2.1 Textbook English and Authentic English
The issue of authenticity in English Language Teaching has long been discussed (Breen, 1985; Taylor, 1994; Widdowson, 2000; Römer, 2004b). It is argued that one potential reason for learners’ problems in learning authentic English is inadequate or even faulty descriptions of linguistic features in teaching material. Instead of presenting authentic samples of English in use, textbooks contain invented texts and examples constructed with a particular teaching purpose or around a particular topic or grammatical feature. These textbooks contain only invented examples and their descriptions are based primarily upon intuition or second-hand accounts (McEnery & Wilson, 2001). These texts and examples probably have not occurred in any natural speech situation, meaning that there are mismatches between textbook English and authentic English. In other words, the language of English textbooks does not correctly reflect authentic language use. Sometimes, the former even differs wildly from the latter. It is regarded as surprising as textbook writers are supposed to use the language as it actually is in real life (Römer, 2004a; 2004b; 2005a; 2005b). If the texts and examples used in textbooks are really imaginative and indeed not being used in natural speech situation, then it is difficult for ELT teachers to help students acquire authentic English in general and agreements is particular based on textbook material.
2.2 Corpus-based Approach
Corpus-based approach to the study of language, also known as corpus-informed or corpus-inspired research, uses corpus evidence to quantify existing categories in research. Before the examination of the corpus data, there are pre-formulated ideas and fixed categories in the m ...