The Role of the Textbook in the Acquisition of High-Frequency Verbs by EFL Learners

Abstract

Myung-Hee Kim and Eun-Kyung Kim. 2006. The Role of the Textbook in the Acquisition of High-Frequency Verbs by EFL Learners. Studies in Modern Grammar 44, 199-223. High-frequency verbs such as make usually have such various meanings and uses that learners, even at an advanced proficiency level, have difficulty in using them freely in discourse. This paper investigates how Korean first-year college students use high-frequency verb make in their writings in comparison with native speakers. Furthermore, under the assumption that the textbook is an important input in an EFL situation, this study examines how the middle and high school textbooks in Korea deal with the verb make, and see how they affect the acquisition of the verb by the students. The results are as follows: The student writings are similar to the textbooks in the uses and distribution of make, suggesting that, as expected, textbooks have a great impact on how it is acquired by the students. On the other hand, however, the uses of make found in the textbooks and student writings are somewhat different from those in the native speaker corpus. These results show need for improvement, and suggest that corpus-based textbook writing and classroom teaching should be considered as a way of helping learners to acquire real language use.