A SLA-Based Assessment of ELT Textbooks in FL Settings

This study evaluates four primary-school ELT textbook series used across mainland China from the perspective of psycholinguistics-based SLA. The textbook evaluation aims to determine whether the sequence of grammatical structures introduced as teaching objectives in the series is compatible with the L2 learning sequence stipulated in Processability Theory (PT). The results show a partial consistency between the sequence of grammatical structures in the series and the PT-based learning path. The sequence of structures in the initial stages follows the developmental trajectory of L2 English, while the pedagogical teaching orders of several structures in the later stages differ from their sequences in PT. This may be associated with the theme-based guidelines adopted in the textbooks. Pedagogical suggestions are also provided in terms of the learners' development readiness and the issue of heterogeneity in L2 classrooms.