A Contrastive Study Of Linguistic Features Of Dialogues In The Textbooks “Tiếng Anh (3, 4, 5)” By Vietnam Education Publisher And The Textbooks “Let’s Go (1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6)” By Oxford University Press

Abstract

Based on the theories of linguistics, this study makes an investigation into the dialogues in the two textbook series “Tiếng Anh 3, 4& 5” and “Let’s go 1, 2& 3” in an attempt to find out some similarities and differences between them in terms of lexical and syntactic features. The data of this thesis were mainly collected from the two textbook series, then they were described, analyzed and contrasted on lexical and syntactic aspects under qualitative and quantitative approaches. Specifically, the research focused on examine the vocabulary through lexical fields and word formation, sentence structures based on their purposes and functions as well as the tenses introduced in the two series then discussed and suggested some implications related to teaching and learning English through dialogues as well as compiling dialogues in English textbooks for primary students. Based on the data collected, it can be seen that the lexical fields were more and more diverse and increasing in both quality and quantity by each level of textbooks in the two series; however, because of the cultural differences between two countries, a lot of words appeared connected closely with Vietnamese culture such as “banh chung”, “Tet”, etc…Moreover, there was no appearance of inflection of adjective and adverb in word formation in the textbooks “Let’s go 1, 2& 3”. About sentence structures, remarkably, there were 100% simple sentences found in“Let’s go 1, 2& 3” in comparison with 96.5% in the textbooks “Tiếng Anh 3, 4 & 5”. In addition, only three basic tenses were found in the textbooks “Let’s go 1, 2& 3” such as simple present, present continuous and simple past. In contrast, in the textbooks “Tiếng Anh 3, 4 & 5”, four tenses included the simple future was introduced”. That is the reason why the result of students may be different after learning English through the two textbook series. Hopefully, this research is useful to those who are teaching and learning English as well as the writers of compiling English textbooks for children.