BRIDGING THE GAP BETWEEN TEXTBOOK ENGLISH AND REAL-LIFE COMMUNICATION STYLE

Abstract

Abstract: It has long been observed that the English presented in coursebook dialogues differs systematically from the English used in genuine spoken interaction, yet the precise nature and extent of this gap have only been established since corpus linguistics made large-scale, empirical comparison possible. This article reviews corpus-based research comparing textbook English with real-life communication style, focusing on two related but distinct layers of mismatch: discourse-level features of contrived dialogues (turn-taking, hesitation, backchannelling) and core spoken-grammar features (ellipsis, heads and tails, discourse markers) that are largely absent from pedagogical grammars built on written norms. Drawing on studies that directly compared textbook dialogues with authentic recordings and on surveys of published ELT materials, the article synthesizes evidence that textbook English is markedly more fluent, complete and grammatically regular than naturally occurring speech, and that coverage of spoken-grammar features in mainstream coursebooks remains, at best, patchy. The discussion situates these findings within debates on authenticity, learner needs and native-speaker norms, and proposes a staged framework for narrowing the gap through awareness-raising, selective explicit teaching of high-frequency spoken-grammar features, and the deliberate supplementation of coursebook material with authentic spoken data.