A Sociopragmatic Analysis of the Address Forms in Turkish High School EFL Textbook Dialogues

Abstract

This study investigated the address forms in high school EFL textbook dialogues with reference to the scales of sociopragmatic politeness. In total, 148 address forms were collected from 9th, 10th, 11th, and 12th grade EFL textbooks used in Turkiye. Utilizing the instrument developed, the collected data were quantitatively analyzed and cross tabulated. According to the results, the genders of the speakers, gender pairs, vertical distance, horizontal distance, and rights/obligations scales were found to be reflected in the address forms. On the other hand, the address forms were found to be statistically independent from the genders of the hearers and the cost/benefit scales. Based on the findings, the overall representation of the address forms was discussed, and several suggestions were made accordingly to enhance the functionality of the textbooks to reflect sociopragmatic components of addressing.