Hui Source: Journal of Language Teaching