A Pragmatic Analysis of Verbal and Visual Elements in Iraqi EFL Textbooks ‘English for Iraq’

Section: Research Paper
Published
Jun 24, 2025
Pages
169-188

Abstract

Pragmatic analysis includes verbal and nonverbal elements. The current study aims to show speech act and image act types and subtypes included in Iraqi EFL textbooks "English for Iraq" in the intermediate and preparatory stages. It also aims to analyse the speech act of written content in Iraqi textbooks "English for Iraq". Finally, it tries to reveal the nonverbal illocutionary force indicating devices in the visual context in Iraqi textbooks "English for Iraq" in the intermediate and preparatory stages. The study is based on a qualitative methodology. The data is collected from the Iraqi EFL textbook English for Iraq in the intermediate and preparatory stages. The steps of content analysis are employed to reveal speech act types, adopting Content Analysis: An Introduction to Its Methodology by Krippendorff (2004). Moreover, three models are employed to analyse the speech acts in the written dialogues, such as Expression and Meaning: Studies in the Theory of Speech Acts by Searle (1979), Foundations of Illocutionary Logic by Searle & Vanderveken (1985), and Speech Acts an essay in the philosophy of language by Searle (1969). Furthermore, four models are employed to analyse the pictorial acts in the images. The first model is Schmitz. (2007). How to do things with pictures. The second model is semiotics (Peirce, 1931), and the third and fourth models are The Definitive Book of Body Language by Allan & Barbara Pease (2004) and Nonverbal Communication in Human Interaction by Knapp, Hall & Horgan. (2013). The study concludes that Iraqi EFL textbooks include different types and subtypes of speech acts, such as directives, expressives, assertives, and commisives. Moreover, it has no declaration type. Finally, the illocutionary force of utterances in English for Iraq is manifested through visual elements, such as gestures, facial expressions, eye behaviour, body shapes, objects etc

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How to Cite

Basim Tahhan, S., سعد, Najib Tawfeeq, M., & مروان. (2025). A Pragmatic Analysis of Verbal and Visual Elements in Iraqi EFL Textbooks ‘English for Iraq’. Adab Al-Rafidayn, 54(99), 169–188. https://doi.org/10.33899/radab.2024.149484.2141