Comparative analysis of idiom selection and sequencing 5 in Estonian basic school EFL coursebooks

Abstract

The article investigates the selection and sequencing of the idioms encountered in two locally-produced and international coursebook series currently employed in Estonian basic schools. It is hypothesized that there exists a positive correlation between idioms’ difficulty and coursebooks’ language proficiency level. The hypothesis is tested through a statistical analysis of the idioms found which are categorized in terms of their analysability into three categories where category 1 includes analysable semi-literal idioms, category 2 comprises analysable semi-transparent idioms, and category 3 encompasses non-analysable opaque idioms, and then analysed through an online language corpus (British National Corpus). The results of the study reveal that the coursebook authors under discussion have disregarded idioms’ frequency as a criterion for selection or sequencing, whereas the factor utilized to some extent is the degree of analysability.

Keywords

• coursebook evaluation
• corpus analysis
• analysability
• compositionality
• English