A Linguistic Analysis of Some Competency-Based Approach (CBA) Course-Books Used in Beninese Secondary Schools

Abstract

In this paper, I attempt to carry out a micro linguistic analysis of some Competency-Based Approach (henceforth, CBA) course-books which have been used to teach English as a foreign language (EFL) in Beninese secondary schools for close to two decades now. My aim, in this study is to show from a linguistic perspective to what extent these CBA books suit the learners’ communicative needs or/and interests with regard to such dimensions as culture, psychology and age. I intend to use the all-encompassing theoretical tool- lexicogrammar- drawn from Systemic Functional Linguistics (hereafter, SFL) (Halliday, 1971, Halliday and Hasan, 1985/1989, Eggins, 1994/2004, Halliday and Matthiessen, 2004, Bloor and Bloor, 2004, Fontaine, 2013, etc.) to explore the linguistic properties the course-book designers use as well as their bearing on learners both in terms of form and function.