A Case Study on Linguistic Complexity Analysis

In developing countries, English textbooks play a vital role in education. They are frequently employed as guiding teaching materials in the curriculum and effectively contribute to the educational quality (Besser, Stone, & Luan, 1999).

In a language teaching program, it is always essential to select appropriate teaching materials for the curriculum.

However, selecting an appropriate English textbook for a course is becoming more difficult than anyone imagines (Minoo & Nikan, 2012).

Extensive research was carried out in the light of systemic functional linguistics (SFL) to investigate the language of government-approved English textbooks in Australian and International schools.

The language of iInternational textbooks selected to teach specific English skills in universities and language centres in non-English speaking countries is still being researched.

With a wide variety  of English textbooks  available,as a foreign language (EFL), a question arises in the non-English speaking nations at textbook selection in the book market. A major question raised is at what criteria English language educators and teachers select EFL  textbooks for their students. At what basis is the language teaching curriculum fixed, and how suitable  are they?.

It is supposed that there are a number of factors that educators and teachers can rely on when choosing EFL textbooks to teach general English to second language learners (L2Ls), such as content orientation, pedagogical principles, text types, and linguistic complexity.

Systemic functional linguistics (SFL) is a useful model for studying linguistic complexity since it helps to understand complexity in language at three levels (grammar, discourse, and context). (J. R. Martin & Rose, 2003) also, its three social metafunctions (ideational, interpersonal, and textual).

Significant three linguistic properties are

• lexical density
• nominalisation, and
• grammatical metaphor,

SFL is a linguistic perspective that sees language as a system of social semiotics and a source of meaning (Halliday & Matthiessen, 2004).

It is focused on the use of language in real-life situations (Halliday & Matthiessen, 2004).

In the SFL viewpoint, language has four levels:

• Context,
• Discourse semantics,
• Lexicogrammar, and
• Grapho-phonology (Halliday & Matthiessen, 2004).

Cultural and situational contexts are realised at the context level (Eggins, 1994),

At the lexicogrammar level, meaning is realised by word groups, organising words and clauses (Halliday & Matthiessen, 2004).

Lexical and grammatical choices determine the conceptual meaning.

At the grapho-phonology level, phonetics, phonology, and spelling are determined. It focuses on the expression of language, the first and foremost basic linguistic resource which makes meaning (Halliday & Matthiessen, 2004).