In the study reported here we focus on proverbs in English Language Teaching (ELT) coursebooks and how the pithy structure and the “wisdom”-loaded content of proverbs can contribute to the development of foreign language learners’ communicative competence as defined by Bachman (1990). We discuss how the most frequently used coursebooks in the context of English as a foreign language (EFL) were identified through a questionnaire administered to 127 first and fourth-year EFL pre-service teachers. We also show how these popular coursebooks were scrutinised for the inclusion and presentation of proverbs by using content analysis and an analysis form to uncover (1) the number of the proverbs incorporated, (2) whether or not the presentation of the proverbs in the coursebooks would foster the development of the competencies identified by Bachman (1990), and (3) whether they were among the most known and frequently used proverbs in present-day English (i.e., currency). The findings reveal a number of problems related to the frequency and currency of the included proverbs, and to the adequacy of the presentation of the proverbs in the examined coursebooks to help studentsi develop their communicative competence. Keywords: communicative competence; ELT textbooks; proverbs; teaching English

中文翻译：

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有需要的谚语确实是谚语：谚语、教科书和语言交际能力

在这里报告的研究中，我们关注英语语言教学 (ELT) 课本中的谚语，以及谚语的简洁结构和“智慧”内容如何有助于发展 Bachman (1990) 定义的外语学习者的交际能力）。我们讨论了如何通过对 127 名一年级和四年级 EFL 职前教师进行问卷调查来确定在英语作为外语 (EFL) 背景下最常用的教科书。我们还展示了如何通过使用内容分析和分析表格来审查这些流行的教科书是否包含和呈现谚语，以揭示（1）纳入的谚语数量，（2）是否在课本中展示谚语将促进 Bachman (1990) 确定的能力的发展，(3) 它们是否是当今英语中最著名和最常用的谚语（即货币）。研究结果揭示了一些与所包含谚语的频率和流行有关的问题，以及与在考试课本中展示谚语是否足以帮助学生发展他们的交际能力有关的问题。关键词：交际能力；ELT教科书；谚语; 英语教学 谚语; 英语教学 谚语; 英语教学