Informal language in English L2 writing: What are pupils taught from textbooks?

Studies show that intermediate and advanced learners of English overuse informal features in their academic writing, and researchers recommend that instructional material is developed to raise learners’ awareness of this overuse. In Norway, little research has been done on younger learners’ writing, and no previous study exists of how instructional material such as textbooks deal with informality. The present article investigates how all English textbooks published for lower secondary school under the current curriculum deal with informality in writing. The findings show that eight out of nine textbooks include instruction on informality. The most frequently mentioned informal features are informal opening/closing phrases and forms of address in letters, contractions, abbreviations, slang, exclamations, and expressions of modality, evaluation and subjective stance, all of which are known from previous research and/or style manuals. The textbook instructions focus on when to use these features and, more importantly, when to avoid them. Rather unexpectedly, there is little focus on the first person pronoun as an informal feature, which is notable, considering its importance in the literature. First person pronoun usage is, however, a controversial topic, and it is possible that most textbook authors have decided to leave it for later stages. It is also possible that the textbook authors do not consider it an informal feature.The survey provides a backdrop for future research on pupils’ writing by focussing on one aspect of the school context in which this writing is produced, namely the textbooks. Keywords: informal language; English L2 writing, textbook analysis Uformelt språk i engelsk skriving: Hva sier lærebøkene? SammendragForskning viser at elever på videregående skole og universitetsstudenter bruker for mange uformelle språktrekk i sin akademiske skriving, og forskere anbefaler at det utvikles læremateriell for å heve innlæreres bevissthet om dette temaet. Det er gjort lite forskning i Norge på ...